Singapore’s Mighty Jaxx, a startup that designs and manufactures collectibles and lifestyle products, has raised US$10 million (S$13.57 million) in a Tencent-led funding round. Other investors include Korea Investment Partners and KB Investment.
This brings its total funding amount to around US$14.8 million (S$20.09 million).
Prior to this round of funding, Mighty Jaxx had raised a total of US$4.8 million (S$6.51 million) in funding over three rounds, according to Crunchbase data.
In April 2020, it raised US$3.2 million (S$4.5 million) in funding for MightyVerse, its platform for tech-enabled figures. The round was led by KB Financial Group, one of South Korea’s largest banks, and also included participation from Greycroft Partners’ gaming fund GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund and returning investor SGInnovate.
In July 2019, it raised S$2.15 million in its pre-series A round. It was led by Singapore venture builder and startup growth platform Eight Mercatus, with a matching co-investment from SGInnovate.
Partnerships with global brands
Since its founding in 2012, Mighty Jaxx has produced collectibles under partnerships with global brands such as Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Looney Tunes, and Sesame Street, among others.
The development of MightyVerse was incubated when Mighty Jaxx took part in Ubisoft’s Entrepreneurs’ Lab last year. MightyVerse collectibles are able to store information and digital assets, gamifying the collecting experience.
Mighty Jaxx also recently entered the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) space. NFTs are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on the Ethereum blockchain that cannot be replicated.
Each NFT has a unique identification code and metadata that distinguishes one from another, which differs from other forms of currencies. However, since each NFT is unique, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency. Therefore, the digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets.
Anyone can “tokenise” their work to sell as an NFT. This April, Mighty Jaxx launched two NFTs: The Beauty of Rebellion by Abell Octovan and The Huntress’ Gaze, alongside the physical collectibles.
In the Mighty Jaxx context, our NFTs are digital collectibles, but in a different realm.
The owners of our NFTs have full control over their digital, authenticated assets and they can choose if they want to trade it or hold it, or if they want to utilise its ability to take this type of asset and go to another type of digital environment and interact with it. This adds an additional layer to the value of the item and their ownership of it as compared to only being able to interact with a physical collectible only in the physical world.
Jackson Aw, Founder of Mighty Jaxx in an interview with Asia Tatler
Since 2019, Mighty Jaxx has been incorporating blockchain to authenticate the physical collectibles that it produces.
Featured Image Credit: Jackson Aw / Mint