Zoom fatigue is real; so much so that researchers at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab out of Stanford (yes, this is a real institute) have come up with Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale.  A growing number of startups have entered the space with creative twists on how to make video chatting more engaging.  Kumospace has built an immersive video chat platform that focuses on spatiality that traditional video chatting platforms do not offer.  Taking elements inspired by the gaming industry, Kumospace offers a video chatting experience that is more reflective of real-world interactions where multiple conversations are going on in the same space simultaneously. This functionality serves groups wells and can be used for video calls, virtual happy hours, meetups, or even holiday parties.

AlleyWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Brett Martin to learn more about the future of video calls, the inspiration for the venture, and latest round of funding.

Who were your investors and how much did you raise?

$3M Pre-Seed Funding. This round was led by Boldstart Ventures with participation from Lightspeed’s scout fund and the GP of ENIAC Ventures as well as high profile angels such as Aleksandr Yampolskiy, Founder at Security Scorecard, Maia Josebachevilli, Head of M&A at Stripe, and Matt Adkisson, founder of Bright.com, among others.

Tell us about the product or service that Kumospace offers.

Kumospace combines the creativity of video games with the simplicity of video chat. Our rich illustrations, interactive apps, and customizable environments delight guests and sponsors alike. Whether you are throwing a meetup, happy hour, conference, or team meeting…there’s a Kumospace for that!

What inspired the start of Kumospace?

Prior to the pandemic, my cofounder Yang and I hosted a monthly meetup group for angel investors. With the onset of the pandemic, I realized that all the socializing the interactive value of those events couldn’t be replicated in Zoom.

How is Kumospace different?

Kumospace empowers users to break free from boring video chat. In real life, the best interactions don’t happen in “dedicated rooms” but rather fluidly and serendipitously in hallways, bars, and chance encounters between panel discussions.

Traditional video chat products quickly become boring and stagnant for groups. While one person speaks, everyone else waits–or worse, checks out. Spatial audio enables multiple simultaneous conversations in the same space, just like IRL. This allows multiple groups of people to stay engaged for long periods of time.

In a Kumospace, guests who are closer together are louder (a.k.a. spatial audio), allowing groups to organically form and dissolve in different areas of the same space at the same time.

What market does Kumospace target and how big is it?

Video Chat is ubiquitous and ripe for disruption:

• Zoom ($142B market cap, 300M daily meeting participants)
• Microsoft Teams (200M daily meeting participants)
• Google Meet (100M daily meeting participants)

Video games are a massive market:

• $168B in 2020, with 40% of that being online multiplayer games
• Fortnite 2020 revenues forecast at $5B

Events are undergoing reinvention:

• 134,100 US event planners with +$1T in purchasing power
• Online event ticketing industry $46.59B (2017)
• Event management software $5.7B (2019), 15.0% CAGR

What’s your business model?

Kumospace is free!

In the future, premium features such as SSO, analytics, e-commerce, and more will be available for enterprise customers.

How has COVID-19 impacted the business?

COVID has both been Kumospace’s inspiration and catalyst for growth. Today, Kumospace is used on every continent except Antarctica. More than 2,000 companies, including teams from Google, Facebook, Shopify, and PwC, use Kumospace for a range of activities including virtual happy hours, business meetings, coffee breaks, and even team building in Kumospace’s virtual escape room.

COVID has both been Kumospace’s inspiration and catalyst for growth. Today, Kumospace is used on every continent except Antarctica. More than 2,000 companies, including teams from Google, Facebook, Shopify, and PwC, use Kumospace for a range of activities including virtual happy hours, business meetings, coffee breaks, and even team building in Kumospace’s virtual escape room.

What was the funding process like?

Virtual, but had the best tool for it. We took every investor meeting in Kumospace. And for the meetings we had to close, we tricked out the Kumospace with the prospective fund’s logos and screens playing videos of their CEOs. Kumospace puts a smile on the face of anyone who joins it, prospective investors included.

What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?

We’ve been builders in the NYC tech community for our entire careers. So when it came time to fund the business, we were in the fortunate position of getting to work with folks that we’ve known for more than a decade. We know this is a privilege and hope that Kumospace can help less connected entrepreneurs stand out in their own fundraising efforts.

We’ve been builders in the NYC tech community for our entire careers. So when it came time to fund the business, we were in the fortunate position of getting to work with folks that we’ve known for more than a decade. We know this is a privilege and hope that Kumospace can help less connected entrepreneurs stand out in their own fundraising efforts.

What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?

“Having known Yang and Brett for many years, we were blown away when they shared Kumospace and believe they have a unique approach to group interaction in a new hybrid world” said Eliot Durbin of Boldstart Ventures. “With ‘Zoom fatigue’ inspiring a crop of new companies to challenge its parabolic growth, we’re excited to be working with Kumospace to build virtual environments that people love to spend time in.”

What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?

While in development from August 2020 to March 2021, Kumospace saw 100x growth in their monthly active user base. With an average session time of nearly 60 minutes, guests have spent hundreds of thousands of hours reveling in Kumospace’s virtual rooms. The Kumospace team plans to sustain that growth into the future

This new round of funding will allow the full-time time to go from 2 to 12+ employees.

Where do you see the company going now over the near term?

In keeping with its ethos of free video conferencing, Kumospace will soon release custom-designed rooms as a feature included in its free subscription tier. This Room Builder feature has been much requested by Kumospace users.

What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC

Can I start eating spring rolls in the backyard at Kings County Imperial (BK) and end up on the fake porch at Miss Favela with a Mojito in hand?

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Source: https://www.alleywatch.com/2021/04/kumospace-raises-3m-for-its-immersive-video-chatting-platform-that-mimics-real-world-interactions/