Cosmos Video raises €2.2 million in seed funding
London: Cosmos Video, the virtual venues platform which allows people to work, hang out and socialize together, has raised around €2.2 million in seed funding from Europe’s leading seed investors, LocalGlobe with participation from Entrepreneur First, Andy Chung and Phillip Moehring (AngelList), and Omid Ashtari (ex-President, Citymapper).
Founded by serial entrepreneurs Rahul Goyal and Karan Baweja this year, who recently led product teams at Citymapper and TransferWise, respectively, Cosmos is on a mission to enable human connection in remote era.
The past nine months have seen our lives dramatically altered, and people feel disconnected from their communities as a result. Many interactions have been replaced by monotonous video calls, which can feel mechanical and constrained. Besides, social network feeds have become a hollow proxy for serendipitous conversation in shared spaces. Virtual Reality promised much and could have given us a sense of being together, but it’s not mass consumer-ready. At the same time, gaming platforms such as Animal Crossing and Roblox have surged. These digital worlds offer a chance to disconnect from the staleness of our day-to-day routines, and provide a shared space and experience, closely mimicking real-world interactions.
Founded in 2020, Cosmos is creating virtual venues by combining game mechanics with video chat to bring back serendipitous interactions when people can’t be together physically. People can meet up with their colleagues or friends inside a browser-based game after choosing their personalized avatar. As they move their avatars closer to one another, they can use video chat amongst themselves, like in real-life.
Cosmos is currently being used in private beta by a select group of companies to host their offices and social events such as Christmas parties. The company is also receiving requests to host events, meetup groups, and family gatherings. Long-term, the team plans to expand the platform to facilitate various use cases to continue on its mission of enabling human connection in the remote era.
