Music Web3 startup Highlight raises $11m from backers including Three Six Zero, WME

A new US-based web3 startup called Highlight has raised $11 million in funding from a list of major investors in the music industry.

Highlight aims to allow anyone to obtain a non-fungible token (NFT) with prior technical expertise.

Among Highlight’s new backers are WME, Method Music, Mark Gillespie (Three Six Zero) and Chris Zarou (Visionary Music).

Led by Haun Ventures, Highlight’s other named investors in the seed round include 1kx, A.Capital, SciFi VC, Floodgate, Thirty Five Ventures (“35V”), Offline Ventures, DAOJones, Mischief, Polygon Studios, Coinbase Ventures, Scott Belsky, Tarun Chitra, Robert Leshner, Lenny Rachitsky, Gokul Rajaram and Linda Xie.

In a blog post announcing the launch and seed round, Mark claim became “the product of hundreds of conversations with mainstream creators, music artists and brands, many of whom are excited about Web3 but remain at a distance for fear of technical complexity.” or fan disappointment.

The company further claims that launching a project on its platform, “from implementing your custom smart contract to posting tokenized content or widgets”, takes less than five minutes. and requires no technical knowledge.

The Highlight team’s experience ranges from roles at Square, InstagramDoorDash, Dapper Labs and Amazon.

In Highlight’s blog post, the company states, “We designed Highlight to make the introduction 100% comprehensive for users without a crypto experience. This required some initial trade-offs, including a credit card payment for the initial token sale.

“At the same time, we have built a system that allows for fully compatible, unmanaged EVM wallets; creator origin and scalability on smart contracts; and native interoperability for all major NFT markets. ”

“Highlight was designed from the ground up to be the most effective medium for any fandom or subculture to gain meaningful web3 ownership.”

Nathaniel Emodi, Featured

In a LinkedIn upload Announcement of Platform Launch and Seed Funding Round, Highlight Co-Founder & CEO, and Former DoorDash CEO, Nathaniel Emodi, said: “Since leaving DoorDash last year, I’ve been working with an incredibly talented team on something new in web3.

“I’m excited to announce that today we’re launching Highlight (highlight.xyz), an end-to-end toolkit for you to bring web3 community memberships and rewards to your fan base. your grave, no cryptocurrency experience required.

Emodi added: “Highlight was designed from the ground up to be the most effective medium for any fandom or subculture for meaningful web3 ownership. We started Highlight because we believe that digital ownership, powered by blockchains, is the most obvious way to improve the way the creative industries work for both creators and fans. tomb.

“The highlight is the product of [hundreds] of the [conversations] with hit musicians, artists, creators and brands, most of whom are attracted to web3 but still at a distance because of their own technical obstacles, developer costs or risk disappointing fans.

“In addition to gas-free transactions, we have the tools to create a beautifully custom-designed home for your token holders, with rich integrations that provide real convenience in relation to your tokens. procedures + controlled access.”

Elsewhere in the NFT space, LimeWire, a recent former file sharing platform relaunched as a digital collectibles marketplaceand started its first major brand partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG). The deal follows news that LimeWire has raised $10.4 million in a private sale of its LMWR token.

Meanwhile, NFT marketplace Serenade raised $4.2 million last week, and announced plans to expand to the US.

Worldwide music business