Baxus, a NYC-based global marketplace for collectible spirits, raised $5M in seed funding.
The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Narwhal Ventures, FJ Labs, and several high profile angel investors.
The company will use the capital to scale their sensor and vaulting technologies and serve the retail and institutional interest in the collectible spirits market.
Led by Tzvi Wiesel, CEO, Baxus is a global marketplace that gives collectors and institutions a secure way to trade wine and spirits. Leveraging blockchain technology, the system ensures transparency and access, enabling real-time authentication, storage, and trading, bringing liquidity to an illiquid market.
Built on Solana, the marketplace leverages open Web3 payment infrastructure to reduce costs, increase transparency and infuse liquidity into a historically fragmented, offline market. It enables users to transact using credit card, ACH, direct wire, and crypto or USDC.
Inventory gets added to the marketplace when collectors send their bottles to the Vault, a secure, temperature-controlled network of locations that provides storage and insurance for collector’s prized bottles. Each bottle is then scanned in high resolution, tokenized, and represented on-chain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in collectors’ dashboards allowing them to instantly list and trade for a fraction of traditional fees. Provenance, information, and pricing data is securely attached to each bottle. Any bottles purchased on the marketplace or stored in the Vault can be redeemed at any time or left in the vault to be securely stored or traded at a future date.
In late 2023, Baxus acquired BoozApp, an app for collection tracking and valuation that enables all spirits enthusiasts to manage their collection, including purchase prices, tasting notes, and fill levels and provide them with instant valuations of their bottles. The company plans to integrate BoozApp’s inventory and data into its marketplace, granting collectors unprecedented visibility into their collections and desirability.
FinSMEs
01/05/2024