On July 13, entertainment giant Walt Disney announced six companies are joining its 2022 Disney Accelerator. Among them was the layer-2 Ethereum scaling network Polygon.
The business development program is designed to accelerate the growth of innovative companies. According to the announcement, Disney is focusing on emerging technology in the field of immersive experiences this year.
This includes Metaverse and augmented reality (AR), nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and artificial intelligence (AI) characters. Disney has tapped Polygon for its scalable properties, allowing developers to build Web3 experiences.
The program kicks off this week, connecting the six firms to enhance their creativity and imagination with Disney’s expertise. Participants will receive guidance from Disney’s senior leadership team, as well as a dedicated executive mentor, the announcement added.
The program takes place over the summer and concludes with a Demo Day in October at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
Bonnie Rosen, General Manager of the Disney Accelerator program, commented that “for nearly a century, Disney has been at the forefront of leveraging technology to build the entertainment experiences of the future.”
The other five companies joining Polygon in the program include Flickplay, a Web3 social app for discovering NFTs tied to real-world locations that can be shared using AR. Interactive, AI-driven character creation platform Inworld joins the list in addition to Lockerverse, a Web3 platform empowering creators to tell culture-defining stories.
The final two firms are experiential e-commerce platforms for brands to create immersive 3D virtual stores in the Metaverse, Obsess, and Red 6, an AR hardware company.
The six companies will be provided with investment capital, access to co-working space at Disney’s creative campus, and mentor support and guidance from top company executives. Additionally, entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders from the entertainment and technology communities will be in attendance.
Earlier this month, Polygon announced a partnership with mobile phone manufacturer Nothing to bring Web3 functionality to the new device.
Polygon’s native token, still called MATIC, reacted strongly to the news with a 25% pump on the day. MATIC was changing hands for $0.63 after a minor retracement from the intraday high.
Like most crypto assets, it has fallen heavily from its all-time high, with a 78% loss from the lofty $2.92 it hit in November 2021. But today, it is the top performing token in the crypto top 50.