NFT-focused startup Afterparty has raised $4 million from numerous high-profile investors to further develop its NFT ticketing platform. The startup has raised about $7 million in total so far.
Investors included Paris Hilton, Zillow co-founder Spencer Raskoff, Jason Calacanis, NBA star Andre Iguodala, Project Runway executive producer Desri Gruber and Nicole Farb of venture capital firm Headline, as well as Acrew Capital, Blockchange and TenOneTen Ventures.
Afterparty not only sells NFT tickets, but also organizes various events . In March of this year, the startup hosted a global event focused on the music industry and the NFT space. These NFT tickets were sold in the Utopians collection, which was created on the Ethereum blockchain. Model Heidi Klum, actor Josh Duhamel, singer Sia, as well as popular bloggers and tiktokers David Dobrik, Lauren Gray and Bryce Hall became their owners.
Organized by Afterparty, the festival hosted performances by electronic duo The Chainsmokers and rapper The Kid Laroi, Sofi Tukker, Tokimonsta, Bob Moses and others.
Afterparty decided to consolidate its success with the launch of the second NFT collection, which was called Guardians and was created on the Polygon blockchain. The CEO of the startup, David Fields, said in an interview that the second collection will be released in mid-May. He also explained that the switch to another blockchain was due to the fact that it is environmentally friendly and also charges zero transaction fees. Afterparty, he says, should stand out from similar platforms like Stubhub and Ticketmaster, which frustrate users with high transaction fees. In addition, when the first collection was sold, many NFT enthusiasts were unhappy with the company’s choice of blockchain.
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While NFT Utopians and Guardians provide access to relevant events hosted by Afterparty, Fields believes the company will move more towards becoming a dedicated NFT ticketing platform rather than a one-stop event organizer in the future.
“We have adopted the approach of launching our own events to firstly test the model on a large scale and secondly to really build strong relationships… but over time we see ourselves as a marketplace that delivers experiences… and one of which will be concert ticket sales,” Fields said in an interview.
Each NFT Afterparty entitles the owner to ownership of the digital art piece, as well as entry to an upcoming event and other promised benefits. In addition, this NFT provides access to the purchase of tickets for subsequent events organized by Afterparty. Therefore, NFTs also function as presale or “allowlist” passes.
Startup Afterparty recently partnered with MoonPay to offer debit card payments for those without crypto wallets and those who want to pay with fiat for their NFT Guardians.
“A big part of our mission at Afterparty is to give creators the tools to realize their full potential with Web3,” said Fields, agreeing that the owner of their NFT in the future will be able to transfer the token to a cold wallet at any time and do whatever with it. whatever he wants.
“If 99.9% of these creators’ fans don’t have a crypto wallet,” he said, “we are still far from a world where NFTs can really be used to their full potential for creators. And we want to be part of the solution to this problem.”
