Former Disney chief Bob Iger is jumping into the metaverse as an investor and director at startup Genies

• Bob Iger, the former long-time head of Walt Disney, is joining the board of directors and investing in metaverse startup Genies, per the WSJ.
• Genies is a metaverse company that allows users to customize avatars, and it is popular among celebrities like Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez.

Former Walt Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger is backing metaverse startup Genies in his first move since leaving the global media giant in 2021.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, he is now an investor and will join the board as one of five directors of the company, whose avatars are popular among celebrities like Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez.

"I was particularly interested in companies that were using technology for disruptive purposes and, where possible, the intersection between technology and creativity," Iger said in an interview with the Journal.

He added that Genies appealed to him because it can change the entertainment industry, as it allows the use of existing intellectual property in different manners.

Genies said it owns 99% of the celebrity avatar market share and makes NFTs for Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

Founded in 2017 by 29-year-old Akash Nigam, Genies has raised over $100 million in funding so far, and offers virtual clothing and tools for customizing virtual characters. It also operates its own NFT marketplace.

Since Facebook's splashy rebrand to Meta, metaverse ventures of all types have generated major buzz. There's also been a virtual land-grab that some analysts expect to continue, with some metaverse properties selling for millions of dollars.

For its part, Disney has said it's eyeing the metaverse too. Iger's successor, Bob Chapek, told analysts during an earnings call in November that "our efforts to date are merely a prologue to a time when we'll be able to connect the physical and digital worlds even more closely, allowing for storytelling without boundaries in our own Disney metaverse." And last month, Disney named Mike White to lead its metaverse strategy.