L’Oréal has invested in Digital Village, a firm that enables brands to design their own virtual worlds. It is the company’s first venture capital investment in the metaverse, often known as web3 worlds. BOLD and other investors contributed $4 million to Digital Village’s fundraising round. The funds will be used to extend the platform’s capabilities, including the addition of new tools to support 3D environment construction, sophisticated avatar customisation, and virtual shop creation.
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Camille Kroely, L’Oréal’s chief metaverse and web3 officer, said in a statement that Digital Village’s technologies “will be powerful enablers for our brands.” Though the metaverse envisioned by businesses such as Meta remains years away and excitement around digital assets such as NFTs has waned, major fashion and beauty brands continue to invest in these areas. Right now, they provide businesses with a new marketing channel, but McKinsey expects they will become sustainable income sources in the future.
