Sotheby’s, Creative Artists Agency & NEA’s Connect Ventures Invest in $20 Million Round for Mojito, an NFT Commerce Suite
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Mojito , a new NFT commerce suite, announced it has raised $20 million in its first funding round with a valuation of $100 million.
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Mojito, a new NFT commerce suite, announced it has raised $20 million in its first funding round with a valuation of $100 million. With strategic investments from Sotheby’s, the world’s premier destination for art and luxury, and Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Mojito is out of stealth and bringing to market an end-to-end commerce suite for selling digital goods. Future Perfect Ventures led the round with additional participation from Moore Strategic Ventures, CMT Digital, Sfermion, and Ancient. Mojito is the first product to spin out of Serotonin, the premier Web3 marketing firm and venture studio.
Demand for digital goods has grown exponentially, largely driven by the popularity of NFTs for digital art and collectibles. In Q3 of 2021, the global NFT market reached $10.7 billion in sales volume. However, the majority of the value from NFT sales has been realized by a concentrated group of crypto artists and collectors, leaving brands and established creators with few options to enter the NFT space in a way that is strategic for their business. Moreover, the largest economic opportunity for digital goods is still largely untapped— a solution for brands and holders of valuable IP to monetize their assets in new, virtual environments, creating ways to engage and reward their most valued customers. As consumers spend more time and money in digital spaces, rights holders can monetize assets as digital goods at a low cost, reaching a global, digitally connected audience with effectively no production or supply chain costs. Mojito is positioned to capture this growing market opportunity and serve as a bridge between the world’s leading brands and the next generation of natively digital consumers.
Mojito’s all-in-one solution is live and being used today to unlock new opportunities to monetize valuable IP and engage users in emergent digital ecosystems. Mojito investor Sotheby’s is using the Mojito technology to power the recently launched Sotheby’s Metaverse, a dedicated marketplace for rare and extraordinary NFTs at Sotheby’s. Through a strategic partnership with Mojito, Sotheby’s became the first auction house and one of the few institutions worldwide to build a dedicated, custom NFT marketplace that will serve as a destination for exclusive NFT drops and auctions, positioning Sotheby’s at the center of some of the most important industry activity.
Charles F. Stewart, Sotheby’s Chief Executive Officer said of Mojito, “Having worked with this team for the last several months, we are excited to partner with Mojito to power the Sotheby’s Metaverse and to create a platform for others to explore the possibilities of NFTs. Sotheby’s is in a unique position to apply our expertise and curatorial insight to the burgeoning world of digitally native art and the Mojito partnership will only expand our capabilities.”
Jim Burtson, President of CAA added: “Through our work in the NFT space, we are seeing increased demand for the exact solution Mojito is bringing to market. We are excited to form a strategic partnership with Mojito, which will enable us to bring greater and more diverse NFT opportunities to our clients.”
Jalak Jobanputra, Founder and General Partner of Future Perfect Ventures, Mojito’s lead investor, stated, “We have been active investors across the crypto and NFT ecosystems since 2014 and are thrilled to partner with Mojito, an experienced team that is building solutions for top brands to create customized, yet open, marketplaces for their most valuable assets”.
The foundation of Mojito’s commerce suite is the Mojito platform, which offers brands more robust capabilities for development flexibility, perpetual royalties, permissioned access, seamless cryptocurrency management, security, and most importantly, creative license over their marketplace. The platform is optimized to interoperate with apps built on Ethereum and EVM-compatible technologies so that Mojito partners’ assets and users are not locked onto isolated, centralized networks. This connectivity enables Mojito customers to access emergent Web3 innovations like decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and open-source ecosystems across the Metaverse.
Mojito was created by Serotonin Co-Founders Amanda Cassatt and Matthew Iles, and Serotonin Head of Technology, Dan Kinsley. Kinsley will lead Mojito as CEO, along with a team of blockchain engineers and product builders with decades of combined experience at Facebook, ConsenSys, General Assembly, and Bridgewater. Mojito CEO Dan Kinsley stated, “Mojito is unlocking the ability for IP of any kind to be brought into the Metaverse, which is what we believe will be the next evolution of the internet. We are thrilled to have the support of investors who recognize the momentous opportunity for artists, celebrities, athletes, and brands to engage their audience in meaningful new ways with our technology.”
The Mojito team will leverage its funding to build out a regulatory compliant commerce suite that combines cutting-edge Web3 technology with customizable APIs and SDKs, enabling any brand to easily plug into the Mojito suite to bring their most valuable IP to a new audience of digital consumers.
For more information, please visit Mojito.xyz and follow @mojito_nft on Twitter.
About Sotheby’s
Established in 1744, Sotheby’s is the world’s premier destination for art and luxury. Sotheby’s promotes access, connoisseurship and preservation of fine art and rare objects through auctions and buy-now channels including private sales, e-commerce and retail. Our trusted global marketplace is supported by an industry-leading technology platform and a network of specialists spanning 40 countries and 50 categories, which include Contemporary Art, Modern and Impressionist Art, Old Masters, Chinese Works of Art, Jewelry, Watches, Wine and Spirits, and Interiors, among many others.
About Connect Ventures
Connect Ventures is an investment partnership between leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Launched in 2020 to accelerate the growth of early-stage consumer-focused businesses, Connect Ventures draws on CAA’s resources, relationships, and expertise spanning the global entertainment and sports landscape and the deep domain and company building expertise of NEA’s world-class technology practice. The partnership’s investments include Spire Animation, FightCamp, Blacktag, Unless, OpenSea, and Mojito, among others.
About Serotonin
Serotonin is the premier Web3 marketing firm and product studio. For more information, visit Serotonin.co.
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