News & Views
Ayre Ventures participates in seed funding round for SaaS tokenization platform Buzzmint
This article was originally published on CoinGeek on August 9, 2022.
Buzzmint, the Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that allows brands, creators, media-specific businesses, and individuals to simply and quickly ideate, create and deploy utility-led NFT/token projects, has secured seed funding from a group of investors, including Ayre Ventures, the venture capital arm of Calvin Ayre’s Ayre Group.
Buzzmint enables the delivery of NFT (non-fungible token) projects within its customers’ own digital infrastructure, eliminating the need to send audiences to an external NFT platform. Customers lacking their own infrastructure will be able to publish directly to Buzzmint’s own NFT marketplace, which is slated to launch later this year.
With lengthy track records in media and publishing, Buzzmint’s founders saw NFTs and the Bitcoin SV (BSV) blockchain as the solution for content producers, media, and publishing companies looking to monetize legacy, current and future content. BSV is the only blockchain that combines low transaction fees with the capacity to scale to handle enterprise-level transaction volume. This capacity allows NFTs to be stored directly on the blockchain—not on a proprietary third-party server—offering users absolute control over their digital assets.
Buzzmint’s view of NFTs isn’t limited to the common perception of primitive digital artwork with limited utility, focused purely on speculation. Buzzmint sees NFTs as purpose-driven technology capable of multiple types of functionality, be it ticketing for events, keys to unlock access to special content, or equipping brands with the means to engage in two-way communication to create new and meaningful connections with their communities.
Buzzmint took part in the first cohort of Satoshi Block Dojo, the London-based technology startup incubator that assists entrepreneurs building businesses on the BSV blockchain. Between their existing contacts and those supplied by the Dojo’s mentor program, Buzzmint’s founders are currently in discussions with media, sports, and luxury fashion brands about potential NFT opportunities.
Buzzmint co-founders Charles Symons and Design Director Neil Ferguson celebrated the funding, saying:
“As a company that allows businesses, brands and content creators to plug into the power of blockchain, digital assets and the potential of Web 3, it was vitally important that we sought the financial backing of an organisation who not only understood the technology we are developing but who were able to fully buy into our vision of how we see our customers, clients and content collaborators to using it and moreover ‘why’! We are absolutely delighted and thrilled to have found that backing through Ayre Ventures.”
Ayre Ventures founder Calvin Ayre said:
“From the start, Charles and Neil impressed me with their vision of creating utility-based NFTs with use cases limited only by one’s imagination. Buzzmint embodies the great work that Satoshi Block Dojo is doing in developing founders who have both the vision to build great products on the BSV blockchain and the drive to realize those visions.”
Jay Gujral, Satoshi Block Dojo Managing Director, U.K. added:
“Buzzmint came into The Dojo programme with an incredibly interesting idea and a very experienced team that we knew could create some magic. We brought them in to help them build on BSV, introduce them to clients, bring them some valuable advisors and then ultimately hone their business model to resonate with the market. They have been a fantastic success for Cohort One, but this is just the beginning, Buzzmint will be creating history for BSV and The Dojo and we cannot wait to help them succeed!”
About Buzzmint
Buzzmint enables brands to quickly and easily create tokens/NFTs of their digital assets to market + sell to their loyal customers with a fully integrated storefront. Buzzmint is a full-service creative crypto agency from ideation, creation, and delivery.
About Ayre Ventures
Ayre Ventures, founded by celebrated entrepreneur and philanthropist Calvin Ayre, provides capital to scalable, high-growth businesses within the BSV blockchain ecosystem, the only infinitely scaling enterprise public blockchain. The Group targets investment in innovative ideas and ambitious projects that are ‘positively disruptive,’ supporting their expansion with the Group’s extensive network and industry partners.
About Satoshi Block Dojo
The mission of Satoshi Block Dojo is to nurture and support start-ups that will change the world. This means providing a pathway to educate, train and elevate start-up entrepreneurs to the highest standards by providing best-in-class mentors and teaching with the latest tech tools. The Block Dojo is the first start-up incubator focused exclusively on Bitcoin SV; it mentors and develops entrepreneurs and start-up businesses, as well as taking care of the administrative hassle of getting a great idea off the ground, so that founders can focus on bringing their tech solution to market.