Indian start up Ikonz to manage & monetise digital IPs, NFTs across metverses

At a time when many Bollywood and sports celebrities are busy planning the launch of their digital collectibles, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), actor-investor Rana Daggubati and Anthill Ventures founder Prasad Vanga have backed Indian-American entrepreneur Abinav Varma Kalidindi’s Indian metaverse company, Ikonz.

Founded in August 2021, Ikonz is a wealth-building platform that will help IP owners, artists and other established icons manage their digital assets.

Kalidindi said Ikonz will act as a 360-degree platform for IP owners, to help them navigate the complexities of the technology, understand the different means of monetisation and upscaling.

NFTs, which are blockchain-based digital assets, saw a huge uptake in trading last year. As per data tracker DappRadar, NFTs clocked more than $23 billion in trading last year, and 2022 has started with at least three NFT sales of over $5 million each.

And, while NFTs are yet to take off in India, Kalidindi believes the country will be the next frontier and presents a “huge opportunity”.

“The social media scene will change drastically in the next 5-7 years with Web3. Everything will be in 3D. The Internet will be decentralised and based on blockchain technology,” Kalidindi, founder and CEO of Ikonz, told ET. “I have been presenting the idea of Ikonz to investors here in India after shifting base and Rana (Daggubati) and Prasad understood it very quickly.”

Ikonz, he said, will have multiple layers to it, the most basic being the management of the rights.

“What CAA or KWAN did for artists in the physical world, we plan to do in the metaverse. NFTs and royalty is just the tip of the iceberg, and we see huge potential for the right holders,” said Kalidindi.

Ikonz has already signed Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle and wants to aggregate at least 50% of India’s premium entertainment IPs under a single banner within 12-18 months.

“We will have actors, athletes, and other celebrities, as well as social media icons, content producers, studios and other rights holders,” said Kalidindi.

Ikonz will sign exclusive deals with the IP owners to manage their assets in the metaverses. “We have big plans and will be working on characters and assets which can cross metaverses. There are a lot of nuances, and we plan to work on how royalty streams will flow in case of interoperability between these metaverses.”

As per Kalidindi, most of the big brands which are currently present in the physical space will join metaverse, sooner or later.

Companies like Adidas, Nike, Pepsi and others have already launched NFT collections. In India, Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as a few cricketers have launched their NFTs.

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