MMA fighter José Aldo is the new name on the roll of personalities at startup Biobots. Created in partnership with the American NFTZ Blockchain Labs, the project starts with a collection of NFTs (non-tangible tokens) with ten thousand illustrations sold through cryptocurrencies. Single-valued tokens have been divided into three groups.
Champions provides access to in-person training in Rio de Janeiro, private social events and Close Friends on Instagram, while Undefeated leads to virtual training, personalized video messaging and digital conferences. The third category will have raffles for autographed items such as gloves, t-shirts and caps. The Metaverse Skin NFT of the character Aldo in the metaverse will be sent to ten thousand fans.
Each official match includes an NFT auction, and the winner will gain experience on match day, which includes limousine, exclusive entry, backstage pass, premium sitting and after-party. “It will be an opportunity to get closer to my fans”, comments José Aldo, who is in the Top 3 and wants the belt at bantamweight (up to 61 kg).
But the expansion of Biobots takes shape with the production of avatars for brands, celebrities and sportsmen. Introduced on November 22, Satiko, avatar of Sabrina Sato, for example, attracted 16 thousand followers in just 24 hours. The goal is to reach one million fans in the medium term.
José Aldo will also have his. “José Aldo’s NFTs, in fact, are already pre-avatars”, anticipates Ricardo Tavares, CEO of Biobots. The company specializing in digital products does not deliver a character with less than 45 days. “It takes a while to make all the aesthetic and personality adjustments. To work, the artist needs to love his avatar”, he says.
The idea of showing up in this market came when virtual worlds powered by augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) began to signal new frontiers for communication established by game players and their millionaire contributions. “Metaverso is the evolution of social networks”, comments Tavares, who runs offices in Miami and Portugal, and is negotiating an operation in Asia.
The expectation is that the revenue initially projected for the first year of operation will exceed R$50 million. By 2023, it should reach R$ 200 million. “We knew the potential, but not the scale that is happening”, admits the executive. The trust comes from the likely migration of brands to what Tavares calls the “war of the worlds”. In the fight for audience, Biobots arrives with the proposal to transform avatars into communication vehicles.
The company has already raised R$ 20 million and is preparing investments in research and technology. “Brands will find their target in these new worlds. There will be no way to ignore this channel”, warns Tavares. Combining the real with the virtual, Biobots seeks to establish itself as the first agency for avatars of influencers in Latin America, with strategies capable of building brands, now embodied in the metaverse.
