One Wakefield startup is on a mission to make the world of non-fungible token trading accessible to everyone.
Beasy LLC's technology platform allows anyone to develop, mint, sell and buy NFTs without ever purchasing cryptocurrency. The process can take place on the creator’s website, Shopify or across popular marketplaces. The startup’s platform has attracted the attention of investors like the Boston-based Cosimo Ventures, which led a seed round investment into Beasy in late February.
“What’s so exciting about Beasy, and the reason we invested, is because what they’re doing is they’re taking NFTs and this whole digital rights management to that whole new group of people who quite frankly can’t understand it, but know the power of it,” Rob Frasca, managing partner of Cosimo Ventures, told BostInno.
Beasy and Cosimo declined to share the size of the round.
Beasy was founded in 2018 by CEO Bob Kramich, who worked on Salesforce’s first blockchain app; Enrique Garzas, who led blockchain design and architecture for Santander Bank; and Nick Jacobs, who helped revamp TD Bank's online lending platform for small businesses.
Kramich said the company was built to enable anyone to become a content creator or trader in this "new economy."
“We’re giving them the ability now, should they want to do that, to authenticate their own assets and manage and sell and trade their IP,” Kramich said.
He said the company’s platform has minted a few hundred NFTs thus far and has partnerships with Tykes, Inc, the Recording Artist Guild and ToldRight. He also teased some upcoming announcements about partnerships with universities.
The company’s revenue will come from transaction fees from users minting and selling NFTs, which they can pay for with a credit card or similar payment options.
Frasca said he sees these new blockchain technologies as the next step in the web’s decentralization. First came the decentralization of information and content, Frasca said, then communication and commerce. He sees blockchain decentralizing financial trust and providing an alternative for traditional financial transactions, like those through banks and real estate brokers.
“We have a fund called Cosimo X, and what we do is, we believe as a group of serial entrepreneurs and investors, that this is the single largest value creation event in our life,” Frasca said. “And it’s just the first inning.”
Cosimo Ventures invests in blockchain projects through what it calls the world’s first tokenized, evergreen venture fund. Frasca likened the fund to tradeable digital shares, meaning that people around the world can buy into the deal and the shares can be traded.
Beasy plans to use this funding to grow its engineering staff and technology capabilities.
“We’ve been around for a while, and we’re passionate people about this,” Kramich said. “And this is such a massive market. We’re going to help a lot of people.”
