Collectibles.com Raises $5M Seed Round to Launch the World's First Web3 Collector Community and Marketplace

Collectibles.com, with a focus on connecting, inspiring, and better serving the diverse interests of all collectors, today announced its $5 million seed round, led by Blockchange Ventures. Collectibles.com is building the world's first Web3 community and marketplace — powered by the Collectibles Protocol™ and blockchain integration — to drive innovation in the estimated $500 billion global collectibles market. By combining advanced technology and unique consumer rewards with the shared values that drive the passion and motivations for collectors everywhere, Collectibles.com will offer an exciting new experience for all levels of expertise and interests.

The recent seed round drew support from respected venture funds including: Blockchange Ventures, GFR Fund, Peter Thiel and Blockwall Capital, along with select private investors, advisors & industry strategics. Notable investors also include serial entrepreneurs and technologists: Adam Jackson, CEO Braintrust; Sean Cohan, former Chief Growth Officer, Nielsen; Trevor Traina, CEO Kresus & respected collector; Vinny Lingham, CEO Waitroom, Shark Tank SA; and Hollywood actor & collector, Orlando Bloom.

As the category-defining brand domain, Collectibles.com is poised to become the leading destination for the currently fragmented world of collecting, by providing practical tools, technology & resources that put the needs and preferences of collectors front and center. Unlike most existing apps, websites & legacy marketplaces that are strictly transactional, Collectibles.com will feature a robust, connected community to unite global collectors through their common interests and passions, with several unique features:

• Beneficial user rewards for contributions to the community and platform
• Powerful collection management application to organize, manage and value all collectibles
• AI and ML technologies to offer most accurate & comprehensive collectibles data
• Proprietary Collectibles Protocol™ and blockchain integration to deliver a new, more efficient & transparent marketplace experience
• Data-driven, market-based asset valuation for collectibles based on over 30 sources of historical sales/transactions
• Community social profiles to display collections and foster engagement
• Personalization, recommendations and community connections based on preferences
• Category-specific discussion groups, curated content and educational resources

"Our work to date has demonstrated the value of — and demand for — innovation by collectors, making the expansion into other collectibles verticals a natural next step," said Collectibles.com Co-Founder and CEO Alex Ivanov. "By combining the power of the collectibles community with the promising capabilities of Web3 technology, we can fundamentally rethink how people buy, sell, trade and manage anything they collect."

Since launching as a proof-of-concept in 2021, offering a collection management application focused only on trading cards and reaching over 250,000 registered users, collectors are now adding tens of thousands of items per day, currently valued at over $2B of cards under management. The upcoming launch of Collectibles.com will expand into several new verticals, including comic books, coins, stamps, memorabilia and more.

"For most, the hobby of collecting is much more than just buying and selling or making an investment — it represents a greater passion and personal motivation, something that connects them to a larger community and often passed from generation-to-generation, whether it's comic books, sports cards and memorabilia, or even vintage lunch boxes," said Dietrich von Behren, Co-Founder and Chief Business & Strategy Officer at Collectibles.com. "With our new round of funding and strategic partners, we'll bring a series of industry-changing innovations to the global collectibles industry, from casual hobbyists to sellers and major brand partners."

Launching in the fall of 2023 and building the ecosystem for what shall become a decentralized secondary market, the Collectibles.com community and marketplace is being developed with blockchain integration and smart contracts for advanced functionality and commerce optimization, and will offer a unique customer loyalty rewards system to incentivize adoption while driving significant innovation across the massive collectibles industry.

"We believe that blockchain technology will radically alter how marketplaces will grow in the future—especially those with pre-existing communities," states Ken Seiff, Managing Partner of Blockchange Ventures. "Adding the economic layer of a blockchain to a social network will catalyze growth & commerce in new and novel ways. In the case of Collectibles.com, we expect it will better serve the collectors globally that represent a multi hundred billion dollar asset class."