Alt Secures $75 Million After Poaching Top eBay Exec Nicole Colombo

Earlier this week we covered the news of how former General Manager for Collectibles and Trading Nicole Colombo had left eBay and joined Alt. Nicole joined the new collectibles startup as their President, which was formally announced on their LinkedIn on November the 8th.

Well, today it appears that she may have been privy to some insider information which may have swayed her decision to jump ship, as Alt has just announced a $75 Million Series B round in the industry’s first-ever community-led funding round.

The funding round features some well-known names including serial investor Naval Ravikant as well as professional athletes Tom Brady and Giannis Antetokounmpo. You can see the full announcement from Alt below.

The Alt Series B Funding Announcement

“Today, we’re excited to share that we’ve raised a $75 million Series B in the industry’s first-ever community-led round. Now more than ever, founders are raising money directly from their communities who have supported them along the way. For this round, we intentionally raised money from thought leaders at the intersection of culture, community, and capital.

AngelList Co-Founder Naval Ravikant and Accomplice Co-Founder Jeff Fagnan ignited the round via Spearhead, a program that gives seasoned founders a first fund to angel invest, and who believe that the best investments come from founders directly. Alexis Ohanian’s fund Seven Seven Six also participated. 

In addition, we welcomed a set of founders and operator-led funds: Vibe Capital, Breyer Capital, Shrug Capital, Apollo Group, Hyperguap, A*, Packy McCormick, Todd Goldberg, and Rahul Vohra, and Julian Shapiro.

Professional athletes Tom Brady, Candace Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Morgan, and Marlon Humphrey join our existing investors Kevin Durant, Larry Fitzgerald, and Kelvin Beachum. 

“As pioneers in the alternative asset space we wanted to do something innovative with our own cap table that felt authentic to what we’re building. We’re really excited to partner with some of the industry’s best operators and globally-recognized athletes, to make Alt the destination where culture and finance connect.”

Leore Avidar, Founder and CEO, Alt

At Alt, we’re envisioning a world where anything is an investable asset. We’re reimagining liquidity and banking products to support the next generation of investors. Using trading cards, we’re establishing a proof of concept to create financial products that traditional financial institutions don’t support or recognize as collateral. Over the next few years, we plan to roll out to other asset classes to support everything from trading cards, watches, NFTs, and even LP interests.

Since launching earlier this year, customers have added over $200 million of assets to their portfolios, $70 million of assets are custodied in our physical Vault, and the Exchange has experienced 30% MoM growth in GMV. In September, we launched Liquid Auctions, providing instant liquidity and asset transfer for hundreds of curated assets at auction. 

“We define alternative assets as any asset that a traditional bank does not consider real collateral. Where the banks stop, Alt starts. We want to be the financial platform for the next generation of assets,”

Nicole Colombo, President, Alt

As innovators in the investing world, we want to be equally forward-thinking when it comes to building our foundation. We’re an early adopter of Web3 and we’re building our core infrastructure with blockchain so we can move with agility.

Later this month, Alt will be available on the App Store and Play Store, so you can track the value of your cards, share your collection, discover other cards, and transact in an engaging and smooth mobile experience.”

With an impressive Series B funding round with some huge names behind them, Alt is definitely one to watch going into 2022, especially with their awareness of the NFT space. We will keep you up to date on the latest developments.

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