Hong-Kong based NFT platform raises $4.2M in funding

Xin Li-Cohen, non-executive deputy chairman at Christie’s, co-founded the Hong Kong based NFT platform TR Lab.

CoinDesk obtained a press release from TRLab, a platform for collecting art in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT).

A statement stated the funds will be used to expand the company’s collection and include art projects “of diverse scope and size, ranging from full production origin drops to selected multi-artist projects unified around a similar subject” to the collecting process.

In July, one of the platform’s featured works by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang sold for $2.5 million.

In March, Digital artist Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

TRLab’s overall funding now stands at $6.2 million. Xin Li-Cohen, non-executive vice-chairman of Christie’s, and Audrey Ou co-founded the Hong-Kong-based firm in May.

Animoca Brands, one of the world’s most valuable NFT and metaverse venture capital firms, Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), the Asian VC arm of German media and education conglomerate Bertelsmann, Hong Kong-based Kenetic Capital, INCE Capital, Metapurse, Plutus Capital, StableNode, a project that uses blockchain validator rewards to invest, and Willoughby Capital participated in the round.

Also contributing were artists Adam Lindemann and Svetlana Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya, as well as the Digital Renaissance Foundation and Pace Gallery’s Web 3 arm Pace Verso. Loic Gouzer, an artist, joined the round. People like Marc Bhargava, Gabby Dizon, Andrew Steinwold, Olivia Wang, and Jennifer Zeng invested.

Two new NFT initiatives and expanded membership perks are planned for this quarter.