Watches.io Raises $1.9M Pre-seed Funding to Democratize $75B Luxury Watch Market
Miami, Florida, United States, February 13th, 2024, Chainwire
Watches.io, the first end-to-end tracking and trading ecosystem for watches, has announced the successful closure of its pre-seed round, raising a total of $1.9 million USD. The round was led by Lemniscap, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Marin Ventures, Soft Holdings Inc, Builder Capital, Darkside Capital, Non-Fungible Technologies, and a host of top Web3 founders and angel investors, including Partners from top funds such as Dragonfly, Lattice, No Limit Holdings and more.
Watches.io aims to simplify the tracking, trading, and purchasing process for luxury watches – a market that is rapidly growing in popularity among Gen Z and millennials. Research from Boston Consulting Group places the luxury watch market at a $75 billion valuation, with second-hand sales comprising 30% of the market. Against a backdrop of crypto market fluctuations and countries pursuing dedollarization, swiss luxury watches are now considered very strong stores of value – ascending as a new type of reserve currency – with globally recognized brands maintaining consistent market values across regions.
Watches.io is the first e-commerce peer-to-peer marketplace for real physical items to be built on Web3 infrastructure. The smart contract-powered platform enables users to monitor their watch portfolios with precise, real-time market data, pursue diversification opportunities and execute seamless buy/sell transactions. The Watches.io Watch-based NFT infrastructure is supported by partner NFT Finance (NFTfi) platforms, enabling collectors to use a Watch-backed NFT as collateral for a loan, for example.
Watches.io was founded by longstanding watch enthusiast and entrepreneur Jake Plonskier. While studying for his Master’s Degree in Accounting from the University of Florida, Jake worked part-time with Horus Watch Straps, and continued to help the early-stage startup during his tenure with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In 2019, Jake doubled down on his passion for the watch industry, breaking from the safe and secure PwC career path in favor of the exciting but risky startup route, going full-time with Horus Watch Straps. Over a two year period, he became an integral part of the Horus leadership team at a critical juncture in the company’s evolution, helping transform Horus Watch Straps into a bonafide global brand while serving in key roles such as Vice President, CFO and COO. Jake onboarded over 125 distributors and authorized retailers and set up distribution channels in markets such as Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Russia and India – helping the company achieve seven-figure revenue growth. This first-hand industry experience helped Jake develop a deep level understanding of the nuances and inefficiencies of traditional watch trading processes.
Recognising the friction confronting watch traders transacting in fiat currencies and the transition to USDT in wholesale groups – in parallel with the evolution of NFT marketplaces and aggregators – Jake was inspired to disrupt the luxury collectibles market with a modern platform that turns watches into tradable assets with blockchain and NFTs. Based on the structure and order that aggregators brought to the NFT market, Jake knew the same infrastructure could revolutionize the highly fragmented luxury watch market. Under Jake’s stewardship, Watches.io has emerged as the most comprehensive aggregator of real-time market prices for luxury watches worldwide, and was recently selected as a Google Web3 venture cloud partner.
Jake Plonskier, CEO and Founder of Watches.io, said: “Amidst growing recognition of luxury watches as an asset class, the archaic, legacy process of transferring ownership remains a huge barrier to fluid trading. At Watches.io, we want to broaden the accessibility of the luxury watch market, enabling enthusiasts and investors to trade watches in a frictionless manner and expand their digital portfolio while doing so. This funding round will give us ample financial runway to assertively establish a market leading position and expand our product offerings in line with user demand.”
Shaishav Todi, General Partner at Lemniscap, said: “We’re delighted to lead the pre-seed round for Watches.io – a platform spearheading innovation and accessibility in the dynamic $75 billion luxury watch market. With luxury timepieces ascending in popularity as stores of value and investments in recent years, the Watches.io team have developed a full suite infrastructure platform to bring much needed structure and user-centricity to the growing ecosystem. Lemniscap is very excited to support the company’s expansive growth pipeline in 2024 and beyond.”
About Watches.io
Watches.io is the first end-to-end tracking and trading ecosystem for watches, enabling users to monitor their watch portfolios with precise, real-time market data, pursue diversification opportunities and execute seamless buy/sell transactions. Watches.io is also the first e-commerce peer-to-peer marketplace for real physical items to be built on Web3 infrastructure.
About Lemniscap
Lemniscap is an investment firm specializing in investments in emerging crypto assets and blockchain startups. Since its founding in 2017, Lemniscap has funded multiple investments in the crypto blockchain space, on the core belief that blockchain technology will upend traditional business models, resulting in profound changes in the world economy. The Lemniscap team consists of talented people with backgrounds in financial markets, PE/VC, technology and entrepreneurship. For more information, visit https://lemniscap.com/.
