Ripple and Animoca Brands invest in Mintable

The NFT marketplace previously received the backing of Crypto.com, Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Mintable yesterday announced that it had raised $13 million in a Series A funding round. New investors include Ripple, Metapurse, Digital Finance Group, former Bill Clinton advisor Doug Band and Animoca Brands – which itself brought its capital raise up to $139 million yesterday.

Minting NFTs on Mintable doesn’t require any upfront cost or knowledge of coding, making NFTs accessible to the average person. Mintable was the first platform to introduce gasless minting, as well as royalties and batch minting.

Earlier this year, the NFT marketplace received the backing of other well-known investors, including Crypto.com, TIME Ventures, Marc Cuban and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures.

Founder and CEO of Mintable, Zach Burks, commented, “Throughout 2021, NFTs have reached mass appeal, having touched almost every sector spanning entertainment, fine arts, sports, and many more. As the technology continues to mature and the space rapidly evolves, this is a critical company milestone for Mintable and we are thankful for the support from our investors who hold the same shared belief of the many opportunities that NFTs can bring among mainstream users.”

Mintable has also partnered with Ripple and will integrate with the XRP Ledger (XRPL). As a carbon neutral network with an energy consumption of only 790,000 kWh per year and transaction fees of just $0.0004, XRPL provides a cheap and sustainable environment for users to interact with NFTs.

Ripple’s GM of RippleX, Monica Long, added, “NFTs are giving rise to powerful new business models for creators. Accelerating the growth of this creator economy starts with an infrastructure that removes the barriers to entry — such as high gas fees and environmental costs of creating NFTs — faced by many today. Our investment in Mintable is a testament to our shared vision for cost-efficient and sustainable NFTs to enable profitability for creators and mainstream accessibility to crypto.”

About 700,000 assets have been minted through Mintable so far, including NFTs for a CNBC charity auction and trading cards for quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The $13 million raise will help fund growth initiatives and user acquisition, as well as new products to drive the mass adoption of NFTs.