NFT’s March into the Spotlight – Los Angeles Business Journal

Non-fungible tokens have become a hot commodity and are now making their way into the Hollywood entertainment industry.

Invisible Universe, an animation studio based in El Segundo, announced last week that it had raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by tech entrepreneur and investor Alexis

Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. Prominent digital media investors who joined Ohanian, known for co-founding Reddit, include Cosmic Venture Partners, Dapper Labs, Franklin Templeton, Gaingels, Initialized Capital, Schusterman Family Investments, Wheelhouse and 75 & Sunny.

The new funding will help the company expand its footprint into new platforms, monetize its existing franchises and launch new animated intellectual property (IP) across social media and Web3.

Invisible Universe is an internet-first animation studio, meaning it develops and debuts original animated IP on social media.

“Our belief is that the next generation’s favorite animated franchises will be born on the internet and will likely be introduced to them on the apps they are most likely and most used on their phones every day,” said Tricia Biggio, CEO of Invisible Univers. “And then we distribute our content across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and really think about incubating IP in an Internet-first way where you can iterate in near real-time with the audience.”

Celebrity partners

Invisible Universe works in partnership with celebrities and influencers including Serena Williams, Jennifer Aniston and the D’Amelio family to develop and promote their creations.

Qai Qai is a character developed in collaboration with Williams based on her daughter Olympia’s favorite doll. The character’s TikTok, YouTube and Instagram accounts have more than 4 million followers combined. Since its launch, Qai Qai has become a best-selling doll on Amazon, partnered with Adobe to create a coloring book in honor of International Daughter’s Day, and teamed up with children’s social media platform Zigazoo on two lines of digital collectibles for Zigazoo followers on the app.

Recently, Invisible Universe launched a YouTube channel for the character and has produced several short videos for the platform. The company is also launching a children’s book by Williams called “The Adventures of Qai Qai.”

“For us, (internet first) means that before we think about publishing or a show on a streamer, we first use platforms available to us on Web2, and now with Web3, to incubate IP… we don’t wait for for a studio to greenlight a season or tell us what our budget might be, but rather, we’re really saying, let’s look at our suite of IP as if we’re a tech company putting out (a minimum viable product) and every character franchise really is,” Biggio explained. “We incubate quickly and we listen to audience feedback and we iterate in real time and are able to double down on the things that really work and kind of scale back or back away from the things that might not land as well.”

Invisible Universe monetizes YouTube and Web3 analytics. A representative for the company declined to discuss revenue or other financial numbers, including how much the company earns from YouTube subscribers.

“Beyond that, we’re thinking about licensing the IP, and it could be to the streamers. We can sell long-form TV shows, we can eventually make movies and games and podcasts and other audio experiences,” Biggio said. “We’re really looking in that social media is where we start it. That will remain the focus, but when we’ve done our job right, you’ll see our characters across the shelves of your local Target, and you’ll see them on the shelves at Barnes & Noble.”

Changing times

While some see non-fungible tokens as a temporary fad, several high-profile individuals and companies in the entertainment industry want to ride the popularity and take advantage of the potential new revenue stream.

Fox Entertainment has been one of the biggest media companies to move into the blockchain space. Last June, animation studio Bento Box Entertainment created North Hollywood-based Blockchain Creative Labs and launched a $100 million creator fund.

Last October, Fox Entertainment debuted its own NFT marketplace, which it calls The MaskVerse, which allows users to buy, sell or trade tokens. Fox’s blockchain company issued 10,000 “Miss Masky” NFTs, based on the reality show “The Masked Singer.”

Through her blockchain entertainment company Sixth Wall, actress Mila Kunis has invested in downtown animation company Toonstar’s “The Gimmicks,” a series that gives NFT holders the opportunity to vote on the story.

Launching early this fall, Invisible Universe’s “The R3al Metaverse” is a community-driven project that allows NFT holders to influence the storytelling of the animated series, which parodies reality TV shows and features animated characters inspired by recognizable NFT projects like for example. such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats and Robotos.

Internet in development

Many people in and outside of show business are still wrapping their minds around the technology, which has gained skepticism about crypto’s turbulent time in the market. However, it is believed that NFTs are here to stay for Web3.

Christopher Smith, a clinical professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, said that as social media and content streaming have reached maturity, the mission in a capitalist society is to figure out what’s next.

“Web3 is a work in progress. It is not here yet; It’s not fully functional, but all these venture capitalists, the established platform companies, don’t want to lose their dominance,” Smith said. “So you have the venture capitalists funding future visions with platform companies that are already dominant, and a whole new generation of startups all trying to get a position in what’s going to drive growth.”

He added that the whole idea of ​​NFTs is that it is a digital entity where the holders have a certain set of property rights, including the ability to resell or make money from future collection of that item.

“NFTs are largely built on the promise of the blockchain giving people an ownership position in the future of the internet,” Smith said. “It’s a very promising proposition.”
The road to NFTs becoming mainstream is difficult, but not impossible.

“I would say what you’ll see is, probably regardless of what the broader economic climate is, whether it’s recession or it’s going back to a full-blown growth phase, it’s probably going to take, I would estimate, over the next five years for for a crypto-powered, blockchain-built entertainment ecosystem to become bona fide,” Smith explained. “It’s going to take some time, and it’s going to take some simplification.”

He said that Web3 and NFTs have not reached the level of simplification necessary for the average person to understand what is in it for them.

“The opportunity for NFTs is two-fold. It’s the immediate opportunity for the huge media and entertainment conglomerates who already have a treasure trove of IP … that they can render into NFT collection formats and use as marketing tools and as promotional tools and outreach tools for their fans,” Smith said. “They’ve already seen with games, ecosystems like Fortnite and Roblox that these avatars and skins that users and fans collect generate a lot of revenue.”

The other layer, Smith said, lies with startup entertainment companies like Invisible Universe, which create socially driven IP that generate new characters that “a whole new generation of fans care about and participate in.” These companies are representative of the idea that Web3 is going to be “a much more democratized space” with room for new players to get involved.

“I think what blockchain technology has introduced to consumers is something that’s not going to go away. Even though street prices are lower than they were six, seven months ago, I don’t think the fundamental consumer behavior is going to change around that, said Biggio. “I think what we’ve seen and unlocked in Web3 is this real collaborative process that’s changing the paradigms around ownership, around what it means to participate in a community and really about what it means to incubate IP.”