The Berlin-based company FUEL has today announced that they have raised €1.5m to become “Shopify for NFTs”, enabling creators of all levels and skillsets access tools that allow them to build their own custom branded crypto-asset shop without any technical knowledge required.
Tietze and Deckert, co-Founders of FUEL, shared:
“Last year, $25bn worth of NFTs were traded globally, up from $95m in 2020, and artists like Steve Aoki, Nas, Grimes, and brands like Lamborghini entered the space. The art establishment also sees value in the space, with brokers like Sotheby’s entering the market”.
FUEL, founded by Csongor Barabasi, Thanh Binh Tran, Stefan Tietze and Patrice Deckert, is aiming to bring NFTs further into the mainstream – in the hands of millions of creators and their fans.
The pre-seed round has attracted major institutions in the market, including NYC-based FintechCollective (a shareholder of OpenSea), London-based Seedcamp (investors in Sorare, Hopin and Revolut) and Notion Capital with their pre-seed vehicle, Pioneers.
International business angels and experts joined the round such as Bitstamp CTO David Osojnik, Gumtree Co-founder Michael Pennington or Indeed founder Paul Forster.
“Even though we see growing adoption, NFTs are still in an early phase. Currently, the barrier of entry for creators is very high. The market has outgrown the basic sales functionality of aggregation platforms like OpenSea, and creators need more tools to succeed in the next phase”, said Barabasi.
The company is already working with “Tomorrowland-DJs Mat.Joe and several other yet-to-be-announced top artists and labels, aiming to launch several NFT drops in the next couple of weeks”, Tran adds.
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