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Two former Meta Platforms executives are launching a new non-fungible token startup for creators. Kirthiga Reddy and Saurabh Doshi have raised more than $8 million for their new company Virtualness, The Information is first to report. It will let creators design, produce and showcase digital collectibles and will launch next year. Reddy was the first Meta Platforms employee in India and is a former SoftBank investor. Doshi was the former head of creators in emerging markets at Meta and former vice president at Viacom Group.
It’s a tricky time to launch a Web3 startup. For one, NFT marketplaces are facing pressure from competitors to stop requiring traders to pay creators royalties, or a cut of the transaction, every time they buy a collectible. Then there’s the broader crypto environment. Confidence in crypto has been rattled by the sudden crash of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, which was the second largest crypto exchange in the world.
