Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs just joined a $12m funding round for hologram startup, Proto

Hologram performances of superstar artists have become a thriving business, with hologram versions of legendary artists from Tupac, to Frank Zappa and Whitney Houston making on-stage appearances in recent years.

Proto Inc., formerly known PORTL, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by TRUE Capital Management (Coinbase, Palantir).

Proto claims that its “proprietary state of the art technology” is what makes so called “interactive holoportation” possible.

This process, according to Proto, allows a person to “beam” to a location in real time when they can’t be there physically.

The Los Angeles-based company says its technology is already being used across various industries including entertainment, education, retail, enterprise, business, marketing, fashion, and the art world.

Proto’s Series A round also saw participation tech investor Tim Draper (Tesla, SpaceX, Twitch), early Uber investors Jillian Manus and Mike Walsh of Structure Management. Quavo of Migos, and dozens of retired and active pro-athletes including Marshawn Lynch, Albert Pujols, Robert Griffin III, Luke Walton and Breanna Stewart have also invested in the company.

Proto says that Combs was introduced to the startup when he used the new technology to “beam” from Miami to Los Angeles to sing Happy Birthday to his son, Christian “King” Combs, an event that sparked millions of views on social media.

Additionally Proto was used in major events at NYC.NFT, at Miami Crypto Experience, and dominated the NFT space Art Basel with activations involving ArtRepublic, SuperRare, Red DAO, DeadMau5, and Micah Johnson’s Aku World.