DOVER, Del.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Palm NFT Studio today announced a Series B raise of $27MM led by Microsoft’s venture fund M12, and including Griffin Gaming Partners, RRE, Third Kind Venture Capital, Sfermion, the LAO, Warner Bros., SK Inc. and more. The raise will support the scaling of the Palm NFT Studio team as it continues to be a transformative force across entertainment, fine art, gaming and creative culture.
A key focus will be the ongoing development of Palm NFT Studio’s technology platform which enables the easy development and rollout of large-scale NFT drops on the Palm Network. Today, this technology platform enables Palm NFT Studio to partner with leading creators and brands to power their NFT projects. The funding will enable Palm NFT Studio to offer this platform to any third party who wants to deploy an NFT project at scale, with an emphasis on easy onboarding for new users, regulatory compliance and environmental sustainability.
“Within three years, most NFTs will be given away for free,” offered Dan Heyman, Co-Founder and CEO of Palm NFT Studio. “We will see a shift away from NFTs as exclusive collectibles toward mass community engagement, and Palm NFT Studio is leading that evolution. We envision programs that mint millions of NFTs with utility; social objects that connect communities, drive engagement, and reward true fans. We’re grateful that incredible partners like M12 share that vision.”
“Technological and societal paradigm shifts are ushering in Web3, which will fundamentally change existing technologies and business models. Palm NFT Studio is one of the critical building blocks for this next wave of the web,” said M12 managing director Matthew Goldstein. “Palm NFT Studio has positioned itself as the partner of choice for brands entering the space with a streamlined experience for IP holders and consumers alike, prioritization of a sustainable approach, and world-class technical and creative leadership.”
Palm NFT Studio was brought together by ConsenSys founder and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin; film producer and owner of Heyday Films, David Heyman; founder of world class art services business HENI Group, Joe Hage and Daniel Heyman, formerly co-founder of PegaSys, the protocol engineering group at ConsenSys. It is a collective of technology, entertainment, cryptoart and art industry leaders. The studio provides bespoke strategic, creative and technical services on top of a proprietary platform for brands, IP holders, and creators seeking to build NFT layers into existing and future IPs across movies, games, music and art.
In the eight months since Palm NFT Studio launched, they’ve assembled a high-caliber team and introduced game-changing NFT drops ranging from high concept art projects like Damien Hirst’s The Currency which generated a market cap over $600MM inside of two months, to exploring how NFTs can open new channels for fan engagement and digital storytelling with blockbuster IPs such as Space Jam 2 and DC Comics’ DC FanDome 2021, distributing hundreds of thousands of NFTs for free as rewards for fan engagement – some of the broadest distributions of NFTs to date. Palm NFT Studio further worked with Pace Gallery to launch Pace Verso, an art gallery for Web3 that bridges the fine art and crypto worlds, as well as with Portion to connect crypto artists with collectors.
Palm NFT Studio also assisted in launching the Palm Network, an ethereum sidechain focused on NFTs. Among other projects, Candy Digital’s MLB NFT platform, Nifty’s The Matrix Resurrections program with Warner Bros., and NFTPro are all built on the Palm Network.
The Palm Network is an NFT-optimized sidechain for culture and creativity, built for the open Ethereum ecosystem. The Palm Network offers low gas costs, fast transactions, and a 99.99%+ reduction in energy consumption when compared to Proof of Work systems. The Palm Network currently exists as an Ethereum sidechain that is fully interoperable with the main Ethereum network.