Singapore’s Mintable raises seed funding and other SE Asia deals

By Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.

April 7, 2021

Mintable, a Singapore-headquartered NFT marketplace backed by billionaire investor Mark Cuban, has announced raising an oversubscribed seed round from Sound Ventures and Time Ventures.

Sound Ventures is the venture fund founded by Guy Oseary and Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher while Time Ventures is the investment fund of Marc Benioff and Singaporean corporate leader Koh Boon Hwee’s CRC Capital.

The startup, launched in December 2018 by founder Zach Burks, provides a next-generator NFT platform where users can create, buy, and sell digital items for the easiest way to earn and get started with cryptos and non-fungible tokens.

The close of the seed round comes weeks after venture capitalist and television personality Mark Cuban announced a significant investment in Mintable to help scale the app, which has sold and auctioned works by prominent global artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs.

NFTs are assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property but have no tangible form of their own. An NFT by the artist Beeple sold at Christie’s for over $60 million in March, making it the most expensive NFT ever sold at auction.

“The interest in NFTs has been surging in recent months even though they have been around for a while. The reason they had never really taken off is because of the upfront cost or fee of minting an asset – which are known as gas fees,” said Burks, adding that Mintable offers zero fees to create NFTs.

SOUTHEAST ASIA DEAL MONITOR

DealStreetAsia has also put together a table listing out prominent venture capital transactions in Southeast Asia from the second half of December till the week beginning April 5.

Expand Table

StartupsHeadquarterInvestment SizeInvestment StageLead Investor(s)Other Investor(s)Industry
MintableSingaporeSeedSound Ventures, Time Ventures Blockchain
FrizSingaporeSeed500 Durians, 500 TukTuksIterative VC, Y CombinatorFintech
GlintsSingapore$22,500,000Series CPERSOL HoldingsMonk’s Hill Ventures, Fresco Capital, Mindworks Ventures and Wavemaker PartnersHRtech
Flash CoffeeSingapore$15,000,000Series AWhite Star Capital
DX Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Conny & CoF&B
TraxSingapore$640,000,000Series ESoftBank Vision Fund 2, BlackRock fundsOMERS, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, Warburg PincusRetailtech
Coin98 FinanceVietnam$4,000,000Alameda ResearchFinch / Crypto

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW