Web3 startup Spatial Labs raised $10 million in its seed funding round, led by blockchain capital and backed by Marcy Venture Partners, the venture capital firm of billionaire rap artist Jay-Z. Combined with Spatial’s pre-seed funding round of $4 million, the new round brings the startup’s total funding to $14 million.
Spatial Labs has developed a 13 millimeter microchip called LNQ One Chip, which can be sewn or incorporated into physical fashion items. Each chip can be scanned with a smartphone via Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, revealing details about the item and creating a digital copy for metaverse portability. Each physical chip is linked to an NFT on Polygon with plenty of opportunities for brands to add detail or custom content to chip metadata.
Spatial Labs was launched in 2019 by Iddris Sandu, a 25-year-old Ghanaian-American entrepreneur. In an interview with DecryptSandu shared his vision for the hardware startup.
chip utility
Sandu has many ideas for its LNQ chip technology. On the one hand, he wants buyers of physical items containing the chip to be able to easily obtain a digital version of that exact item for use on metaverse platforms without having to purchase the item twice.
“We believe our approach will create much more fairness metaverse“Sandu said Decrypt. “If you look at economies of scale, people don’t have the luxury of buying things twice in a row.”
He also talked about LNQ’s potential to provide authentication services for luxury brands, many of which already have metaverse plans, like Gucci, Balmainand Prada.
But Sandu also wants its customers to really think outside the box when it comes to the kind of data and content the chips can deliver.
“Our chip technology allows brands to embed loyalty programs directly into their products without requiring people to sign up for one of the services,” Sandu said.
“Now it unlocks a variety of different things, right? Because now you can think about your products unlocking tickets, specific interviews, podcasts, stuff like that,” he said. continued. “And so it’s for a lot of brands that want to find potential use cases for Web3 and the metaverse.
Remove quick mode
While Ethereum consume now 99.998% less energy than before – and sidechain Polygon is also known for its low power consumption – Spatial Labs’ activities are not limited to blockchain sustainability. Because their product aims to bridge the physical and digital fashion worlds, Spatial also wants to make the physical fashion industry more sustainable. “Fast mode” has been well documented as wasteful and unsustainable.
sandu said Decrypt that the only way to solve fashion’s sustainability problem is to find a way to offer sustainable products at affordable prices.
“Conversations around sustainability are very – I don’t mean necessarily classist or elitist – but it still feels like a 1% conversation,” he said. “We haven’t gotten to a space where these durable products are also in the same price range as products that aren’t.”
“Being eco-friendly is not a luxury statement,” Sandu added.
Sandu envisions a future where the LNQ chip could help entice shoppers to hold on to their physical goods longer, as brands could send updates to the chips with new content, features or other updates. In the long term, this could change the mindset of consumers and allow brands to create a new kind of ongoing relationship with customers.
Regarding Sandu’s decision to build his tech on Polygon instead of Ethereum’s mainnet, he cited ETH’s higher gas fees as a primary deterrent.
“These ecosystems weren’t really designed for economies of scale,” Sandu said of the ETH mainnet, adding that he thinks Polygon offers a fee much closer to that of a sale. Visa or MasterCard.
Material issues
Sandu’s hardware also allows Spatial Labs to continue building without any of the bottlenecks of app stores like Apple’s, which has strict development rules in place when it comes to NFTs and elements. Web3.
“Our chip technology doesn’t depend on, you know, an Apple App Store approval or anything, it works out of the box, you don’t even have to have a app installed to access some of the metadata and brands can customize that to their liking,” Sandu said of the NFC chip.
Breaking down barriers with Jay-Z
Sandu believes he is in a unique position as one of the very few colored founders of a hardware-focused company. He considers the investment thesis of many VCs to be “heavily biased” and “heavily biased” against hardware founders like himself, in part because there is little historical precedent on which potential investors can rely. to make decisions.
“We don’t just make a funding announcement and go back to work,” Sandu said. “We will continue to break down these barriers that exist.”
Sandu explained that as a Ghanaian-American who grew up in Compton, successful black entrepreneurs like Jay-Z, Beyoncé and Rihanna have deeply inspired him. Sandu met Jay-Z after working with the late rapper Nipsey Hussle and, separately, with Beyoncé on an augmented reality (AR) experience.
Sandu said when he first connected with Jay-Z, it was “a perfect harmony.”
“Jay is actually like a big brother, but also like a good friend, but also an investor,” Sandu said. “Me and Jay have a great business relationship.”
He shared that he and the 24-Grammy Award-winning musician exchange ideas and share the same vision for how they can make an impact.
“I hope more people can see this unconventional way of approaching business and be inspired to know what it’s like for me, because even though I love, like, Silicon Valley VCs, I can only say so much, because the culture is so different,” Sandu said.
“There is a huge gap.”