Munich Startup: What does Atopia do? What problem does it solve?
Annabell Vacano, Atopia: While access to culture is essential for psychological well-being, inclusion, and even a human right, 12 percent of Europeans and 34 percent of Americans lack it. Atopia is a metaverse for arts and culture, a platform—accessible via VR headset or any web browser—where all museums, galleries, landmarks, and cultural events can be experienced immersively from home.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Annabell Vacano: There are already two-dimensional platforms like Google Arts & Culture or Europeana that make knowledge and learning about art accessible. However, they lack the experiential factor, which is the main reason for most people's engagement with culture.
There are already numerous virtual (VR) productions in the cultural sector. What's missing is a platform to enable their discovery and distribution. Existing metaverse platforms aren't suitable for the complex target systems of art institutions – they are often speculative markets, visual quality isn't a top priority, and key features are missing. Furthermore, valuable network effects can only be created if a platform has a certain degree of specialization – the app stores for common VR headsets don't offer a suitable platform for this.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Annabell Vacano: Valentin Diehl and I have known each other since we happened to move into the same shared apartment several years ago. We worked on almost all of our projects together. The idea for Atopia came to us during a brainstorming session about how to shape digital culture to create real experiences.
15 cultural institutions cooperate with Atopia
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Annabell Vacano: As a platform, we faced a typical chicken-and-egg problem: We needed partner institutions to develop our platform and attract users, but at the same time, we also needed a platform and users to be interesting for institutions. With a lot of effort and numerous favors, we managed to win 15 renowned cultural institutions as launch partners in just the first few months – this not only showed us that there was a real need for our solution, but also gave us the necessary momentum for the Completion of our pre-seed round which we recently closed with funds such as FOV Ventures, a renowned fund focused on metaverse investments, as well as Heartfelt (formerly APX) and several angel investors.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Annabell Vacano: In one year, we want to have launched, generated initial revenue, and established a recurring user base. In five years, we want to be one of the top 10 entertainment platforms in the XR space.
New XR hotspot Munich
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Annabell Vacano: Munich is becoming a hotspot for XR – Apple has opened one of its only two European test centers for the Vision Pro here in Munich, and Meta also announced the establishment of a significant location for immersive technologies here a few weeks ago. We have received immense support from the TUM Venture Labs with Antoine Leboyer, but also for example through the Wavelab with Antonia Wach – a culture-tech-oriented incubator – and the UnternehmerTUM. I couldn't imagine a better location to launch an XR startup today!
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Annabell Vacano: I don't think there's a need to reinvent the wheel, and if there's a good software development kit available somewhere, we're very happy. However, we develop all the essential components of our technology in-house. This allows us agility, freedom, and security—and ensures our high quality standards.
