NFT-backed loan startup Unlockd closes $4.4 million seed round

Unlockd, a decentralized protocol offering cross-chain NFT liquidity, has raised $4.4 million in a seed funding round led by Blockchain Capital.

Angel investors including Spartan Group, Play Ventures, IDEO CoLab, Bitscale, Eden Ventures, Crypto Plaza, Sfermion, and YGG founder Gabby Dizon participated in the funding round, according to a Thursday announcement. Although Unlockd declined to share its valuation, it said the capital injection will be used for cross-chain expansion, product development, marketing and a tier 1 auditor to study the security of the protocol. The company is the brainchild of Jorge Schnura and Carlos Otermin, founder of esports club MAD Lions. Founded earlier this year, Unlockd provides a pooled liquidity model that allows NFT holders to borrow without losing access to their digital collections. Speaking to reporters, Schnura stated that his company will initially focus on supporting gaming guilds, many of which are involved in the project. He said The other use case for guilds is that they pre-purchase assets for games that have not yet been released. These assets are non-productive assets. They are just buying them at a discount. The good thing about this is that you can now borrow against them, so you get liquidity from these assets and now suddenly they become productive assets. Meanwhile Unlockd is already in beta on a test network. The protocol is currently undergoing auditing and is scheduled to be rolled out on the main network in October. In the first phase of rollout, the protocol will support over 25 Ethereum-based NFT collections.   Source: btcpeers.com