With a $1.1 million pre-seed raise, RELICSxyz goes independent

RELICSyxz, a metaverse music company, has raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding led by Coop Records and Palm Tree Crew Crypto.

Founded inside Monstercat, an electric music-focused independent record label, RELICSxyz was created by co-founders Mike Darlington and Ari Paunonen to bring a musical atmosphere to the metaverse through copyright-licensed music and music players via NFTs.

With this pre-seed funding, RELICSxyz will be able to spin out of Monstercat and expand its team to seven full-time employees to further develop the dynamic rarity system for its music NFTs. The company will also expand its music and art catalogue beyond artists within the Monstercat ecosystem.

The RELICSxyz NFTs enable holders to represent themselves musically in a metaverse, sort of like a theme song. Regarding the impetus for RELICS, Vancouver-based general manager Jordan Kallman says, “We believe that musical identity is missing in the metaverse, and we are on a mission to solve for that. This group of collaborating investors shares our belief, and to have such a storied group of contributors on our journey with us is quite the honour.”

The first RELICS collection dropped in January 2022 and included 4,300 NFTs which yielded over $1 million in sales. The next drop is expected in the coming months.

“We have attracted a team of investors comprised of some of the top minds and most influential players in the Web3 ecosystem,” says RELICSxyz co-founder Mike Darlington, who is also CEO of Monstercat. “This will propel RELICSxyz into the future, while also officially spinning out the company from our independent record label Monstercat.”

Other investors in the seed round include Noise DAO, LongHash Ventures, 2 Punks Capital, DAO Jones, AB, Mark Manginelli, DegenDaVinci, Arben Kane, Andre Benz, Brandon Kang, James Basnett, Narcissus Ventures, Naveen Jain, and Sven.