Virtually Human Studio

Virtually Human Studio (VHS), an Australian digital entertainment company founded in 2018, operates at the intersection of gaming, blockchain technology, and virtual sports. The company was co-founded by Chris Laurent, the creator of its flagship product ZED RUN, along with Geoff Wellman, Rob Salha, and Chris Ebeling. Wellman, the CTO, is a serial entrepreneur with a background in scaling products across various tech sectors, while Salha, a Director, transitioned from a career in finance as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst & Young to technology, bringing expertise in financial management and capital raising. The current CEO, Nir Efrat, is a gaming industry veteran with over 25 years of experience at major companies like Take-Two Interactive, King, and Zynga.

VHS's primary venture is the ZED Suite, with its cornerstone product being ZED RUN, a digital horse racing game launched in 2019 on the blockchain. The platform allows users, referred to as stable owners, to buy, sell, breed, and race digital racehorses represented as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This model creates a play-to-earn ecosystem where asset ownership is provable and transparent. Each digital horse possesses unique characteristics, such as bloodline and genotype, which influence its performance and rarity. The business generates revenue through activities within this ecosystem, including breeding fees and marketplace transactions. The game operates on the Polygon blockchain to facilitate faster and more cost-effective transactions.

The company's initial success with ZED RUN, which generated over $400 million in transactions and attracted sponsorships from major brands like NASCAR and Budweiser, was a significant milestone. In 2021, VHS secured $20 million in a Series A funding round led by TCG Capital Management, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Greylock, to expand its team and enhance the ZED ecosystem. Following a period of reflection on the sustainability of the Web3 gaming market, the studio began a strategic pivot towards ZED Champions. This evolution aims to broaden the game's appeal by focusing more on skill and strategy over speculation, thereby lowering the barrier to entry for a mainstream audience and ensuring long-term player engagement. The company is also transitioning to Coinbase's Base blockchain to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs for its future offerings.

Keywords: Virtually Human Studio, ZED RUN, ZED Champions, blockchain gaming, NFT, digital horse racing, play-to-earn, Web3 gaming, virtual sports, Chris Laurent, Geoff Wellman, Rob Salha, Nir Efrat, Andreessen Horowitz, TCG Capital Management, NFT marketplace, crypto gaming, Polygon, digital collectibles, breeding game, metaverse, entertainment software, skill-based gaming