Rain Johanson, Taivo Pungas, Kaspar Peterson, Johannes Tammekänd, Sten Tamkivi
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NFT infrastructure platform NFTPort raises $26m
Estonia-based start-up NFTPort has attracted several notable blockchain investors to further develop its infrastructure proposition.
As the NFT space shows no signs of cooling down anytime soon, Estonian firm NFTPort has raised $26m in a Series A funding round.
The company offers an infrastructure platform aimed at NFT developers, which it claims is used by 30,000 developer teams including companies such as Nifty Gateway and Protocol Labs.
NFTs were recently found to be the most popular category for blockchain start-ups, with $2.4bn raised in the first three months of 2022, representing more than a quarter (26 per cent) of total blockchain funding according to research from CB Insights.
NFTPort said it will use the capital to scale its core product and to bring a decentralized NFT infrastructure protocol to market, as well as to develop its existing infrastructure.
The round included several notable backers including former Coinbase chief technology officer (CTO) Balaji Srinivasan and Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani.
The investment round was co-led by Taavet+Sten, the investment vehicle of Estonian entrepreneurs Taavet Hinrikus and Sten Tamkivi, and Atomico, as well as Filecoin creator Protocol Labs, Sparkle Ventures, IDEO CoLab Ventures, former Twilio CTO, Ott Kaukver, and Polkadot co-founder Jutta Steiner.
Sten is set to join NFTPort’s team as a co-founder, as well as Rain Johanson, former CTO of Bolt, who joins the company as CTO and co-founder.
NFTPort CEO and co-founder Johannes Tammekänd claims the firm’s platform can provide an alternative to hiring expensive and in-demand developers with blockchain experience or upskilling their existing workforce.
“Managing constantly evolving blockchain technology quickly becomes a multi-million dollar problem for most companies wishing to build their own NFT infrastructure; like accepting payments online pre-Stripe or building a tech-based product pre-cloud,” NFTPort CEO and co-founder Johannes Tammekänd said.
Tammekänd said he believes that pre-existing supply-side issues within the NFT space are only set to increase as the use of the technology moves beyond simply trading images.
“Our infrastructure enables developers and companies to bring to market their NFT applications in hours or days, instead of months and thus save hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Tammekänd added.
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