Digital Fashion Platform Draup Nets $1.5 Million in Seed Funding
Call it TheVirtualVirtual.
Ledger executive Ian Rogers and Trevor McFedries, the tech guru behind CGI influencer Lil Miquela, are among investors in a $1.5 million seed round for Draup, a platform for digital fashion from the founder of This Outfit Does Not Exist.
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Over the next 18 months Draup plans to build out a marketplace where digital fashions can be bought, sold, showcased and monetized with protocols enabling resale, rentals and “wear to earn” options, according to Daniella Loftus, founder and chief executive officer of Draup.
Variant Fund led the seed round alongside crypto currency players TCG Crypto, Flamingo DAO, Neon DAO, Gmoney, Cozomo de’ Medici and Ashleigh Schap, plus consumer tech players Andy Weissman, First Minute Capital and Amber Atherton.
While Loftus is bullish on the future of digital fashion, she aims to improve its ownership protocols and widen wearing opportunities across virtual worlds.
“The Draup platform will be made up of a marketplace, where digital fashion can be bought, sold, resold and earned from, and virtual wardrobes through which digital fashion can be curated, displayed and ported into off-platform virtual environments,” she wrote in a white paper published last January.
In addition, Draup plans to “curate a community of digitally native creators and consumers, providing them with the access and education they need to maximize the value they get from digital fashion.”
Its first volley will be a digital fashion and culture zine called “The Lost,” set to launch later this year, while the marketplace element is expected to go live at the end of the year.
Loftus established This Outfit Does Not Exist in January 2021 and has built up a community of 15,000 members spanning traditional fashionistas, “NFT nerds and everyone in between,” she wrote in a blog post.
Meanwhile, Flamingo DAO, Neon DAO, TCG Crypto and Gmoney also figure among investors in a $4.5 million seed-funding round for digital fashion brand Tribute. Venture-capital fund Collab + Currency led the round, with Alice Lloyd George, Lattice Capital, Red DAO, Megan Kaspar and Kanosei Ventures among others contributing.
Established in April 2020, Tribute Brand has already partnered with fashion houses including Jean Paul Gaultier and Carolina Herrera.
According to a statement, Tribute Brand is building its own interoperable platform and tools to optimize digital fashion assets. It is set to launch later this year in tandem with a new collection drop.
Courtesy of Tribute Brand
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