NFT-focused startup Afterparty has raised $4 million from numerous investors to further develop its NFT ticketing platform, bringing the total amount raised so far to $7 million.

Notable angel investors in the project include paris hilton, Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff, Jason Calacanis, NBA star Andre Iguodala, “Project Runway” executive producer Desiree Gruber and Nicole Farb of venture capital firm Headline. Acrew Capital, Blockchange, and TenOneTen Ventures, Afterparty’s main early investors, also joined the unsolicited funding round.

Afterparty is an all-in-one event organizer and ticketing system, having hosted the first Music festival to be fully issued with NFT in March. NFT tickets, known as utopian collection, were minted on Ethereal and features a number of famous headlines, including Heidi Klum, Josh Duhamel, Sia, and influencers David Dobrik, Loren Gray, and Bryce Hall.

The Afterparty Music Festival in Las Vegas for Utopians headlines was headlined by electronic duo The Chainsmokers and rapper The Kid Laroi. It also featured performances by Sofi Tukker, Tokimonsta, Bob Moses, and others.

Now, Afterparty is preparing to release its second NFT collection, The Guardians, on Polygon, along with its NFT ticketing marketplace. Afterparty CEO and founder David Fields said decipher in an interview that version 2 of its NFT marketplace will launch on Polygon sometime in May.

NFTs are unique tokens that exist on a blockchain like Ethereum and signify the holder’s ownership of an asset or membership benefits.

Fields explained that the move to Polygon was an effort to keep buyer fees as low as possible and distinguish Afterparty from traditional platforms like Stubhub and Ticketmaster, which have frustrated users with high transaction fees. (Ethereum mainnet gas rates have also been a complaint for many in the past).

While Utopians and Guardians NFTs grant access to their respective Afterparty-hosted events, Fields sees the company moving further toward becoming a dedicated NFT ticketing platform rather than an all-in-one event host in the future. .

“We took the approach of launching our own events [for] one, testing the model at scale and two, really building deep relationships… but over time, we see ourselves building more of a market for experiences… [with] concert ticket sales is one of them,” Fields said. decipher.

Each Afterparty NFT grants the holder ownership of a piece of digital art, as well as admission to an upcoming event and other promised benefits. Afterparty NFTs also grant the holder future access to purchase tickets for future Afterparty events, so NFTs also function as future presale or “allow list” passes.

For its upcoming event in Los Angeles in October, Afterparty has partnered with MoonPay to offer credit card payments for those without cryptocurrency wallets who want to pay with fiat for their Guardian NFTs.

Afterparty will offer flexible custody of NFTs to holders, meaning NFT owners can take full custody of their assets at any time and move them to their own wallets or cold storage if they wish.

“A big part of our mission at Afterparty is to give creators the tools to realize their full potential with Web3,” said Fields.

But he also acknowledged that NFTs remain a niche asset and many fans will be new to crypto.

“Without the 99.9% of those creator fans who have a crypto wallet,” he said, “we are a bit far from a world where NFTs can really be used to their full potential for creators, and we want to be a part of it.” of the solution”. over there.”