YC’s Summer ‘22 NFT Deals
Welcome to part two of our ongoing series covering Y-Combinator’s Summer 2022 cohort. We will be focusing our attention today on the freshly-backed startups in the cohort who have raised money for NFT ideas and implementations.
NFTs have grown in popularity during the most recent market cycle, evolving from mere digital collectibles to now enable a multitude of innovative business models: from unique digital asset identifiers to representing ownership for digital assets; from tracking the provenance of digital assets to creating digital scarcity; and much more.
Below, we dive into five emerging companies ingrained in the nascent NFT market:
Founded: 2022
Team Size: 3
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Supported Chains: Bitcoin, Ethereum (and various L2s), Stellar, Polygon, and more
Tags: NFT, Payments, Fintech
Rio believes crypto can potentially bring millions of under-banked, under-represented populations into the web3 economy. They aim to accelerate this transition by making crypto more available to the masses by letting users buy and sell crypto using cash, card or bank transfer.
Their aggregation services are already available in 180+ countries. Rio registers with all regional authorities and by using local infrastructure, can offer better prices and more convenient payment options; all while remaining fully regulated.
Founded: 2022
Team Size: 4
Location: Undisclosed
Supported Chains: Ethereum
Tags: NFT, Marketplace
Currently in private beta.
Supercool aims to be an NFT mint marketplace that will let users discover new NFT projects and mint those NFTs securely from a simple user interface. “Securely” is the key word in that last sentence, with Supercool running security checks and transaction simulations on NFT contracts to ensure users have maximum protection when minting.
The three main types of security provided are:
Risk-free NFT minting: Be certain you’re getting the tokens you expect, and don’t lose gas if your mint fails.
Automated security checks: Scan the NFT contract for security information and possible vulnerabilities.
Surface social signals/social security checks: See who deployed the contract and who is minting it.
Users will be able to safely mint NFTs directly on Supercool’s website or browser plug-in.
Founded: 2022
Team Size: 2
Location: Los Angeles, California
Supported Chains: Ethereum (and various L2s), Polygon, Avalanche and BNB Smart Chain (all contracts create ERC-721A and ERC-1155 compliant tokens)
Tags: NFT, Creator Economy
Mintplex is aiming to provide an ecosystem of tools to help allow creators, developers, and communities launch and grow their NFT projects without code.
On OpenSea or Rarible, an NFT is minted under a marketplace smart contract and usually cannot be traded on any other marketplace. Mintplex aims to fix this by allowing NFTs to be minted on its own smart contract, so it can be traded or sent anywhere.
Mintplex has currently netted over $3.2M for creators on the network, along with launching over 850 communities. They mention that “we only make money when you do”, by setting themselves as a payable address in the contract for 5% of the contract balance once withdrawn; the remaining 95% goes to the creator.
Founded: 2022
Team Size: 2
Location: New York, New York
Supported Chains: Ethereum
Tags: NFT, Creator Economy, Marketplace, Consumer
the402 aims to help creators monetize their super fans through livestreams and NFTs.
They do this by:
Creating an NFT access pass for a livestream OR using existing NFTs to gate the livestream
The created NFT is liquid with dynamic pricing, which allows enables a secondary market to be created around the streaming event
Fans can purchase an NFT either with crypto or a credit card
Once the livestream starts, those who hold the particular NFT have access to the livestream and can interact with the creator and chatroom
the402 is still fairly early in their development and we are looking forward to more information being released moving forward.
Founded: 2021
Team Size: 3
Location: Houston, Texas
Supported Chains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Litecoin, Polygon, Cardano, and Binance Smart Chain
Tags: NFT, Consumer
Lyra allows users to easily create cards and fund them with cryptocurrency.
The use of Lyra is completely free; they earn by sharing the revenue that the card merchants earn.
Lyra lets users buy items and checkout on over 10,000 supported sites including: Doordash, AirBnB, Netflix, Instacart, Walmart, Etsy and many more. A simple chrome extension lets your card details be autofilled for easy access across Web2 platforms.
Conclusion
NFTs have gone from being considered a niche market in 2017 with the birth of Crypto Kitties and Crypto Punks to going mainstream in 2021 with $24.9B (yes, billion) in total NFT sales volume for the year. It is clear that there is a seismic shift happening in the NFT arena as consumers move away from profile pictures (PFPs) and into utility, security, and accessibility for all.
We look forward to covering more early-stage crypto companies as they continue raising capital throughout this bear market; if you enjoyed our coverage, please consider subscribing to our Crypto Chemistry podcast and weekly newsletter.