Redeem, a US-based firm, has made the process of onboarding new users to Web3 easier. Redeem has streamlined the procedure by giving consumers the ability to communicate with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) using their phone numbers.
Pre-seed funding for the venture totaled $2.5 million, lead by investment company Kenetic Capital, which focuses on digital assets. Monochrome Capital, VC3 DAO, The Fund, Flyover Capital, CMT Digital, KCRise Fund, and KESTREL0x1 also contributed, according to Axios.
The business will utilize the money to keep developing its core technology and for its anticipated Q2 product launch.
The platform Redeem has created enables users to send and redeem NFTs using their phone numbers. Redeem is a Web3 technology supplier.
Users can link any cryptocurrency wallet on any network to their phone numbers, allowing them to scan a QR code to get useful NFTs like tickets, rewards points, in-game stuff, etc. by scanning the code.
In addition, they can send and receive NFTs over WhatsApp, Apple's iMessage, and SMS without having to pay for gas or know the address of an external wallet.
Rush also developed the biometric ID verification business EyeVerify, which Ant Group, Alibaba's financial services division, purchased in 2016 for $100 million.
Prior to leading Ant Group's International Technology Investments Unit, Rush served as CEO of ZOLOZ, an Alibaba digital identity platform that replaced EyeVerify.
Redeem's co-founder and CEO is Kenny Conklin II. According to the website, he previously served as SVP of BATS Global Markets, a global stock exchange operator that was acquired by CBOE, President of the cryptocurrency market maker Analytico Trading, COO of the family investment firm AzimuthZero, President and COO of Farmobile, an agtech startup that was sold to AGI, and President and COO of Farmobile.
Rush remarked, "I adore developing novel user experiences that thrill and amaze while obscuring the intricacy of the technology.
"The largest promise of Web3 is the capacity to build, interact with, and own assets outside the conventional walled gardens — like Apple, Google, or Ticketmaster — while maintaining trust. We need to make this new technology comprehensible and familiar to the general public in order to fully realize its potential "Finally, he said.