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Check out the 14-page pitch deck Logan Paul’s Liquid MarketPlace used to raise a $6 million Series A and sell investors on the fractional ownership of collectibles
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- Liquid MarketPlace facilitates co-ownership of collectibles, such as trading cards.
- The Canadian investment groups Canaccord and PI Financial have invested in the marketplace.
- CEO Ryan Bahadori shared his strategy for raising funds and cofounding the platform with Logan Paul.
When Ryan Bahadori, Liquid MarketPlace’s CEO and cofounder, first set out to raise funds for the collectibles platform, advisors warned against having a celebrity come on board early on. Doing so would subject the company to the same scrutiny celebrities face in the public eye.
But Bahadori was convinced that bringing on the celebrity influencer Logan Paul as one of the cofounders and faces of Liquid MarketPlace alongside Amin Nikdel, the company’s president, was the right move.
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“I thought it would be a very good strategy,” Bahadori said. “I figured having someone with such a mass following and having someone who’s interested in collectibles with a mass following is almost like a win-win.”
Paul’s passion for collectibles derives from his affinity for Pokémon cards. He owns multiple high-valued Pokémon cards, including a $5.275 million PSA-grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card and a $1 million BGS-grade 10 first-edition Charizard card. He’s also documented the high and lows of collecting on his YouTube channel, including having paid $3.5 million for fake Pokémon cards, which he was later refunded.
Liquid MarketPlace has raised $8 million from investors since its founding in February 2021. In its Series A, announced in April, the Canadian company raised $6 million from investors, including the firms Canaccord Genuity and PI Financial. US investors in the round included Jeremy Padawer, the chief brand officer of the toy company Jazwares, and the Complex founder Rich Antoniello.
Liquid MarketPlace’s platform officially launched last month, offering fractional ownership of sought-after items, such as Pokémon and sports trading cards, by selling them as non-fungible tokens.
Bahadori said the Series A round would help Liquid MarketPlace bolster its tech stack, ramp up marketing, and pay legal fees associated with running the business and determining legal ownership for buyers. In a press release announcing the Series A, the company mentioned it was already working on its next funding round.
Part of Liquid MarketPlace’s strategy in raising funding from investors is to work exclusively with venture capitalists who will take a significant stake in the startup, Bahadori said.
This led to the company accepting less funding than it was offered for both its Series A and initial seed round last year. Liquid MarketPlace projected it would raise $4 million in its seed round, but it took in half that amount. For Its $6 million Series A, Bahadori said the company could have raised $20 million.
“We wouldn’t want to take any dollar from anybody who wasn’t there to be strategic or help us grow in some way,” Bahadori said. “Every single dollar we took in our seed round was from an individual that would help get to where we are today.”
Bahadori’s background as a day trader plays into that strategy. He said businesses where investors own about 50% of the company offer important long-term benefits for founders.
“You don’t want them to just look for an immediate liquidity exit and then move on,” Bahadori said. “You want to be able to structure that strength right from the bottom. And that’s why we’re here today. It’s because we’ve done that. We’ve been able to very carefully select everyone and pick the right shareholders that will help build us up.”
Check out the pitch deck Liquid MarketPlace used to raise its $6 million Series A round.