Montreal-based Lighthouse has launched an open metaverse navigation engine that allows users to find places to visit in virtual worlds.

The platform indexes experiences and events from over 20 blockchain-enabled virtual worlds, including Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), Voxels, and Mona. According to the company, Lighthouse is being released after a successful beta test with more than 40,000 testers signed up.

The company raised $7 million in May backed by Accel, BlockTower, White Star Capital and Animoca Brands. Lighthouse uses indexing tools and direct partnerships with metaverse companies to collect and process data for its platform.

”The biggest criticism of the metaverse, and very rightly so, is that it feels empty,” said co-founder and CEO Jonathan Brun. “Everyone who jumps into these worlds feels alone, and there is never anyone around.”

But it’s not for lack of cool events and developments, he said.

”We talk to developers every day and see what they have created. There are some very exciting things,” Brun added.

Lighthouse believes that the empty metaverse problem is a search problem. A truly social experience in the metaverse is lacking, not because there is not enough quality content, but because creators, friends, and viewers simply cannot find each other. The company hopes its platform will solve this problem by highlighting and recommending popular places to visit around the world. There are also plans to include a social element where users can follow friends across the metaverse, follow the developers, and save their favorite projects and locations.

”When you make friends on Lighthouse and they enter these worlds, no matter where they are, you can actually find them, click on their name and jump to meet them in these worlds, which is an amazing coordination tool, when people plan these studies,” Bruhn said.