Quick take:
- The second seed funding round was led by Sfermion, Solana Ventures, Animoca Brands and Non-Fungible Labs.
- As part of the funding round, the platform has hired former YouTube VR executive Scott Broock as chief strategy officer.
- DNABlock plans to launch an NFT creator studio in LA.
Web3 avatar and 3D animation platform DNABlock has raised $7 million in a second seed funding round led by Sfermion, Solana Ventures, Animoca Brands and Non-Fungible Labs.
Other participants in the funding round include SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, LD Capital, Haobo Zhao, CMT Digital, Gaingels, RareBreed, Alumni Ventures, Diverse Angels, Fenwick and West, Figure 8 Investments and Bill Silva.
This second funding round follows its $1.2 million fundraise in September for its 3D virtual production platform named ‘Replikant’. Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Spacecadet Ventures were investors.
Borne out of a love for gaming and storytelling and the belief that “creativity shouldn’t require a phD level of understanding of animation,” as stated by co-founder Anthony Kelani, Replikant’s technology allows creators to design and mint fully customisable NFT collections of photorealistic 3D avatars, environments and cinema-quality animated content with no code or animation knowledge.
Creators can create any type of original character, customise it on Replikant’s library of clothing and props, and render animated content directly from the platform.
“We want people to feel something when they see their characters and NFTs come to life through Replikant,” DNABlock co-founder and CEO Anthony Kelani said in a statement. “I’m particularly excited that this will surface a new generation of stars from a much more diverse roster of creatives than we’ve seen from legacy media.”
As part of the latest funding round, DNABlock has hired Scott Broock, a former VR executive at Youtube and EVP of digital strategy at animation studio, Illumination, as chief strategy officer. Broock follows a number of new hires with Web2 backgrounds who have joined Web3 platforms over the last month.
DNABlock is planning to launch a creator studio in LA to nurture talents in the NFT space. The company has worked with TV networks such as FOX TV and Apple TV+ on projects.
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