As businesses try to navigate the new digital economy, many of them are looking to build a virtual presence for themselves in the metaverse. In a highly competitive market such as the Metaverse, one needs to equip themselves with the right toolkit to ensure operational success.
SandStorm launched its beta platform at SXSW in Austin, TX, with a highly polished execution of its virtual presence management platform for the metaverse. SandStorm is an NFT marketplace on Ethereum that connects businesses and the best metaverse builders. The platform will allow any business to search for and hire verified studios, agencies, and independent builders across the metaverse from one simple medium. Legacy brands now have a trusted platform to discover what's possible with virtual experiences and set up their virtual presence in web 3.0.
The team behind SandStorm also provides a white glove services to help brands break into the metaverse, build virtual experiences and develop their audiences. The developers of SandStorm were concerned about the technological struggle for businesses. Anticipating the potential of the metaverse, they decided to create something that could empower businesses and bridge the gap between brands and builders.
Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, mentioned that after witnessing the overwhelming response from businesses entering The Sandbox and the Metaverse in general, they are compelled to take a more active and rewarding approach to support the Metaverse with services for businesses through investing in the SandStorm.
One of the things that let SandStorm stand out from mainstream NFT marketplaces is the layer two technology that bolsters the beta platform. This layer two technology allows NFTs to be minted and traded in the form of VOX, GlTF, ZIP, and VXM files, which are not commonly minted on chain. Full experiences in the metaverse in VOX and VXM file formats on Polygon/MATIC can now be traded for fractions of a penny, which lowers the barrier to entry dramatically for brands.
In a press release, Steve McGarry, CEO of SandStorm, was proud to announce that SandStorm has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round. Investors include The Sandbox, Fenbushi Capital, Sanctor Capital, and Rarestone Capital. "We've seen metaverse builders mint everything from skyscrapers and avatars to custom headphones on the platform. We're hyper-focused on the one-of-one NFTs that take creators weeks to construct. We're not interested in the 1,000-plus collections." said McGarry.
Sandstorm's idea of creating a more efficient marketplace for builders and businesses was supercharged by the announcement of the Sandstorm builder's program, where verified builders will be rewarded for building on their marketplace. The Sandbox will distribute a whopping 10,000 SAND ($30,000) each month to the winners. This program is a rare opportunity for builders to be rewarded for creating something on a virtual marketplace.
