Tafi, the leading provider of 3D avatar solutions, today announced a partnership with Highstreet, the world's first commerce-centric metaverse, to bring Tafi's avatars into Highstreet's virtual worlds.

This partnership represents Highstreet's latest effort to refine its virtual marketplace by offering high-quality avatars with deep customization options to users. Tafi's library of assets and character creation technology, in particular its Astra SDK, will give users a new way to express their unique identities and make the metaverse a more accessible and welcoming place.

Within this immersive virtual world, Tafi's Astra SDK will help developers deliver and monetize full-body 3D avatar creation experiences for games and apps while streamlining the user experience. Highstreet's marketplace is the first of its kind, bringing together various "phygital" products — digital assets pegged to real-world products — and blockchain technology.

"Earlier this year, we leveraged Tafi's avatar solutions to demonstrate our virtual store and commerce metaverse to some of the world's top brands," said Travis Wu, CEO of Highstreet. "Given that overwhelmingly positive experience, we are thrilled to announce our deeper partnership to integrate Tafi's character creator engine into our flagship Highstreet World product, the first-of-its-kind commerce-based metaverse platform."

Highstreet has recently announced a successful funding round led by both traditional and crypto-focused venture capital firms, as well as crypto community builders and influencers. With the backing of household brands like HTC, Highstreet offers a brand-new retail and entertainment experience to users looking to buy limited-edition physical products via non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, bringing the crypto community into the metaverse.

"We are very excited to partner with a company as groundbreaking and innovative as Highstreet," said Preston Woo, CSO of Tafi. "We see this partnership as a great opportunity to showcase our SDK's abilities with the leader in the commerce-based metaverse. Moreover, we are grateful to find a partner that shares our goals in giving players a dynamic, engaging, and highly personalized avatar experience."