Key takeaways:
- Polygon has been selected as one of the six companies for this year’s Disney Accelerator
- The Accelerator program is focused on growing innovative companies through Disney’s guidance
- This year’s program is putting a spotlight on AR, NFTs, and AI technologies
This year’s Accelerator program will focus on immersive experiences powered by AR, NFTs, and AI
Multinational entertainment and media conglomerate the Walt Disney Co. announced on Wednesday a group of six companies that have been selected for the 2022 Disney Accelerator. Ethereum Layer 2 developer Polygon is the only blockchain-native company to have made the list.
According to the official statement, the accelerator program focuses on innovative technologies and is designed to help bolster the growth of innovative businesses from around the world. The 2022’s edition of the annual program will be focused on “immersive experiences”, ranging from augmented reality (AR) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
“For nearly a century, Disney has been at the forefront of leveraging technology to build the entertainment experiences of the future,” noted Disney Accelerator’s General Manager Bonnie Rosen in a statement. He went on to add:
“The Disney Accelerator is thrilled to be part of that legacy, and with our newest class of companies, we look forward to furthering our commitment to innovation and continuing to bring magical experiences to Disney audiences and guests for the next 100 years.”
The Accelerator program is slated to begin this week and will conclude in the fall with a Demo Day at Disney’s corporate headquarters in Burbank, California.
The Polygon team shared the news with its community on Twitter, saying that their “imaginations are already on fire” in anticipation of working with Disney.
At the tail end of 2021, Disney secured a patent for an AR product that will, according to the filing, combine virtual reality elements with “a map of a geometry of a real-world venue.” A month before the entertainment giant received approval for the patent by the USPTO, the company’s CEO Bob Chapek talked about Disney’s metaverse plans during the Q4 earnings call. “We’ll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling, without boundaries in our own Disney Metaverse,” said Chapek at the time.
The price of Poylgon’s native MATIC token surged by over 14% on the news of Polygon and Disney collaboration and hit a new cycle high of $0.654 on Thursday.
