The Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab – a program designed to support entrepreneurs and startups with access to world-class facilities and expert assistance – has officially entered its fourth six-month season. Taking place at Station F in Paris and, for the first time, at Singapore's Pixel space, the program has selected a new set of startups to be aided by a team of Ubisoft business development experts.
Photo Credit: IMDA
"The recent expansion of our program to Singapore allows us to push the Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab further. It gives us a unique opportunity to create a global community of innovative entrepreneurs shaping the future of entertainment," explained Catherine Seys, Start-up Program Director at the Strategic Innovation Lab.
The Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab helps startups on a global scale, and leads the Gaming and Entertainment programs at both Station F and Pixel, helping various talented entrepreneurs achieve their goals. During previous seasons, Ubisoft has worked with Mimesys (recently acquired by Magic Leap) as well as Azarus, which recently raised $1.8 million for its blockchain-based competitive gaming challenge platform.
The program provides startups with a space they can use for development, prototyping and more, as well as access to world-class mentoring. This season's sponsor is Ubisoft Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët, who will be providing his unique insights and feedback to the teams.
Ubisoft is proud to announce a great selection of startups for season 4, including:
- Azarus (USA, Paris track) – Azarus is a groundbreaking new game challenge network that allows Gamers and Streamers to engage with each other in unprecedented ways. The core of the Azarus network is a 'smart-challenge' system that creates a new dynamic between and among Streamers and Gamers. As part of the pilot program, Azarus allows a select number of Rainbow 6 Streamers, via a proprietary Twitch extension, to award credits to Viewers who correctly answer real time questions about their streams.
- CareGame (France, Paris track) – CareGame is reinventing access to mobile games, by building the first cloud mobile gaming solution, allowing players to launch mobile games in a single click. No more downloads, no more smartphone or memory constraints. They are using decentralized technologies to better manage costs and to invent a new way of collectively providing hosting services, to ultimately differently distribute the value generated in mobile games. Mobile gaming could be an awesome lever for supporting environmental or educational causes.
- Immersiv (France, Paris track) – With Augmented Reality, Immersiv provides fans with an unprecedented live experience. Through smartglasses or a smartphone, people can access and interact with all the information they need to enjoy their favorite sports, whether at home or in the stadium.
- Mighty Jaxx (Singapore, Singapore track) – Blending physical and digital space, Mighty Jaxx is an award-winning design studio specializing in creating unique content to develop into collectibles and lifestyle products driven by technology, powered with blockchain. Mighty Jaxx has produced a thousand designs and delivered over a million collectibles in collaboration with renowned artists and international brands such as Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Cartoon Network and more.
- Planetarium (South Korea, Singapore track) – A blockchain based ecosystem for community-powered games, Planetarium allows developers to create cross-platform games based on the Libplanet blockchain infrastructure, and players to connect to each other without need for centralized servers. They are also developing Nine Chronicles, an open source, decentralized RPG set to launch in 2019.
- Savitar (France, Paris track) – Having been part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem for several years already with their involvement in peer-to-peer currency exchange systems, Savitar is now developing a novel and responsible approach to trading in cryptocurrency with community involvement, minimal fees and a transparent coin listing process.
- Sorare (France, Paris track) – With a mission to bring blockchain to the masses, Sorare is a global fantasy football (soccer) game where managers can collect limited edition digital collectibles, build their team and earn weekly prizes.
- Synaps (France, Paris track) – Digital can be a complex topic, but Synaps aims at simplifying security in Blockchain, fintech, banking, insurance and more. Users can share and manage their digital identity securely to access platforms that require identity verification.
- Story Puppet (Singapore, Singapore track) – Story Puppet gives virtual influencers a means to easily build up virtual spaces and act as themselves or custom avatars in a sandbox environment, complete with full body immersion. Creators do not need to know how to make assets and can easily import their own likeness, props, environments, music and more, while fans can visit the space in virtual reality.
- Wildcards (South Africa, Paris track) – Wildcards lets you support conservation, become a patron of endangered animals and even earn a profit since wildcards are always for sale.
