Blockchain Startup Ekta Receives 891 Billion Rupiah Funding from Global Emerging Markets

Blockchain technology development startup Ekta announced $60 million (over 891 billion Rupiah) funding from Global Emerging Markets, a New York-based alternative asset investment group. The fund is said to be used to prepare a series of blockchain-powered products such as NFT marketplaces, hybrid crypto exchange platforms, blockchain-based games, and real estate investments.

"The funds will be used for the development of the Ekta ecosystem, liquidity for the NFT marketplace and hybrid exchange, the development of the plant-to-earn MetaTrees game, marketing, and building a technology team," Ekta's CEO, Berwin Tanco said.

Was launched in August 2021, Ekta stands as one of the most focused decentralized protocols for aligning blockchain with the physical world. Headquartered in Bali, Indonesia, the company was founded by Berwin Tanco (CEO), Yog Shrusti (CSO), and Jason Zheng (CMO), and now has a total team of 75 people worldwide.

It was written in the blog that Ekta's founders have the vision to empower blockchain utilities to provide opportunities for everyone to live a better life. Therefore, Ekta leverages the power of blockchain to create a new and transparent ecosystem, allowing everyone from all backgrounds to participate.

Ekta's developed mainnet i, called EktaChain, tokenizes real-world assets, such as property, music, art and gold. Ekta token holders will be able to transact and interact with financial products to grow their wealth, earn money by playing games, buy and sell digital and tangible assets. All of these products will later be combined in one super-app.

“This app will be a Web2 practice using Web3 as a backbone, therefore, people will easily get involved and no need to know whether there is a crypto or blockchain behind it,” Ekta's CIO, Sven Milder added.

Ekta's products

Source: Ekta

Lately, the crypto market is bearish, affecting most Web3 companies. However, Tanco remains optimistic since the company has a unique proposition that will ultimately provide good benefits once the market recovers. “We are in a very good position during this decline period as we believe the next trend is blockchain bridging to the physical world and Ekta has been doing so since 2021.”

Ekta will create a cross-chain NFT platform for trading, staking, and exchanging physical assets with digital asset representation. The Ekta NFT marketplace will serve as a bridge through which NFT developers and physical asset owners interact with other brands and individuals through their virtual collections.

Compared to similar players, Ekta is closely tied to real-world use cases, has value and utility, and is asset-backed. The NFT marketplace, for example, will sell tokens that link real-world assets and values ​​with projects offered on its platform.

MetaTrees is a blockchain-based game that allows players to earn crypto while playing an active role in conserving real-world natural resources. Meanwhile, Ekta Island, a 16-hectare land located near Bali and owned by time Ekta, will be a blockchain-fueled physical space and will offer token fractional investment and access to ordinary people.

One of Ekta's flagship products is the Ekta Portal, the company said that this is the world's first endpoint node to reward operators with cryptocurrencies. By activating the device via the Ekta NFT Portal, operators can start earning a daily reward of 10 thousand Ekta tokens which will be divided by the number of active operators. Having NFT Portal Ekta automatically whitelists holders for all Ekta offerings, such as Ekta Island and MetaTrees.

By bringing blockchain solutions to traditional industries, businesses, and physical assets, the company aims to attract more people to the crypto world. “While 10% of people on the internet hold crypto, we are targeting the next 10% by building true utility and value for them,” Tanco said.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian