Public pressure reveals $6 million raise after first NFT sale
Photo credit: Markus WinklerDays after revealing that the first NFT project had generated $2 million, “Web3 music specialist” Public Pressure has formally announced a $6 million funding round.
London-headquartered Public Pressure, which arrived on site in its current form four months ago, revealed the multi-million dollar raise this morning. Prior to its debut at the Web3 arena in August of this year, Public Pressure had rolled out in 2015 “as an online community and magazine dedicated to giving a voice to emerging artists and labels,” according to higher-ups.
Now, in bringing this original vision to the Web3 space and the modern music landscape, Public Press says it is working “to strengthen the artist/fan relationship while creating new revenue streams for creators and the wider music industry.”
Scytale Ventures, a self-described “digital asset manager focused on blockchain solutions,” led Public Pressure’s $6 million round, which also received backing from Ethereum and Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood, Energy Web founder Ed Hesse, Web3 and crypto investment firm Matterblock, and Munich-based VC HV Capital, per the business.
(Public Pressure was built on Polkadot, which is said to boast “the lowest total electricity consumption and carbon emissions per year of the six proof-of-stake (POS) blockchains” and to have been designed specifically “to support the transition of music to Web3 .”)
Going forward, Public Pressure – which says it has offices in the US, Europe and Hong Kong – intends to continue to expand and pursue its overall music-related goals. And in a statement, Scytale founder and CIO Mark Cachia touted Web3’s perceived long-term importance to artists.
“We believe that music and artists will be one of the industries that will benefit the most from Web3,” said the former head of Erste Group, Cachia. “Public Pressure is the first music project on Polkadot, and this kind of forward thinking gives us confidence that the team at Public Pressure is best positioned to execute a win-win strategy for artists and also investors.”
In a separate statement, Public Pressure founder and president Sergio Mottola, who is also a founding partner at Milan’s Twelve Ventures, said in part: “Web 3 is about creating a fairer internet where the user owns their data and their identity. For us, it’s about about creating a fairer music industry where artists control the relationship with their fans and oversee the distribution of their products.”
Earlier this year, Web3 music creation startup Arpeggi Labs announced a $5.1 million raise, while Web3 platform Reveel disclosed $1.3 million in pre-funding. Meanwhile, Warner Music has continued to lean particularly hard into Web3, including by launching Probably A Label and overhauling Spinnin’ Records “to stay ahead of the industry curve.”
