Koop launches with $5 million in funding to tap into NFT fandom
The NFT-powered protocol Koop launches on Thursday with the aim of turning consumers into creators, backed by $5 million from investors including 1confirmation, Variant Fund and Balaji Srinivasan.
Founded by 21-year-old university dropout Natalia Murillo, Koop’s software allows projects to sell NFT collectibles, facilitating the building of communities centered on everything from open source software to ice cream brands. Instead of consumers interacting with products through one-sided subscriptions, Murillo said Koop’s technology enables them to become active participants in companies.
“Audiences want to feel engaged in this digital environment,” Murillo said Fortune. “Crypto offers the development of involvement, commitment and more specifically status in a community.”
Crypto, it is often repeated, is a solution in search of a problem. As the sector continues to search for a use case that finds traction with the general public, advocates point to fandom as an opportunity. Imagine if early boosters off Harry Potter received a NFT along with a copy of the philosopher’s Stone, for example. They would not only be happy readers, but potentially well-compensated investors should their collectibles increase in value.
Web3’s shift to NFT-focused communities has proven lucrative, even amid the crypto industry’s downturn. One of the investors in Koop’s launch is Variant, an early-stage crypto-focused fund that announced it had raised $450 million for a third fund in July to focus on the “user-owned web.” In an interview with FortuneVariant co-founder Li Jin described Web2 as “digital feudalism” and Web3 as “digital capitalism”, where users can participate as owners of content they consume.
Early traction
In two months of private beta, Koop says it has $850 million in volume with 50 active communities averaging 500 participants. Murillo highlighted one project using Koop, Tweak Labs, where users can create NFTs to participate in a mental health awareness-focused metaverse space.
“The mission is, ‘I’m an anxious person, I’m a lonely person, I don’t have a place to belong, and I’ve bought into this community,'” she said. “We will now use these funds to drive change together on a problem that we share together.”
Murillo said she drew on her own background as a first-generation American of Argentine immigrants, dropping out of the University of Southern California both because of the cost and her interest in crypto, which also offered another form of innovation and wealth. as an alternative route to collaboration with peers.
“Crypto has always been about creating niche countercultures,” she shared Fortune, points to the ConstitutionDAO project as an example of how crypto is influencing community building.
Nick Tomaino, an early Coinbase employee and the founder of investment firm 1confirmation, described Koop as a tool that will make Web3 accessible to even non-crypto natives.
“It won’t be Supreme putting up a Koop,” he said. “The next Supreme will be born out of a Koop.”
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