Squido Studio: Betting on the Intersection of UGC and Social VR

Hartmann Capital is thrilled to announce our investment in Squido Studio's CAD 3.7M seed round, alongside leading investors including Triptyq Capital, Grishin Robotics, and FJ Labs. Squido Studio is an award-winning Canadian VR game development studio, creating the next generation of social VR experiences.

Why Squido Studio?

Squido truly embodies our fund’s core belief: the future of gaming lies in social gameplay, is strengthened by user-generated content, and will inevitably progress toward XR. 

Squido's flagship platform, DigiGods, marks a breakthrough in the gaming category by combining proven social VR gameplay with the powerful network effects of an intuitive user-generated content platform, allowing users to create their own games. This unique blend has earned it the nickname "the Roblox of VR."

We believe that VR is best experienced with others, and surpasses desktop and mobile as the most social gaming medium on the market. Early Social VR successes such as VRChat & Rec Room have validated this hypothesis, while titles like Gorilla Tag have made the thesis self-evident for the modern Quest-based VR ecosystem.

Squido Studio has developed two titles. Their first, “No More Rainbows” is a premium VR-native platformer that achieved meaningful success on the early standalone market. Now the team is building DigiGods, a free-to-play social sandbox on Quest with a focus on user-generated-content.

DigiGods stands out in the VR landscape through several key differentiators:

• A sophisticated drag-and-drop building system that removes loading screens, enables seamless creative expression, and lowers the barrier to entry for creators.
• Physics-based interactions that surpass traditional sandbox experiences
• Early market validation with an impressive 4.85/5 star rating from over 9,250 ratings on the Meta Quest Store
• A rapidly growing user base of 60,000+ monthly active users pre-launch
• Live service with weekly content drops, making the app incredibly retentive.

Proven Success in VR

The Squido team has already demonstrated their ability to create compelling VR experiences with their first title, No More Rainbows. This physics-based platformer has generated over $2 million in revenue and built a dedicated community, proving the team's capability to develop, launch, and scale successful VR applications. This track record is particularly impressive in the current VR market, where creating engaging, profitable content remains a significant challenge.

The Power of User-Generated Content in VR

DigiGods represents a unique blend of VR immersion and user-generated content (UGC) that we believe will define the next generation of social platforms. While platforms like UEFN, Roblox and Minecraft have shown the enormous potential of UGC in traditional gaming, DigiGods brings this creative freedom into VR, where spatial awareness and physical interactions create numerous opportunities for user expression.

The platform's innovative approach to UGC in VR solves several critical challenges:

• Intuitive creation tools that work naturally in 3D spaces
• Real-time collaboration capabilities that make building social by default
• Seamless experience sharing without breaking immersion
• Physics-based interactions that make user-created content feel alive and engaging

All this is accomplished without forcing the user to take off their headset.

Market Opportunity

The VR gaming market is at an inflection point. With over 40 million VR headsets in circulation and Meta achieving product-market fit with late Gen Z and Gen Alpha, DigiGods is poised to capture a significant share of this expanding market. The platform’s focus on adapting successful flat-game mechanics to work natively in VR is industry-leading.

‍Strong Leadership

CEO David Chartrand brings a proven history of entrepreneurial success from ventures like ChallengeU, Novatic AI, and Memo. The commercial success of No More Rainbows validates his ability to perform in the VR space. COO Philippe Cournoyer adds vital industry expertise, drawing on his operational experience at Ubisoft to strengthen the leadership team. 

‍Joining Forces

With a diverse cap table, Hartmann Capital brings deep VR expertise, strong industry connections, and market insights. Having backed Quest Store hits like VAIL, Swordsman, and Tripp, we are well-positioned to accelerate DigiGods by providing access to XR leaders, Quest data & analytics, cooperative XR founder roundtables, and continuous product feedback.

Looking Forward

We believe Squido Studio represents the next evolution in social gaming platforms. DigiGods isn't just another gaming platform – it's a comprehensive social experience that addresses the growing need for meaningful digital connections among younger generations. With its official launch planned for Q4 2024, we are excited to support Squido Studio in their mission to redefine social interaction in VR.

This investment represents another step in our commitment to backing transformative companies in the immersive and interactive technology space. We look forward to working closely with the Squido team and our co-investors to help realize the full potential of this innovative platform.

For more information about Hartmann Metaverse Ventures II, please contact us at invest@hartmanncapital.com.