Grammy winner establishes NFT platform for African producers, receives pre-seed funding

African Valuables Collective (AVC), founded by a Grammy Award-winning Nigerian musician, has announced the launch of its platform to help content producers develop and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The AVC platform, which is based in Lagos and Accra, is aimed to make it simple for African creators to create, manage, and sell digital art and assets through collaborations with worldwide NFT exchanges.

NFTs, for the uninitiated, employ blockchain technology to generate one-of-a-kind, non-replicable digital assets that can be readily stored online and exchanged. Lately, the market has exploded.

Eric Utere, professionally known as LeriQ, a Nigerian Grammy award-winning producer and composer, started AVC in 2020 with artists in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, with aspirations to grow across the continent. Through NFT technology, the platform is designed to help artists expand their businesses and access worldwide audiences.

Kepple Africa Ventures, Cameron Hejazi (CEO of NFT Platform Cent.co), Ronald Chagoury Jr., and other angel investors were among the investors in the startup’s recent unannounced investment round to facilitate expansion in onboarding creators.

“There currently exists extremely high barriers to entry for African content creators into the metaverse. AVC aims to assist content creators create and sell digital assets by providing a seamless and frictionless platform. In addition, we also want to educate content creators on the opportunity to sell digital assets like NFTs,” said Utere.

On the AVC platform, each creator has a profile where they may upload their materials and produce an NFT. Creators can sell their NFTs on a variety of exchanges with which AVC has collaborated, and they will be paid once the NFT is sold. On their profile, they may also keep track of their sales.

“We intend to create a novel community around AVC creators, members and the public, utilising a token to facilitate a thriving ecosystem,” Utere said.

Despite the fact that AVC is still in pre-launch and pre-revenue status, it claims to have already interacted with some of Africa’s leading content providers.

“The goal is to fully secure these content creators as part of the collective now that we have completed fundraising and are about to launch,” said Utere.