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About Genies
Genies was founded in 2017 as a consumer avatar app. It pivoted from 2D caricatures to 3D avatars, signing rights deals with Warner Music, Universal Music, NFLPA, and Bandai Namco. In 2021, it raised a $65M Series B led by BOND and sold $500K in virtual goods tied to Mesut Ozil via Nifty Gateway, proving digital fashion's value. In April 2022, Silver Lake led a $150M Series C at a $1B valuation. In November 2025, it launched the Avatar SDK on Unity Asset Store, enabling developers to embed customizable 3D avatars. Positioning itself as the visual layer for LLMs, Genies evolved from a consumer toy into an enterprise identity infrastructure.
Over the past six months, Genies' key progress: In March 2026, it announced a strategic partnership with Sanrio to deliver AI-powered interactive character experiences for IPs such as Hello Kitty and gudetama; it also partnered with WEBTOON to extend creators' characters into 3D interactive formats, with rollout on the English platform beginning this summer. On the technology front, the Genies Art Forge SDK launched on the Unity Asset Store, allowing developers to generate auto-rigged, game-ready 3D wearables (with LODs) from text/image prompts and add them to the Avatar SDK inventory for in-game gifting and monetization. Genies also unveiled the Smart Avatar SDK, featuring intent-driven behavior, reduced animation/behavior-tree setup overhead, and compatibility with existing avatars and Art Forge assets.
Future focus and roadmap: Genies made its developer roadmap public (structured as under consideration, planned, and released, with community voting). The roadmap includes Art Forge expansions — custom art styles, custom auto-rigged avatars in multiple styles, and environment props; the Smart Avatar SDK to give NPCs and player characters environmental awareness, context understanding, and autonomy; and continued building of the "visual layer for LLMs," connecting IP, games, and social scenarios through AI agents and digital identity.
Genies is an AI avatar technology company focused on the visual and embodiment layer of AI personas.
Co-founders: Akash Nigam (co-founder & CEO, founded Genies in 2017; previously founded Blend; also runs AI-native venture studio Humans). Evan Rosenbaum (co-founder & advisor). Jake Adams (co-founder & COO, leading company operations).
Current core executive: Justin Huang (Head of Product; former Snap product lead behind Snapchat Memories and Spectacles/Pixy hardware interactions).