Online auction platform Portion has reportedly raised $5.5m in its seed round of funding.
The round was supported by unnamed institutional investors, according to a report by FinSMEs.
New York-based Portion is a blockchain-powered online auction platform for arts and collectibles, using smart contracts to increase the security of transactions. It works by an artist community verifying the origin of a product and once done, it is given ‘blockchain certificate’ to verify and track the provenance of the art.
The identities of bidders and sellers are verified on the platform and a catalogue of individual collections is built. During auctions, smart contracts are used to ensure there a sufficient funds from bidders and to ensure seamless payments once the sale is over.
Portion also offers users short-term loans in cryptocurrency to help secure the goods. Buyers can also opt for financing so they purchase an item without the need to pay it back immediately. Buyers can also access insurance to protect a newly bought item.
In the future, the company will issue the Porti Token which will provide distributed profit sharing. The tokens will also support the authentication and appraisal of physical arts and collectibles.
According to the company’s roadmap, it shall begin the distribution of Porti Tokens to investors at the start of 2019.
Earlier in the year, fellow blockchain-powered provenance verification platform Everledger raised $10.4m in its Series A funding round. The company uses AI and IoT to track the provenance of high-value assets on its global digital ledger.
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