By Sukanya Ganesh — Jun 5, 2023

🧑‍🦱 Digital Avatars for Creators

Genies - enabling creators to sell their digital selves as NFTs

Today's Highlights

Genies - innovating the digital creator web3 economy

Blockchain events - upcoming events in the blockchain/web3 world.

In Other News - a few interesting developments we're tracking.

Genies - innovating the digital creator web3 economy

Digital avatar startup Genies is known for its high-profile partnerships with celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Migos and Cardi B. It has released its long-anticipated NFT storefront, “The Warehouse.” The Los Angeles-based company partnered with NFT creator Dapper Labs to develop the storefront on Dapper’s Flow blockchain. The Warehouse is available to the general public, meaning users can download the Genies Studio app to create their own avatars and buy digital fashion items to dress them. Genies is partnering with a handpicked group of creators to design the first set of collections that will be available on the platform. One of the first collections will come from fashion photographer and influencer Tati Bruening.

Users can also leverage in-app tools to modify the clothes they purchase, allowing them to personalize items they purchase from these collections. Creators will be selling their own avatar fashion. And when they do sell out, if a fan or follower or anybody within the community decides to buy it for their own avatar, they also now have the rights to be able to edit it or DIY it within the studio platform, so they can use the tools and create a derivative collection, and then sell the derivative fashion line in The Warehouse.

Because each item is an NFT, the original creator gets a cut of the revenue each time that item is resold and owns the intellectual property behind the design. Genies charges a 5% fee on each sale, allowing creators to keep the majority of the revenue they earn on each transaction. On Genie, only approved sellers on the platform will be able to launch collections to start, though the company says it eventually wants to empower all its users to create unique 1-of-1 fashion items.

Akash Nigam and Evan Rosenbaum are the founders of Genies. They have raised a total of $267M in funding.