Greenfield One is leading a $14 million Series A funding of blockchain fashion house The Fabricant. The financing includes Sound Ventures, founded by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, best known as Madonna’s manager and as the dealmaker for Yuga Labs of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT fame. The Sandbox COO Sebastian Borget participated as an angel investor.
Netherlands-based The Fabricant started by creating 3D digital clothing designs with clients such as Adidas. It moved into the blockchain, NFT and metaverse space in the last couple of years. For example, it partnered with Vogue and Diesel for NFTs.
But it doesn’t simply want to create the avatar designerwear and become the next web3 Gucci. Instead, The Fabricant aims to empower others and, in true web3 ethos, to create a decentralized fashion house. It created The Fabricant Studio as a platform where designers can co-create and sell their outfits.
The financial potential is significant. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that by 2030 luxury goods in the metaverse could boast revenues of €50 billion ($60bn). Without the costs of physical production and distribution, the profit margins are very attractive. The Fabricant reckons there will be 100 million people to dress in the metaverse by 2025.
“Everyday users become creators using The Fabricant Studio, which allows users to craft high-end digital fashion NFTs in collaboration with their favorite brands,” said Maaria Bajwa, Investor at Sound Ventures.
She continued, “The Fabricant is building a very user-friendly end-to-end experience that obfuscates the complexities of blockchains, while still giving users all of the sovereignty + interoperability + distribution value that NFTs can offer. By being the first to tackle UGC (user generated content) on the blockchain, The Fabricant is introducing entire new ecosystems to this community and showing them the power and value of NFTs for creators.”
A long list of fashion brands are exploring NFTs and the metaverse, including Nike, Adidas, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, and Jimmy Choo.
