Verse, a new NFT platform connecting collectors with top artists, has raised $2.4 million seed funding from notable angel investors.
Verse is collaborating with 12 leading artists, curators, and creative tastemakers – including artist Simon Denny, artist David Shrigley, Noah Davis, Elena Soboleva and artist Tyler Hobbs – to launch its first selling exhibition.
The exhibition is led by Verse’s newly appointed head of exhibitions Leyla Fakhr, former Tate curator and art advisor.
Verse allows collectors to discover and acquire NFT artworks that have been hand-selected by trusted and reputable curators, including internationally-recognised galleries, institutional curators, experienced NFT collectors, art experts and other tastemakers across the arts, culture and NFT spaces.
An alternative to the incumbent platforms with an overwhelming sea of options that deter many new collectors, Verse releases NFTs in focused exhibitions that give leading artists the spotlight and create a dynamic experience for discovering new work.
Verse also addresses the technical challenges faced by both collectors and artists in the NFT space by allowing the purchase of NFTs with fiat, as well as crypto, and without the need for a third-party crypto wallet.
Verse is co-founded by CEO Jamie Gourlay and CTO Augustinas Malinauskas. Gourlay brings to Verse more than a decade of experience in the art world, as co-founder of 10 Hanover, the private advisory dealing in blue chip works by Picasso, Warhol, and other major artists, and as founder of Queen’s Fine Art, a storage and logistics company that services the top auction houses and galleries around the world, including Sotheby’s and Gagosian.
Malinauskas is a physicist-turned-technologist who holds a Masters in Part III Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics from the University of Oxford.
The angel investors are Paul Forster (Indeed.com), Ben Stephenson (Impala), Michael Daffey (Galaxy Digital), Jeremy Hindle (Integrity), Nick Shekerdemian (The Venture Collective) and Venrex VC.
“The art NFT landscape is a minefield for many of the world’s top artists, and it’s not much easier for new collectors,” said Gourlay.
“The incumbent NFT platforms make it difficult for the most exciting artworks to get the attention they deserve and for collectors to ensure they’re purchasing from reputable and secure sources.
“We’re providing a space where people with deep understandings of art and NFTs – from galleries, to critics, to collectors, and even artists – can showcase exhibitions of NFT artworks. Verse makes it easier for both new and experienced collectors to access people who really know their stuff – helping them identify great works and avoid being stung on dodgy NFTs.
“For artists, just as in the traditional art world, marketing and selling NFTs is a huge job and requires specialist knowledge and skills. It’s unlikely the world’s best digital artists will rise to the top if they also have to be world-class at web3 marketing in order to do so.
“We’re therefore helping artists join forces with people who really get it, leaving the artist to do what they do best – create amazing works.”