At a glance
Founders: Trevor Topfer, Paul Jason Young, Riley Malins, Marquis Shepherd and Ruslan Saitov
Business: Avatars Global
Founded: 2023
HQ: Auckland
We build exceptional avatars for exceptional brands.
Our primary focus is the ideation and creation of avatars, brand mascots and digital assets for brands and individuals who seek something bespoke, engaging and authentic. Our work includes creating hyper-realistic human interfaces for AI-powered tools (like education, training, customer service and more), characters for brands or IP (like AAA game characters, animated characters and actors for movies and television, brand ambassadors for TVCs or social media, brand mascots to elevate marketing for retail brands like telcos, fashion houses, high-end retailers, etc), and digital celebrities for the next generation of influencers.
Our highly experienced and skilled team of artisans cover all aspects of avatar creation and animation with expertise in drawing, design, modeling, rigging, clothing, grooming, environments, storytelling, voice, sound – all with or without the use of AI tools. Our creations are original, ethically produced and 100% commercially licensed.
Our team is web3 native, understands immersive environments (Unreal Engine, Unity, Roblox, Fortnite), the metaverse, augmented reality, NFTs, digital products, gaming, television and movies.
We work directly with clients, as part of an agency team or as an outsourced resource for large scale gaming or entertainment projects.
What’s the backstory for your business idea?
We all met at Web3 unicorn Futureverse and took our experience creating industry-leading NFT collections and a legacy of film and television animation (for Disney, Warner Bros, Netflix, The Cartoon Network, Marvel, etc) to build a studio like no other on the planet. We’ve created more NFT collections than any other studio, have over 120 years in animated film and TV and have a team of web3 natives that understand the metaverse, immersive computing, AI, augmented reality and live at the bleeding edge of all these technologies to create IP and experiences for the emerging digital world.
We wanted to take this incredible team from New Zealand to the world and showcase the depth of talent and creativity that hides in this beautiful corner of the world. Less than one year in and we’ve created products and experiences for brands all over the world; as well as household names right here in New Zealand.
What programmes, learning or mentoring, or resources have been of assistance so far?
We have an extensive network of advisors to help support our business (especially in areas where we don’t have in-house talent – like legal, governance, computational architecture, global IP development, etc) and leverage them to help us make better decisions and maximise the opportunities we are fortunate enough to have.
We recently participated in Christchurch-based Ministry of Awesome’s Founder Catalyst accelerator programme which has been incredibly valuable as a startup.