The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has received its first Arab Non-Fungible Tokens platform with the launch of UPYO. UPYO has announced that it has raised $1 million in a seed funding round to facilitate its journey to create this platform.
The American-registered company intends to create a safe, simple, and high-quality platform for trading NFTs in the MENA region in order to inspire Arab artists to think, create, and engage in the NFTs marketplace.
UPYO aims to provide a gateway for users to interact in the digital economy and to connect with millions of fellow creators worldwide while freely sharing their magnificent work.
As part of the plan to support all Arabs in launching, buying and selling NFTs from a safe marketplace, the platform offers free minting, also known as Lazy Minting, through which all users can share their creative works for free without any gas fees.
According to the company’s CEO and Co-Founder, Ahmed Alsenan, the NFT market in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region is still growing.
“People are still discovering the NFT experience. So, we wanted to be their gateway to this amazing digital economy. Our company strives to nurture and promote Arab and MENA talents, giving them a platform to display their work and connect with millions of people globally,” Alsenan said.
Alsenan pointed out that many Arab audiences are still struggling to find their way around the NFTs market because they are dealing with unsecured and spam platforms that tend to leave them deceived and defrauded.
“…that’s why we aim to light up the green light for all our audiences by providing them with a safe environment in which they feel comfortable to share their work and also to protect the uniqueness and copyrights of their work,” the company CEO added.
According to SkyQuest Technology, the Global Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) Market was valued at USD 15.70 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 122.43 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.10% between 2022 and 2028.
UPYO’s vision is also to spread awareness about the metaverse which is reportedly set to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030 as many large companies are investing their capital into its development.