Hong Kong NFT firm Artifact Labs raises US$3.25 mln in seed round

Artifact Labs, a Hong Kong-based non-fungible token ($NFT) company, announced on Monday that it raised US$3.25 million in its seed financing round led by Blue Pool Capital and Animoca Ventures.

See related article: NFTs may become the “Lego blocks” of Web3 in 2023, Gary Liu says

Fast facts

• Artifact, a spinoff of Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP), said in a statement that it would use the funds to expand operations with a primary focus on increasing its technical headcount.
• “It’s not about creating new [intellectual properties] for speculation — for example $NFT hype projects — it’s about driving new engagement with historically significant collections by using Web3,” said Phillip Pon, chief executive officer of Artifact Labs. “We want to carve new space in the younger public’s consciousness for historical brands and artifacts.”
• Artifact added that it plans to release $NFT collections as a revenue stream for preservation organizations.
• Gary Liu, founder of Artifact Labs and a former CEO of the SCMP, said in an interview last December that NFTs must possess inherent value beyond being endorsed by a group of people.
• “There has to be intrinsic value in the asset itself or the underlying asset that it represents. That’s what is going to drive $NFT innovation,” said Liu.
• In February, the $NFT startup partnered with RMS Titanic Inc, an organization that displays the wreckage of the famous sunken ship, to mint NFTs based on about 5,500 physical artifacts that were recovered from the ship.

See related article: Owning a piece of history: How NFTs can help maintain our collective memory