OSLO, MARCH 20, 2023 — Universal Music Central Europe (UMG) and Centaurify today announced a partnership to bring music fans and artists together in new and exciting ways. With deep roots in the music industry and web3 space, Centaurify will deliver a range of solutions for UMG artists who want to explore new forms of digital engagement with fans.

As part of the partnership, UMG will release a series of exclusive, limited-edition collectibles celebrating their artists' achievements. These collectibles celebrate achievements in the artist's career and give fans a chance to own a piece of music history.
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Centaurify Co-founder David Rootwelt-Norberg said: “We are thrilled to partner with UMG, a world leader in the music industry, and to help their amazing roster of artists transition into the web3 space. We’re excited to make the Universal project a success and build on this with a series of other projects already in development.”

Bjørn Rogstad, Universal Music Group Norway Managing Director, said: “We are excited to announce our partnership with Centaurify and believe this collaboration will bring about significant learnings, innovation, and growth. This partnership allows us to tap into Centaurify's cutting-edge technology and expertise and deliver engaging new products for our artists and their audience."

Atle Richter Schie, UMG Norway Innovation Manager, said: "We are always looking for new and exciting ways to bring value to artists and are excited about the opportunities this will bring in building deeper fan engagement."
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Microsoft is reportedly working on a Web 3 wallet that will handle cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Microsoft has reportedly added code that would integrate a non-custodial crypto wallet into the company's default Edge browser, according to screenshots posted on Twitter by Albacore, a pseudonymous software researcher from central Europe.

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Albacore speculates that Microsoft's entry into the cryptocurrency wallet market may be an effort to compete with Brave Browser, Opera's main rival and a privacy-focused browser that also supports Web3 technologies.

As part of new updates to its Bing search engine and Edge browser, Microsoft announced on February 7 the integration of artificial intelligence-powered search engines and conversation via OpenAI's ChatGPT.

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Pixelcraft Studios, creators of Aavegotchi a rapidly-growing Web3 gaming protocol and community, has announced the successful completion of a multi-year long token sale, raising a total of $30 million .
Beginning on September 14, 2020 , the sale of the $GHST token was structured as a DAICO (Decentralized Autonomous ICO) – a model for decentralized fundraising initially proposed by Vitalik Buterin - founder of Ethereum .
Lasting more than two years, the sale finally ended when AavegotchiDAO, the official governing body of the Aavegotchi protocol, voted to end the sale due to uncertainty about the stability of the DAI stablecoin .


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The Aavegotchi team expressed their gratitude for the overwhelming support from the community. "The successful conclusion of this sale represents a watershed moment for the decentralized fundraising space and, we hope, a model for responsible fundraising for projects in the future. We are thrilled to have such a strong and passionate community behind us and are excited about the potential of AavegotchiDAO receiving the lion's share of this raise," said Coder Dan, Co-founder and CEO of Pixelcraft Studios.
The Aavegotchi ecosystem combines gaming, DeFi (decentralized finance), and NFTs (non- fungible tokens) to create unique and engaging experiences for users. Players can purchase and customize Aavegotchis, which are ghostly digital pets with unique traits and abilities. These Aavegotchis can then be used to battle other players or participate in various games and activities within the Aavegotchi universe (The Gotchiverse).
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Flying Sheep Studios said its Star Life title, a social massively multiplayer online (MMO) game targeted at the metaverse, has raised $1.2 million in funding from the German government.

Flying Sheep Studios said it is “excited to bring Star Life to players worldwide and is looking forward to being a part of the growing metaverse.”
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“We are grateful to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action for their support and trust in our project. This funding demonstrates the federal budget for video games working as intended, fostering the development of cutting-edge technical know-how ‘made in Germany’ and creating and securing jobs,” said Thomas Rössig, managing director of Flying Sheep Studios, in a statement.

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Since the company’s founding in 2014 in Cologne, Germany, Flying Sheep Studios has delivered over 200 games on time, quality and budget to satisfied clients, often working with brands such as Lego, Barbie and DreamWorks.

iCandy Group is supported by strategic shareholders, including Animoca Brands, Fatfish Group, Baidu, Singtel, SK Square, AIS and IncubateFund, as well as several Australian and international funds.

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Amsterdam is emerging as a thriving hub for startups with a vibrant ecosystem that supports new businesses across a range of sectors. 

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of startups, with many attracting significant investment from venture capitalists and angel investors.
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Another factor that has contributed to Amsterdam’s success as a startup hub is the availability of funding. The city is home to several venture capital firms and angel investors who are eager to support innovative new businesses. 

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Orthodoxx
Founder/s: Amé Raaphorst, Zoë Ginus

Based out of Amsterdam, Orthodoxx is a digital fashion studio. The Dutch platform offers end-to-end digital fashion solutions to brands, designers, and artists, from strategizing, conceptualising, and realising Web3-related projects and digital products.

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Returns are the bane of brands’ e-commerce offerings. An exciting prospect the metaverse offers is the possibility of customers having “digital twins” of themselves – i.e., an avatar that is their same size and shape and that is able to stroll through the virtual world. While the avatar might be a three-headed dragon in some contexts, for some metaverse services – particularly anything related to purchasing wearable items for delivery in the “real world” – a digital twin could prove very useful. The twin, along with perfect digital replicas of the items offered by online retailers in the metaverse, could allow customers to buy with greater confidence that they are going to get an item that fits. This creates a much more immediate experience for the customer and delivers greater brand engagement for the retailer. It also drives financial and environmental savings by reducing returns.

But if you want to set up shop on a plot of virtual land, what is the first thing to consider? There are two metaverse concepts: “top-down” – with the platform operator acting as the arbiter and town planner; or decentralized and “web3” enabled – where users own and build their environment. A top-down approach might make it easier to secure and create a safe space. A top-down has features that can easily facilitate legal compliance, and perhaps connect to other top-down metaverses giving access to a large pool of customers, all in exchange for giving up a large slice of control and data. 

Let’s assume your brand opts for the top-down option – what are the legal implications? Your virtual store will receive a vast array of rich datasets from customers and other sources that dwarf those collected via a traditional e-commerce site. Depending on the capabilities of the virtual reality headsets that customers use to peruse your wares, you could be collecting data (such as vital signs and eye tracking) from which certain behaviors can be inferred. 

Though this is an exciting opportunity for any brand, the applicable privacy laws will need to be determined and observed. This will depend on a number of factors, such as the location of the platform operator’s servers, your location, and the location of customers. If United Kingdom or European Union laws apply, as a data controller you bear a host of data protection duties. For instance, you should carry out an impact assessment to determine the lawful basis for using the data, the impact on your customers and how this can be mitigated, and how you will inform them of all of this. Some of this is troublesome enough on the old-fashioned internet – cookie banners anyone?

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Gareth Stokes is a partner at DLA Piper, where he focuses on AI, information technology, strategic sourcing and intellectual property-driven transactions.

Kurt Davies is an associate at DLA Piper, who advises on domestic and cross-border strategic commercial agreements.

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Amsterdam-based match-worn and signed sporting memorabilia platform MatchWornShirt has received an undisclosed amount investment from sports blockchain Chiliz that will see the latter take a 20% stake in the former.

Offering match-worn and signed sporting memorabilia (is it laundered first? I wonder.), MatchWornShirt claims to have over 80,000 active users on its platform. Founded in 2017, the startup works with some 280 global partners and projects the sale of more than 50,000 shirts on behalf of clubs, franchises, charities, and international rights holders this year.
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“As the match-worn memorabilia market continues to evolve rapidly and the network of global collectors expands simultaneously, we are particularly enthusiastic about the potential that we have as partners to shape the future of digital authentication and bringing the physical items into Web3, utilising Chiliz extensive knowledge, experience, and expertise within the blockchain space,” commented MatchWornShirt founder and CEO Tijmen Zonderwijk.

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Microsoft strikes a deal to make Xbox PC video games available on the Boosteroid cloud gaming platform, its latest move to appease antitrust regulators scrutinising its purchase of game maker Activision Blizzard.
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Microsoft aims to boost its firepower in the booming videogaming market against leaders Tencent and Sony, and lay the base for its investment in metaverse.

Also, Microsoft has been announcing new partnerships as it tries to persuade regulators in the U.S. and Europe to allow the $69 billion all-cash transaction to go through.

Microsoft and Boosteroid:
Ukraine-based Boosteroid’s access to Call of Duty is conditional on regulatory approval for the Activision deal. The agreement will also bring Microsoft’s Xbox PC games to Boosteroid’s cloud gaming platform.

Microsoft’s Push towards bigger deal:
Microsoft has similar licensing deals with Nvidia, Nintendo and U.S. distributor Valve Corp, owner of the world’s largest video game distribution platform, Steam.

More About The Microsoft’s deal with Boosteroid:
The US tech giant said the 10-year agreement would also include Activision Blizzard titles like the popular Call of Duty franchise if or when the acquisition gets approved.
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With events around the early investment stage, artificial intelligence, the metaverse and the evolution of e-commerce, the Greek capital gives another year of potential "attendance" to Europe's biggest startup event.
The biggest event that promotes start-up entrepreneurship, with a presence in over 300 European cities, finally arrives in the Greek capital for a two-day event full of speeches, workshops and events. The central topics of discussion of this year's event concern the early investment stage, artificial intelligence, the metaverse and the evolution of e-commerce. The official co-organizer Mr. Yiannis Fountis and his team of volunteers have set up and organized the event, which will take place on March 16 & 17 at the Atraktos and Serafio venues, where important speakers and guests will be present.

Entry to the live events and workshops is free, however places are limited.
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See below the detailed program of SEW23 ATHENS:
Thursday 16/3 SERAPIO

TOPIC 1: “The Rise of Alternative Investment Models: Crowdfunding, Angel Investing, and the Future of Startup Finance” (18:30)

Coordinator: Vaios Krokos (Epixeiro.gr)
Speaker 1: Dimitris Tsigos (Startech Ventures)
Speaker 2: Myrto Papathanou (Metavallon)
Speaker 3: TBA

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TOPIC 4: “Building a Decentralized Metaverse: The Technical, Economic, and Social Challenges and Opportunities” (19:45)

Coordinator: Fountis Yiannis (SEW Athens Official Co-Organizer)
Speaker 1: Yannis Albanopoulos (MystenLabs)
Speaker 2: Nikolas Tazes (Watchen)
Speaker 3: Angelos Perlegkas (Apearl)

TOPIC 5: “ChatGPT and the cataclysmic rise of AI automation and intelligent systems” (20:30)

Coordinator: Christos Kotsakas (Infocom
Speaker 1: Vassilis Stathopoulos (Ad World)
Speaker 2: Zoi Kournia (Ingredio)
Speaker 3: Filippos Tourlomousis (Superlabs)

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