Raised 3 million USD as Seed Round (1st,Feb,2023)

Jul 15

5 min read

We will accelerate the development and global expansion of a service that involves the Tokenization and co-ownership of all types of physical assets.

👩🏽‍💻 Business Overview

There are luxury collectible items worth tens of millions to billions of yen around the world that have been protected for many years by enthusiasts and auction houses. However, their appeal has been limited to a very small group of wealthy individuals due to their high prices and the need for specialized knowledge, making them inaccessible to most people.

Luxury collectible items such as luxury watches, art, antiques, luxury fashion, sneakers, trading cards, etc., have been difficult to handle on online marketplaces due to payment and delivery issues, authentication, and other reasons.

The service that we plans to develop involves the tokenization of such physical assets and their further fractionalization into smaller units. This allows anyone in the world to share their hobbies by co-owning them digitally. It automates the buying and selling of ownership rights through smart contracts and is developing an NFT marketplace that makes it easy to exchange ownership NFTs for physical items.

👭 Global Recruitment

We has recently completed a seed round of fundraising from external investors, the first of its kind with investors from Japan, the United States and the UAE. We have been developing our service since January 2023 with mainly contract employees. With this recent fundraising and the establishment of our development base in Japan, we will begin hiring full-time employees.

We have a diverse team of members from Japan, United States, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia working on development. Remote work in English is the norm, but we meet in person in Tokyo and Singapore a few times a month for business and workshops.

We are focusing on the following job categories. We also have open positions. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested.

🎲 From Founder/CEO

We aims to create a world where people can collectively discover and enjoy treasures from all over the world through the power of the people. Through the development of decentralized NFTs and protocols for managing and authenticating physical assets using blockchain technology, democratization of decision-making processes through collector DAOs, and the establishment of secure management and distribution environments, Velvet seeks to fundamentally change the concept of ownership.

Everyone has something they "love and cherish". It is a joy to gather with people who understand our interests and passions, disconnected from our roles in society, and talk about niche topics. In a world where the future is uncertain, those who can cherish such moments are the ones who should be able to enjoy a happy life.

Recently, technology has been changing the way we perceive trust and ownership of things. We aim to develop a new global market where people can connect through their interests, regardless of borders. Our goal is not just to create a marketplace for physical items that satisfies the desire for ownership, but also to create a marketplace that fosters more loving connections between people.

👉 Let’s have a casual chat with Founder/CEO

👼🏻 From Investors

We have raised funds from external investors to develop our services and strengthen our organizational structure. The investors who participated in this round are as follows (in no particular order):

Chiba Dojo Fund

Kotaro Chiba, Representative Director and General Partner

I am honored to have been the lead investor from the Chiba Dojo Fund to support Harada: the first founder of the entrepreneurial community Chiba Dojo and a fellow of the Chiba Dojo Fund, in his second challenge. I have known Harada since 2013, and the Chiba Dojo Fund aims to support EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) of exited entrepreneurs, and we will fully support Harada, a serial entrepreneur, in his culmination of business!

Kanousei Ventures Tom Yi

We are thrilled to support ベルベット in its mission to democratize the collectibles market through blockchain technology. By fractionalizing real assets, ベルベット lowers the barriers to entry, allowing anyone to safely invest in and hold collectibles. With its competitive advantages and focus on Asia Pacific, starting with the Japanese market and expanding to Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and the US, we believe ベルベット is well-positioned to capture a significant share of this growing market. Daisaku’s experience and track record in C2C commerce adds to our confidence in investing in ベルベット. We look forward to seeing ベルベット's impact on the industry and the new opportunities it will create.

FLICK SHOT

Fukukai Michito, Managing Partner

I am already excited to see Harada, who is flying around the world and getting his hands dirty, in action! As he takes on global challenges in the Web3 industry, which is currently in the process of rule-making, I will fully extend my support to him from Dubai! I am looking forward to supporting Harada-san's second challenge with the help of other powerful supporters!

HIRAC FUND

Satoshi Furuhashi, Partner

I am sincerely happy to be able to support Harada's challenge into Web3 as a serial entrepreneur. As someone who is also challenging themselves in this area and feeling the difficulty first-hand, I believe that investing in Velvett, which has the potential to greatly impact future society and values, is a very valuable thing to do. All the best!

F Ventures

Shota Morozumi, Representative Partner

With the desire to be involved in Harada-san's next challenge, who has been at the forefront of the domestic startup scene for the past 10 years, I invested in the project. The combination of NFTs and physical assets, as seen in AZUKI and RTFKT, is an area that I feel could become the next trend in NFTs and personally, I find it to be a very interesting business. I am looking forward to working together!

mint Keisuke Kogure, General Partner

I have decided to invest in Harada-san, who is challenging himself globally as a serial entrepreneur! In the past, our company has invested in several companies related to collectible goods, and as an individual, I also have a personal interest in this area, so I am looking forward to enjoying the service as a user. Harada-san, let's do our best!

W fund

Hattori Masahiro, Partner

Shuya Takatsu , Investment Manager

I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to once again support Harada, who I have been supporting since the founding of Zawatt Corporation, in this project, which can be considered the culmination of his past challenges. In a time when the utility of Web3 is strongly demanded, I look forward to the success of Velvett, which will deliver unprecedented value to the world by making the global trade of valuable physical assets smoother. Please count on my continued support.

Satoshi Shimmyo

When I heard that Harada-san, who I had consulted with and stimulated as a fellow entrepreneur, was taking on a new challenge in the Web3 space, I was thrilled as if it were my own project. I am supporting Velvett, hoping that it will have a significant impact on society in the future, even if in a small way.