We at Woodstock have always believed in a collaborative approach in order to build the community around blockchain and Web 3.0. We recently conducted a webinar for MG Motors in partnership with our portfolio companies – Holoride, Terra Virtua, and Ikonz. The idea behind this initiative was to expose established organizations like MG Motors to this new emerging technology and help them navigate and demystify the world of digital assets. The session saw participation from top management of MG Motors and there were some really interesting rounds of conversations.
Gaurav Gupta, Senior Vice President/CCO of MG Motors, and Neha Jain, Lead – EVs and Innovation, opened the webinar with a brief introduction and set the agenda for the larger audience.
Following a brief introduction, Pranav Sharma, Founding Partner at Woodstock, and Prashanth Swaminathan, Partner and Head of Institutional Business at Woodstock, took the stage to present a brief presentation on “Demystifying Digital Assets.” The goal of this segment was to guide the audience on the fundamentals of Web 3.0. Prashanth went on to discuss how Web3 differs from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, as well as the various layers in this digital ecosystem. He went into detail about various layers such as the Infrastructure layer, Middleware services, DeFi, and NFTs to help people understand the basics of the ecosystem and how it can revolutionise the current system and open doors to new and innovative use cases.
Post this session, there was a panel discussion that talked about how Metaverse and NFTs could be integrated into the current business models and create immersive experiences for consumers. The panel was moderated by Anish Motwani, Founder of Storm the Norm, and saw participation from Nils Wollny, CEO and Co-Founder of Holoride, Jawad Ashraf, CTO and Co-Founder of Terra Virtua, and Prasad Vanga, Co-Founder of Ikonz. From the Woodstock team, we had Pranav, Prashanth, and Ankur Choudhary, Research Partner at Woodstock who joined this discussion. During the panel, some very interesting use cases were discussed. Nils discussed how holoride is working to improve the in-car experience for passengers by combining AR/VR and Metaverse technology. Jawad went on to explain how brands such as MG Motors could collaborate with Terra Virtua to be a mobility partner in the metaverse and maximize value during the early stages of this revolution. Prasad discussed the importance of intellectual property (IP) in the digital world and how valuable it would be to manage it for top brands, artists, and assets to be used in the metaverse. The session concluded with a brief round of Q&A on regulatory clarity surrounding digital assets and how organizations can begin integrating blockchain into their current business models.
About Woodstock – Woodstock is a multi-asset emerging technology fund house currently focused on investments in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) with emphasis on four areas – Infrastructure layer, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Web 3.0 protocols, and Tokenization (both fungible and non-fungible). Woodstock works diligently with portfolio companies to help them scale and grow their ecosystem globally. Woodstock has made early-stage investments in pioneering DLT companies – Elrond, Covalent, Terra Virtua, Holoride, and Band Protocol among others.
About MG Motors – MG Motor UK Limited (MG Motor) is a British automotive company headquartered in London, United Kingdom,[2] and a subsidiary of SAIC Motor UK, which in turn is owned by the Shanghai-based Chinese state-owned company, SAIC Motor. MG Motor designs develop and markets cars sold under the MG marque, while vehicle manufacturing takes place at its factories in Europe and China. The design of the cars was originally engineered by MG Motors in Longbridge, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
About Holoride – Holoride’s vision is to build the future of in-vehicle experiences by offering location and motion-aware content and making the transit-time count. It is a platform that takes an everyday journey and transforms it into a hyper-immersive experience by combining navigational and car data with XR. Holoride integrates Elrond’s blockchain platform to ensure transparency of usage for all ecosystem partners and allows personalization via NFTs. NFTs will be used inside the ecosystem to represent in-game items such as personalized avatars, skins, tools, etc.
About Terra Virtua – Terra Virtua is a truly immersive collectible platform across Mobile, AR, and VR with unique social, gaming and creative experiences, enabled by blockchain. Imagine owning a rare car that you can showcase or even race on a virtual track against other players. Maybe you could own a unique spaceship to exhibit or explore in VR space? Or perhaps you want to show off your digital collection of vinyl album covers which can also unlock music – all in your personal lounge. It’s all possible in Terra Virtua. Your experience begins with owning your unique digital assets which you and your friends can share, trade, exhibit, play and enjoy.
About Ikonz – With the rise of the metaverse, major brands and artists are looking for partners to facilitate their entry into the next era of user engagement. Ikonz is a metaverse company that helps IP owners, artists and other established icons manage their digital assets.
Author – Divesh Agrawal, Head of Investments Communication, Woodstock
