Polychain Capital led a $22 million Series A2 fundraising round for Upshot, a technology that gives non-fungible token (NFT) assessments. It’s difficult to determine the worth of an NFT because the answer is essentially “what someone is willing to pay.” Pricing data, on the other hand, is essential for both future NFT traders and engineers looking into the junction of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFTs.
Upshot, which debuted in 2019 as an insurance-focused prediction platform, gathered real-time NFT appraisal data by asking people to evaluate collectibles in exchange for honest or expert judgments. Developers can use Upshot’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the data into their applications. The Upshot analytics platform is now in private beta, but it will soon be offered to the general public.
Upshot intends to use the fresh funds to expand its workforce, do additional research and development for its pricing models, and fund a revolutionary DeFi primitive and accompanying developer tools.
Polychain joined prior investors Framework Ventures, CoinFund, Blockchain Capital, Slow Ventures, Mechanism Capital, and Delphi Digital, among others, in the Series A extension.
Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, said in an interview:
“Polychain was designed to be a collective intelligence platform that compensates users for correctly modelling and pricing exotic assets. Upshot has deep knowledge of NFT markets and has demonstrated the effectiveness of their pricing algorithms in the past with industry-leading accuracy metrics, an appraisal of Sotheby’s Bored Ape Yacht Club batch auction, and more.”