India-based music NFT platform FanTiger, founded by ex-Gaana CEO Prashan Agarwal, raises $5.5m – Music Business Worldwide

India-based ArtistFirst Technology Inc, which runs music NFT marketplace FanTiger, has raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital.

FanTiger was founded by Prashan Agarwal, the former CEO of prominent Indian music streaming service, Gaana.

It was also co-founded by Krishna Singh, a computer science engineer from IIT Kanpur who brings 17+ years’ experience heading technology for various organizations.

FanTiger is one of the latest NFT startups to attract millions of dollars in funding, in spite of recent reports from the likes of the Washington Post questioning the future value of the wider NFT sector following recent instability in the crypto market.

The round saw participation from Krafton, Pravega, GAMA, Woodstock, IOSG, Polygon Studios, Sandeep Nailwal (Co-founder Polygon), Gokul Rajaram, Prashant Malik and Miten Sampat.

Through the FanTiger platform, users can buy music NFTs to get access to exclusive communities, and earn rewards and privileges like exclusive content, meet-n-greet opportunities, and backstage access.

FanTiger says that artists can use proceeds from the sale of music NFTs on song creation, production and video, and can also commit a certain percentage of the royalty from the song to the fan community for marketing the song.

FanTiger is yet to officially launch, but the company has opened an early access program.

Elsewhere in the global NFT market, Serenade recently raised $4.2 million, plans expansion into the US

“The business of music should be to serve the best interests of Artists.”

Prashan Agarwal

Prashan Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder, said: “The business of music should be to serve the best interests of Artists.

“With the advent of blockchain, music NFTs have the ability to disrupt the music industry, much like music streaming transformed music listening.

“FanTiger is at the forefront of this revolution to redefine the music industry by creating Artist-Fan relationships as has never existed before to give birth to a new era for Music. Our vision is to onboard 10 million users to our platform to own digital collectibles and supercharge the career of 100k artists.”

“The FanTiger platform is uniquely positioned to grow the digital collectibles ownership in the music industry.”

Kyle Samani, Multicoin

Kyle Samani, Partner, Multicoin, added: “The FanTiger platform is uniquely positioned to grow the digital collectibles ownership in the music industry.

“We are excited to partner with Prashan, who brings vast experience of building the largest music streaming platform in India, to disrupt the music industry once again.”Music Business Worldwide