Curio, a platform for brands and content owners to create digital fan experiences and collectibles, today announced the closing of $1.2 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Future Perfect Ventures, with participation from A195 Capital, LongHash Ventures, Moonwhale Ventures, and several others including media veteran Rich Battista, former CEO of Time Inc and former Fox Entertainment executive.
Funding comes on the heels of Curio’s collaboration with Fremantle, who utilized Curio’s platform to create digital collectibles for fans of the hit show, American Gods. Digital collectibles for the main characters of the show sold out shortly after their release.
Use of Funds
The Curio team plans to utilize the capital to expand its team and operations, and further develop its proprietary technology and partner integrations that enable fans to engage in a more modern way around the content and entertainment brands they love.
As a part of the investment, Curio will also accelerate its integration with Filecoin and Polygon (formerly Matic) to enhance the functionality of the platform for entertainment brands interested in creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
“Curio enables media brands to connect with fans seamlessly and instantly leveraging Polygon’s production-ready transactions; this will bring value to the whole NFT ecosystem on Polygon.”
– Sandeep Nailwal, COO and Co-Founder, Polygon
Curio enables brands to modernize how they engage with fans and develop emotional connections that digital natives covet. Brands and owners of content can now easily license and monetize limited edition, rare, and exclusive digital assets based on their owned IP, so that fans can share and interact in new ways with the content and characters they love.
The Curio team consists of veterans with exits from leaders in entertainment, technology, and blockchain. Their expertise combines involvement with entertainment organizations such as Disney, Universal Pictures, and Universal Music Group, alongside a strong basis in fintech, blockchain, and technology with companies such as Openfinance, Deloitte, Google, and Yahoo.
“Curio is on a mission to usher in the future of fandom, providing deeper emotional connections with their biggest fans. The modern fan expects to be able to do more with the things they love. We enable engaged digital natives to own a piece of the action wherever they go, in a manner that is certified and authentic.”
– Juan M. Hernandez, CEO of Curio