DeepNFTValue, a machine learning company that uses deep neural networks to price non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other NFT assets, has announced a $4 million raise led by Rockaway Blockchain Fund, a venture capital firm backing “leading” Web3 founders.
The investment round also included contributions from 1Confirmation, Cygni Capital, among others.
Founded by deep learning researcher Nikolai Yakovenko, DeepNFTValue is “building a platform for NFT pricing across the most valuable, liquid, and impactful Web3 collections.”
As the first project to publish live daily CryptoPunks price estimates that account for market activity and asset ownership, DeepNFTValue “facilitates market transparency and price discovery, beyond rarity scores and rules-based pricing.” The platform is “used by the CryptoPunks community for third-party valuation, as well as its best deals scoring for NFTs listed for sale live on the CryptoPunks marketplace.”
Nikolai Yakovenko, Founder of DeepNFTValue said:
“We are the first company bringing world-class machine learning to crypto markets. Market price discovery for NFT collections is just the beginning, and with this funding, we will be able to build out this product and meet our users where they are–whether that’s through our website and APIs or on-chain for smart contracts. This raise will help us cater to our growing community more effectively.”
The company is “expanding from its flagship CryptoPunks product into other leading NFT collections such as Bored Apes, CloneX, Azuki, and ArtBlocks.” A portion of the capital raised will be “reserved for GPU hardware, necessary for training the most sophisticated machine learning models with deep learning methods.”
Dusan Kovacic, Chief Investment Officer at Rockaway Blockchain Fund commented:
“By using an ensemble of purpose-specific neural networks, DeepNFTValue is delivering expert quality valuation estimates for high-value NFTs in a scalable way. Nik and his team are bringing a solution to market that is far superior than anything else used today, which will enable NFTs to be used in DeFi with significantly improved capital efficiency. We believe DeepNFTValue is poised to become the oracle with broad social consensus for valuing and trading NFTs.”
Nikolai Yakovenko concluded:
“Nobody wants their collection mispriced, particularly in a DeFi protocol such as a lending contract, because of insufficient attention to modeling. People are always surprised at how much robust and efficient modeling costs, in terms of researcher time and data, and raw computing.”
As noted in the update shared with CI, DeepNFTValue “trains deep neural networks and other machine learning models to value CryptoPunks prices based on attributes, transactions, and ownership history.”
The project is the first Web3 venture for Nikolai Yakovenko “following an extensive career in machine learning R&D with positions at Google, Twitter, Nvidia, and Point72 Asset Management.”
As mentioned in the announcement, Rockaway Blockchain Fund (RBF) is “a venture capital firm backing leading Web3 founders.” By helping the pioneers of tomorrow ship their products faster, RBF is “accelerating the development of a globally-decentralized and prosperous ownership economy.”
Based in Europe and boasting a portfolio of industry-leading decentralized projects, RBF “focuses on long-term value creation by providing venture, engineering, and liquidity support.”
RBF claims that it is set “to become Europe’s largest Web3 investment firm, providing liquidity and investing in more than 20 funds and 30 projects to date including Solana, Ethereum, and Cosmos.”
