BAXUS, a global marketplace for collectible spirits, announced a $5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital. Significant contributions came from Solana Ventures, Narwhal Ventures, FJ Labs, and some high-profile angel investors.
The company will use the funding to scale its sensor and vaulting technologies and serve the growing retail and institutional interest in the collectible spirits market.
Collectible wines and spirits represent one of the most rapidly expanding and lucrative asset classes with the global luxury wines and spirits market forecasted to surge from $250 billion to $470 billion by 2032. But being predominantly localized, disconnected and auction-based, the collectible spirits market is highly illiquid, inefficient and opaque creating countless challenges for collectors in pricing and sourcing specific, coveted bottles.
Built with Solana, the BAXUS Marketplace harnesses open Web3 payment infrastructure to reduce costs, increase transparency, and infuse liquidity into a historically fragmented and offline market. And BAXUS enables users to transact using credit card, ACH, direct wire, and crypto or USDC.
Inventory gets added to the marketplace when collectors send their bottles to the BAXUS Vault, a secure and temperature-controlled network of locations that provides storage and insurance for collector’s prized bottles. Every bottle is scanned in high resolution, tokenized, and represented on-chain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in collectors’ dashboards, enabling them to instantly list and trade for a fraction of traditional fees. Provenance, information, and pricing data is securely attached to every bottle. And any bottles purchased on BAXUS or stored in the BAXUS Vault can be redeemed at any time or left in the vault to be securely stored or traded at a future date.
Late last year, BAXUS acquired BoozApp, an app for collection tracking and valuation that enables all spirits enthusiasts to meticulously manage their collection, including purchase prices, tasting notes, and fill levels and provide them with instant valuations of their bottles. And BoozApp is one of the most popular apps for collectors, tracking over 1.5 million bottles and over $100m in collective value. The company plans to integrate BoozApp’s inventory and data into its marketplace, granting collectors unprecedented visibility into their collections and desirability. The BAXUS Market Value – which represents the fairest market value based on multiple data sources – helps collectors find their most coveted bottles at the best prices. And this integration enables collectors to seamlessly list their bottles on the BAXUS marketplace directly through the app.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve created the first and only marketplace for spirits collectors that provides pricing data, vaulting solutions, and access for everyone – from casual drinkers and budding enthusiasts to serious collectors across the global spirits landscape. With this funding, we’re primed to scale BAXUS, modernizing the antiquated wine and spirits market. Our aim is to significantly broaden market participation, making collecting and trading as easy as a trip to the liquor store or swapping tokens on chain.”
- Tzvi Wiesel, CEO and co-founder of BAXUS
“BAXUS is uniquely positioned to create a new, liquid market out of a previously opaque one. We’re excited to back the BAXUS team and help them transform and democratize one of the most exciting and profitable asset classes. The fine spirits market desperately needs better pricing, liquidity, and authenticity; it’s similar to other collectible markets, like sneakers or trading cards. BAXUS is building a blockchain-powered StockX for the spirits industry, which, if history is a reference, should radically expand this market in the coming years.”
- Spencer Applebaum, Investment Partner at Multicoin Capital
