Today non-fungible token (NFT) provider GigLabs announced a $4.5m round of funding led by Panoramic Ventures and Dapper Labs, the creator of NBA Top Shot. GigLabs helps brands launch NFTs and already boasts high profile clients such as CNN, Turner Sports, Bleacher Report, and Speedway Motorsports’ RaceDay NFT. Other investors in the round include Collab+Currency, Red Beard Ventures, Eterna Capital, Alumni Venture Group, Gaingels, and Amino Capital.
“At GigLabs, we firmly believe that every brand will have an NFT strategy in the future,” said Douglas Dimola, CEO and co-founder of GigLabs.
The startup has multiple solutions that brands can use to roll out NFTs. Its base offering is NFT Bridge, enabling brands to mint tokens, create a marketplace, and onboard users. Additionally, it has RareRooms, which are in-browser 3D galleries where users can display their collections.
“Sometimes, the magic is making it simple to do something complex. GigLabs takes a transformative technology and makes it accessible to companies, organizations and brands of all sizes,” said Paul Judge, Managing Partner of Panoramic Ventures.
In June, CNN partnered with GigLabs to launch “Vault by CNN: Moments That Changed Us”. Each moment features a CNN video, such as the first space shuttle flight. In that particular case, it sold 250 copies at $100. Someone is trying to re-sell one of them for $570 at the moment. GigLabs uses the Flow blockchain developed by Dapper Labs, and general secondary marketplaces such as OpenSea don’t yet support Flow, but there are multiple Flow dedicated secondary marketplaces such as viv3.
Another GigLabs project launched in September when the company worked with some Nascar speedways to launch NFTs for race days.
Meanwhile, brands are diving into NFTs in a big way. Disney has licensed its IP to VeVe, which also has offerings for Disney subsidiary Marvel (Spiderman), DC Comics (Superman) and James Bond. Fox has partnered with WWE wrestling to launch NFTs alongside the weekly TV show, and ViacomCBS has a deal with the RECUR platform.
