Sleek closes $5M raise to launch tokenized knowledge marketplace
The Hong Kong-based company’s seed round drew participation from Binance Labs and Shima Capital
WindAwake/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
The Web3 social company Sleek announced a $5 million seed round — alongside plans for a platform where experts can tokenize their knowledge.
Sleek’s is at least the fourth crypto social startup fundraise announced this week, per CryptoRank. Sleek previously drew funding from Binance Labs through its incubation program in 2022.
Earlier this year, Sleek debuted business cards that can share Telegram contact info and display NFTs when put in proximity to a phone. The company has been on an apparent crypto conference tour in 2023, sharing its in-person networking tool.
With the fresh funding, Sleek says it is releasing a marketplace for domain experts in the first half of 2024.
The company told Blockworks that Sleek hopes to capitalize on the proliferation of online educational content by turning online creators’ knowledge into “liquid and accessible assets.”
Sleek’s platform will create bonding curves a la Friend.tech for video content or calls with creators. The company believes its platform will be preferable for educational creators because of the high time investment involved in producing long-form content on other platforms.
The forthcoming platform represents another SocialFi attempt to more efficiently monetize the creator economy. Social apps Phaver and RepubliK recently closed seed rounds with similar ambitions.
Read more: What is SocialFi? Unpacking crypto’s answer to social media
“Knowledge-based businesses like research firms and expert networks generate $100B+ of revenue per year, along with a new wave of creators who monetize their time by converting knowledge into online courses, [YouTube] videos, expert calls and content through subscription platforms like Patreon,” Sleek said.
“However, the market is fragmented and inefficient with a lack of discovery and distribution channels to people with domain expertise in tech, arts or business.”
Updated Nov. 17, 2023 at 9:42 am ET: Clarified that Binance’s investment in Sleek came through an incubation program rather than its seed round.
Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.
Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.
The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
