GigLabs - Flow Ecosystem Vol. 4

The Next Big NFT Use Case – Brand IP

Introduction:

Demand for digital assets is increasing exponentially; and while Bitcoin is grabbing most of the attention, the growth of NFTs is accelerating at an even faster pace at an estimated 1,785% AGR. During the first half of 2021 alone, NFT sales volume surged to $2.5 billion. ABC’s Shark Tank shark, Kevin O’Leary believes that the NFT market cap could easily surpass that of Bitcoin by 2023. Think about that for a moment, the NFT market cap is less than $25 billion and Bitcoin’s market cap is more than $831 billion, at the time of this writing.  That would represent a more than 33x growth for the NFT market in the coming years. This might sound ridiculous at first, but when you consider the NFT industry is extremely early in its lifecycle, then it makes sense that the upside is huge. And here comes GigLabs with the next big NFT use case, brand IP on the blockchain!   

Founded in 2017, GigLabs is on a mission to empower brands to enhance their intellectual property to generate additional revenue streams, increase customer engagement and offer more value to their customers through NFTs and blockchain solutions. The company partners with brands, agencies and creators to provide easy-to-use tools for generating, minting, and selling NFTs that can be presented within fully customizable brand experiences. Built by the GigLabs’ team of experienced blockchain developers, the API-driven platform delivers flexible and scalable NFT assets that are permanently secured on the Flow blockchain. Flow powers NFTs for some of the biggest brands including the NBA, UFC, Warner Music Group, and more.  

NFTs have opened new avenues of storytelling and consumer engagement. For example, GigLabs recently helped Athletes Unlimited launch an NFT collection in partnership with USA Softball for the athletes returning from the Tokyo Olympics. This included an in-stadium NFT redemption via QR code. Brands are discovering that through NFTs they can drive revenue by enhancing their marketing and increasing conversions.  Let’s take a look at GigLabs.  

Executive Summary:

• Team

  • Doug Dimola, CEO. Previous tech founder, GA Tech engineer, and University of Illinois MBA

  • Brian Burns, CTO. Global engineering and 100+ smart contracts experience; GA Tech engineer

  • Jon Parise, CMO. Experienced startup marketer and operator, UNC MBA, and Marquette BA

• Revenue Model

  • Recurring + variable: subscription fees + initial sale fee

  • Events: single drops fixed fee + per NFT minted fee

  • Secondary market: 2.5% on secondary fees

• Financials

  • $3 million in seed funding 

  • Series A tentatively in 2022

  • Founded by experienced blockchain engineers and entrepreneurs

• Strategic Partnerships

  • Turner Sports

  • Athletes Unlimited

  • Bleacher Sports

  • University of Miami (UM)

  • CNN

  • Dapper Labs

  • Flow

  • Shopify

  • The Artifex Project

Product Overview:

NFT Bridge

Built by the GigLabs’ team of experienced blockchain developers and NFT enthusiasts, the API-driven NFT Bridge platform delivers flexible and scalable NFT tools that allow any brand to build any NFT experience imaginable. Powered by GigLabs, NFT Bridge is a one stop shop where brands can onboard audiences, create NFTs, drop and distribute, facilitate NFT trading, and immerse users in interactive experiences. 

Major brands are choosing to work with GigLabs for its team’s deep experience with NFTs as well as the exceptional user experience for onboarding users. Built in integrations with Flow wallet providers like Blocto as well as Stripe allow for purchasing NFTs directly with credit card. The platform is purely whitelabeled allowing brands to customize and personalize the experience for their fans, as opposed to sending them to a 3rd party site for purchasing NFTs.

GigLabs provides the technology infrastructure for CNN - vault.cnn.com - and University of Miami’s Canes Vault - canesvault.com. More brands are planning on launching on the NFT Bridge platform in the coming months.

Finally, in September 2021, GigLabs will be expanding NFT Bridge directly into the Shopify app store. This will allow Shopify Plus customers to integrate NFT sales directly into their ecommerce site.

RareRooms

Things are about to get metaverse cool. RareRooms is GigLabs’ customizable 3D immersive gallery for showcasing NFTs - digital collectibles, art and more - that’s integrated across multiple blockchains. These rooms are customizable and the collector gets to decide how to display their NFTs. Users can automatically pull in NFTs from multiple blockchains. It works on the web, mobile, and VR. Incredibly simple user experience and instant setup and no downloads are permitted so the user’s collections are safely stored in this awesome RareRooms. You can explore featured rooms here. 

Conclusion:

Although the adoption of NFTs for Brand IP comes with benefits, it still has obstacles to overcome. Mainly, NFTs need to be made more alluring and easier to use to both corporate decision makers and mainstream consumers, who might not be technical experts. And this is where GigLabs shines. NFT Bridge is an intuitive platform that allows any brand to build an NFT experience with easy customer onboarding tools that remove all the crypto hurdles. Brands can easily mint NFTs on the Flow blockchain using traditional CMS and sell their NFTs on a branded P2P marketplace directly on their website.  And customers can easily purchase these NFTs with a credit card, then build and display their NFT collections in 3D virtual rooms. GigLabs and its ecosystem of products combine to create a unique brand experience for both brands and consumers.  

NFTs also come with intrinsic value, so the risk remains that some consumers might purchase these digital assets to speculate for profit, instead of engaging in the brand experience as intended. But despite these challenges, the potential for profits in the NFT marketplace is huge. This will incentivize brands to continue experimenting with NFTs, most likely by forming partnerships with blockchain experts that provide easy to use solutions that bring their brand vision to life. Furthermore, the continued success of related NFT use cases in art and gaming will likely ignite the interest of more brands to enter the NFT marketplace and result in more mainstream consumer adoption. For these reasons, the future looks bright for GigLabs.