The Miami-based Metapolis, which bills itself as the world’s first “metaverse-as-a-service” (MaaS) venture – a la SaaS for web2 companies – is set to make an entry with its ambitious plans to support businesses from all industries in the virtual world. The UAE is poised to witness the next stage in metaverse development.
In order to assist all economic sectors in the UAE and the greater GCC area in developing new business insights and revenue streams as well as extending their customer and client interactions to the virtual world, the Metapolis MaaS platform will roll out an end-to-end service.
The metaverse is currently largely associated with arts, sportswear, real estate and fashion retail, though more sectors such as healthcare are taking baby steps to make their presence in the fast expanding virtual world.
“If SaaS (software-as-a-service) has emerged as the well-established business model to dominate the web2 space, the coming transition to web3 will undoubtedly see a similar market opportunity for MaaS businesses,” Sandra Helou, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Metapolis, told Arabian Business.
“And we are proud to be first-movers in this domain,” she said.
As part of Metapolis’ aggressive plans in the UAE and the larger region, the US startup announced last week plans to set up its international headquarters in Dubai.
Helou said the UAE – as also the GCC region – has been tremendously accommodating to the web3 community and so the decision to set up an HQ in Dubai was very natural.
“The networking opportunities [in the region] with government entities, other startups, and even large-scale multinational technology companies are huge. Our market research very much agrees with the general consensus that the UAE is the main hub for blockchain and web3 for the foreseeable future,” she said.
Helou said the metaverse is extremely malleable, and that is the reason it can be applied to so many different sectors and business models.
“Our role is to facilitate this inclusion for these sectors by breaking down barriers to entry and being thought and action leaders in this domain,” she said.
Helou said the company’s vision is to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds through seamless integration and an always-on layer of engagement.
“Metapolis has its sights set on becoming ‘The Next Internet’ and building a future for interoperability with security, safety and digital identity at heart,” she said.
Helou said Metapolis would guide clients on the entire range of services – from ideation to metaverse deployment and build.
She also said the startup has already signed up with some of the biggies in the GCC region – either currently operating or moving into the region – to make them metaverse-ready.
“We have a couple of announcements that will be going out in regards to the clients and closed partnerships. Unfortunately, due to NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) we cannot go into full detail of the partnerships before they are announced,” Helou said.
The Metapolis top executive also revealed the venture’s plans for launching a few new products for the UAE-GCC region.
“One offering we have up and coming [for the region] is the first themed and gamified microverse to be launched called MGenesis. This product will offer 5,000 combined land and dome parcels for users to acquire which will yield incentivization and a gamification between holders with VIP utility and more,” Helou said.
She said Metapolis, which currently operates in the US, Europe and Asia, also has plans to expand its physical presence to other countries in the GCC region, though no time frame has been fixed for it yet.
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