The blockchain company Polygon has been chosen to join Disney’s Accelerator program, according to a Walt Disney Company blog post published on Wednesday. The company’s 2022 Disney Accelerator initiative is a business development program that aims to “accelerate the growth of innovative companies from around the world.”
Disney’s 2022 Accelerator Is Focused on Artificial Intelligence, NFTs, and Augmented Reality
Walt Disney Company published an announcement on Wednesday that explains the Disney Accelerator program has picked six companies to join this year’s class initiative that plans to target a few different technologies. “This year’s Disney Accelerator class is focused on building the future of immersive experiences and specializes in technologies such as augmented reality (AR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence (AI) characters,” the entertainment company’s blog post details.
Disney explained on April 22, 2022, that the mass media and entertainment conglomerate was accepting applications for the program. 82 days later, Disney disclosed that it chose the companies Flickplay, Inworld, Lockerverse, Obsess, Polygon, and Red 6. Disney’s blog post describes Polygon as a “scalable blockchain network that allows developers and enterprises to build Web3 experiences.” The firm says that it chose the companies because of the current focus on Disney’s “next-generation storytelling efforts.”
Polygon Says Participating Accelerator Companies Will ‘Receive Guidance From Disney’s Senior Leadership Team’
Following Disney’s announcement, the blockchain project Polygon tweeted about getting accepted into the 2022 Disney Accelerator program on Wednesday. “We are excited to announce that Polygon has been chosen to be a part of the Disney Accelerator program,” Polygon wrote while sharing Disney’s blog post. “It kicks off this week, connecting the 2022 class [with] the creativity, imagination, and expertise of Disney,” Polygon added. “Over the course of the program, each participating company will receive guidance from Disney’s senior leadership team, as well as a dedicated executive mentor.”
A few of the other companies chosen by Disney also focus on technologies like AR, Web3, NFTs, and three-dimensional (3D) environments. For instance, Disney says the startup “Flickplay is a Web3 social app that enables users to discover NFTs tied to real-world locations that they can experience and share via AR.” Flickplay revealed it partnered with the blockchain virtual world The Sandbox three months ago.
Two weeks before Walt Disney Company’s first annual Disney+ Day in 2021, the firm announced it would drop the ‘Golden Moments’ NFT collection via the digital collectibles app Veve to celebrate the event. Last January, the entertainment company started showing signs of entering the metaverse industry when the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved Disney’s “virtual-world simulator” patent.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Bonnie Rosen, the general manager of the Disney Accelerator program, explained that “for nearly a century, Disney has been at the forefront of leveraging technology to build the entertainment experiences of the future.” In the firm’s Twitter thread published on Wednesday, Polygon remarked that the company planned to share more Disney Accelerator updates, and further added that the team’s imaginations were “already on fire.”
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