Fractional Investing Company Public Acquires NFT Startup Otis – Otis, a digital collectibles and non-fungible token (NFT) technology startup, has been acquired by Public, a fractional investing firm. The acquisition, according to Public’s co-CEO, will allow the company to offer people the only place in the world “where people can invest in and build a modern portfolio with any fractional asset.”
In a blog post on March 9, the investment group Public announced that it has acquired the NFT auction platform Otis. It was first reported on Otis at the end of 2021, when the company announced that it will be auctioning off six physical assets.
Amint condition 2003 Topps Chrome Lebron James Rookie card, a 1993 Simpsons Matt Groening DeBart card, a Pokémon Yellow Gameboy video game, Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. 3, and a 1971 Bob Ross painting were among the physical goods unveiled that day.
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In essence, Otis takes a $5K or more item and mints an NFT that symbolizes the actual tangible object. The NFT is then given to the owner of the physical item, and it can be traded and fractionalized. Public, through its website also enables fractional investing, as the company sells fractional shares of equities and exchange-traded funds to customers.
Public has raised money on multiple instances, including an initial seed round in 2018, a Series A through C round in 2019, and a $1.2 billion Series D financing in 2021.
“We’re thrilled to announce the purchase of Otis, a pioneer in fractional investing in NFTs, art, and collectibles,” Public co-CEO Leif Abraham said in a statement on Wednesday.
“With Otis’ addition, Public will soon be the only place in the world where anyone may invest in and construct a modern portfolio with any fractional asset.” NFTs, art, collectibles, real estate, cryptocurrency, funds, equities, and more are all available in one spot.”
In the previous year, fractionalized digital collectibles have become a trendy issue, with a number of projects devoted to the concept. For example, using a native token called utoken, the protocol Unicly fractionalizes NFT collections. According to dappradar.com metrics, the current market capitalization for fractionalized NFTs is $89.2 million as of this writing.
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Courtyard, a physical-backed NFT platform, recently teamed up with asset protection provider Brink’s to hold 1,000 graded Pokémon cards before minting them into NFTs.
Fractional and Daofi, two different projects, both offer fractionalized digital collectible products. According to Dappradar.com, the fractionalized Doge NFT (DOG) is the largest project of its kind in terms of market capitalization.
