East Ventures leads $3m round of real estate NFT startup

Fraction, a Hong Kong and Thailand-based fintech firm that tokenizes real estate, has raised US$3 million in a pre-series A round led by East Ventures, with the participation of Emtek Group, Thakral Limited, and V Ventures.

Fraction co-founders Shaun Sales (left) and Eka Nirapathpongporn / Photo credit: Fraction

Founded by Eka Nirapathpongporn and Shaun Sales in 2018, Fraction links offline properties to NFTs, which can be divided and sold to interested parties. This allows buyers to own small portions of real estate. The startup also has a platform for trading fractional pieces of property.

The company said it will use the fresh funds to execute its plans to launch its first fractional real estate offerings, as well as to accelerate growth into multiple asset classes, services, and jurisdictions.

“We can now enable true financial inclusion letting small investors participate in attractive asset classes that were previously inaccessible,” said Nirapathpongporn, who is also Fraction’s CEO.

The fundraise comes months after the company’s Thailand unit earned an initial coin offering portal license from the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission. Real estate tokenization is estimated to cover US$1.4 trillion worth of assets globally in the next five years.

Before this round, Fraction had raised an undisclosed seed funding from investors in the traditional finance and tech industry, including Singha Ventures, Tanarra Capital, and Skystar Capital.