An oversubscribed funding round has netted the Mintable nonfungible token (NFT) minting platform and marketplace a cool $13 million.
The Series A funding round for the Singapore-based startup included some big name participants including Ripple, mobile and blockchain gaming developer Animoca Brands, and Metapurse, the world’s largest NFT investment fund.
Ripple put out an announcement stating that Mintable plans to integrate the firm’s own blockchain, XRP Ledger (XRPL) which it says is already carbon neutral and is “ideally suited to deliver a seamless experience for NFTs”.
"Its environmentally friendly attributes will allow billions of NFTs to be minted, bought and transferred on the XRPL in a sustainable way."
Mintable, which is currently an Ethereum-based platform, is among a number of crypto-related investments in Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s burgeoning portfolio. The billionaire investor previously participated in Mintable’s $2.5 million seed round in March.
The platform, which was launched in 2018, has minted more than 700,000 items over the past year enabling the establishment of a growing catalog of unique items, such as digital art, music, collectibles, and gaming items.
Mintable has sold and auctioned works by various Grammy-Award winning artists and high-profile artists, celebrities, and sports professionals and implemented a unique gas-free minting feature that allows users to create their NFTs without being burdened by high network fees.
In an announcement on July 1, Mintable stated that it will use the funds to focus on scaling its operations and boosting its growth and user acquisition initiatives.
General Manager of RippleX at Ripple, Monica Long, stated it had invested in Mintable due to a shared vision for cost-efficient and sustainable NFTs:
“Accelerating the growth of this creator economy starts with an infrastructure that removes the barriers to entry — such as high gas fees and environmental costs of creating NFTs — faced by many today.”
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In late April, NFL Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence sold a NFT collection on the platform for over $400,000. In March, a NFT representing a 50% share in a St Louis home was put up for auction on the Mintable platform.