Car manufacturer McLaren Automotive has chosen InfiniteWorld as its official metaverse partner. The collaboration will launch a non-fungible token (NFT) collection based on McLaren’s luxury cars.
InfiniteWorld provides NFT and metaverse infrastructure to help brands build a virtual ecosystem to engage with consumers and further expand their digital presence. It is part of the SUKU Ecosystem, which works as a collection of Web3 tools targeted at brands looking to use blockchain to enhance the delivery of their products and services.
Last year InfiniteWorld announced an agreement to merge with Aries 1, a listed special acquisition company (SPAC), with the deal expected to conclude in the third quarter.
There must be many deals that the company can’t disclose because it had an estimated $1 million in revenues in 2021 and is predicting a $700 million post-money valuation after the SPAC merger. Even in the cryptocurrency sector, that looks ambitious.
A presentation filed with the SEC lists some big brand logos under the title of ‘pipeline of over 3,000 potential clients’. However, in terms of actual clients, it looks like McLaren might be one of the first brands it can reveal. Last year it partnered with NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie to link a shoe NFT to the physical product.
An area that might have attracted McLaren is InfiniteWorld’s advanced computer generated imagery (CGI) skills. The company has a variety of tools for digital product creation as well as augmented and virtual reality. In addition to minting NFTs and an NFT marketplace it has social and gamification tools. The SUKU divisions include physical asset provenance – which is how SUKU started – as well as decentralized finance tools.
While this is McLaren Automotive’s first go at NFTs, its Formula 1 team McLaren Racing has extensive experience in the industry. The team launched an NFT collection with blockchain Tezos, one of its sponsors, and had a fan token and sponsorship deal with Bitci. The relationship with Bitci was terminated last month but the deal with Tezos is going strong and more NFT drops are in the works.
Although McLaren already has a deal with Tezos, that’s with McLaren Racing, a separate subsidiary of the group. On the surface, there appears to be a good overlap between the target audience for luxury futuristic-looking cars and NFTs: young and wealthy men looking to keep up with the latest trends. But given the cachet of the brand, it will doubtless be quite selective about design. And having endured the negative Bitci experience, we expect McLaren might have spent some time going through due diligence.
Meanwhile, Red Bull racing signed a $150 million sponsorship deal with crypto exchange Bybit, Scuderia Ferrari partnered with Velas blockchain, and Lamborghini launched an NFT linked to space exploration.
