Can a new non-fungible token (NFT) platform finally solve the problem of royalties from the entire ecosystem?
The NFT Recur platform announced on Thursday a $ 5 million seed round led by DeFi Alliance, Delphi Digital, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, and Gemini, among others.
The increase claims a number of notable superlatives, including industry veteran Gary Vaynerch’s first seed investment in the NFT ecosystem, as well as the largest seed round ever for an NFT project (Dapper Labs raised many more money during his fundraising three-year history fund, but mainly in the Series A rounds).
There are currently several platforms that allow NFTs to grant royalties to artists after each sale in the secondary market, including Foundation, Zora and the developer of Euler Beats Treum. Recur’s main innovation will be an ERC token standard that will allow royalties to work independently of the platform.
“RECUR’s technical team is involved in the official Ethereum (EIP) improvement process, and our technology will be implemented at the blockchain layer,” said Recur co-CEO Zach Bruch. “By doing so, it will allow NFTs minted on our platform to move freely through the ecosystem while still generating recurring royalties for IP owners and holders. Ultimately, our goal is to make NFTs agnostic in a chain and keep NFTs and royalties decentralized. “
Bruch did not refer to a specific EIP that his team is working on. Similar proposals, such as EIP-2981, which adds standard royalty functionality to the ERC-721 NFT standard, are also underway.
While the NFT space is becoming increasingly crowded (and Recur’s royalties will presumably be applicable across the ecosystem), another way to stand out is through the licensing and acquisition of intellectual property that occupy the headlines. To that end, Recur is bringing some weight from the previous media industry through former Disney executives Stephen Teglas and Chris Heatherly. Teglas, in particular, held a position in Disney’s licensing department.
“RECUR is working with some of the biggest brands in the world that will be announced in the coming months,” said Bruch. “We are working exclusively with Blue Chip brands to help them bring their intellectual property to the widest possible audience.”
The press release says that the first Recur “brand experience” will be launched in the summer of 2021.