Fraction raises US$3 million led by East Ventures to democratize investments by turning real estate and more into fractional NFTs

Fraction, a Hong Kong and Bangkok based fintech startup, announced that it has secured US$3 million in a pre-series A round led by East Ventures, with participation from Emtek Group (Grab, Bukalapak), Thakral Limited, V Ventures and a group of regional investors.  The raise follows its award of Thailand’s ICO Portal License (subject to activation approval) from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC) and the announced plans to offer fractionalized ownership in some of Thailand’s most iconic real estate assets in Q1 2022, on their end-to-end fractional ownership platform, powered by NFT’s and blockchain.

Founded by a former Managing Director and Partner of Lazard (LAZ.NYSE) and a serial tech entrepreneur, the Company has developed the world’s first unified platform of its kind which covers:

• Fully integrated digitization and fractionalization of an asset;
• The initial offering of those fractions to investors (“Initial Fraction Offering” or “IFO”);
• A secondary market trading platform of fractional tokens between investors; and
• All related intermediary services covering the complete end-to-end journey;

Fraction will use the funds to execute its announced plans to launch the first fractional real estate offerings, as well as to accelerate growth into multiple asset classes, services and jurisdictions to revolutionize and democratize access to investments and capital for millions who are currently locked out of these wealth generating activities.

“The breaking down of barriers and providing equal access to wealth creation opportunities to everyone has become a pressing global theme. We are glad to be the forerunners in implementing a NFT and distributed ledger solution based on the Ethereum blockchain for managing multi-asset fractional ownership. We can now enable true financial inclusion letting small investors participate in attractive asset classes that were previously inaccessible. The growth opportunity for Fraction is huge where real estate tokenization alone is estimated to be a US$80 trillion market and we are excited to be at the forefront of this new wave of convergence of finance and blockchain technology,” says Eka Nirapathpongporn, Co-Founder and CEO of Fraction and former Managing Director and Partner at Lazard, a New York based global financial advisory and asset management firm.

Commenting on the investment, Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures says, “We are happy to be part of Fraction’s vision to create accessibility to capital investments, which until now was reserved to the select few, to the masses. But we are even more excited with the massive growth opportunity of this platform which makes digitization and fractionalization of real-world assets an easy everyday activity.  Real estate is the first asset class and we look forward to supporting them as they expand into multiple asset classes and jurisdictions.”

“We are very pleased to have been backed by some of the leading names in the industry who believe in Fraction’s vision and our capability to change the existing investment paradigm.  This latest round of funding will enable us to continue bridging the world of traditional finance with digital finance revolution, and the creation of completely new capital markets which will have meaningful impact to millions of people.” added Shaun Sales, Fraction Co-Founder and CTO

In addition to high profile Pre A investors, Fraction has been backed in the Seed round by some notable names, both in the traditional finance and tech industry, including SINGHA Ventures, John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital and Indonesia’s Skystar Capital.