The pandemic has led to renewed interest in many childhood collectibles like baseball cards as we have had more time to spend at home to sort through old boxes. At the same time, there has been a meteoric rise of blockchain-based technologies using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to create a new class of digital assets. Dibbs is a fractional sports card marketplace that issues NFTs for individual cards (the physical asset) and allows collectors to purchase fractional shares on the blockchain. Shares are available as low as a $1 and the platform has already processed over 100K card trades for 17,000 users since launching in beta in March. The sports card marketplace is expected to soar to $100B per annum by 2027 and Dibbs is providing the infrastructure that ensures that this opportunity will be easily accessible to the masses through fractional ownership.
LA TechWatch caught up with Cofounder and CEO Evan Vandenberg to learn more about the resurgence of sports cards, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $15.8M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Dibbs recently announced its $13 million Series A financing round led by Foundry Group. Tusk Venture Partners, Courtside Ventures, and Founder Collective also participated in the round, as did a syndicate of superstar athletes, including Chris Paul, Channing Frye, DeAndre Hopkins, Kevin Love, Kris Bryant, and Skylar Diggins-Smith. The new capital, which comes on the heels of a $2.8 million seed round announced in March 2021, enables us to scale our team, add new product verticals, and expand globally.
Tell us about your product or service.
Dibbs is the only real-time fractional sports card marketplace, enabling fans to buy and sell fractions of sports cards in real-time. Physical assets available on Dibbs are assigned NFTs that are fractionalized on blockchains including Ethereum, Wax, and Flow with smart contracts defining ownership and other rights. Our platform is available on iOS, Android, and Web.
What inspired the start of Dibbs?
I am a longtime collector of memorabilia and had the idea to start Dibbs while working in business development at the blockchain company, Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX). We founded the company amid the COVID-19 pandemic—a time when people were finding things to do at home, which often meant digging up sports collectibles. The space then blew up: eBay sales of trading cards soared, and thousands of people discovered or rediscovered their interest in collectibles. And as technology continues to disrupt legacy financial systems, consumers are growing accustomed to defining ownership beyond the physical. Thus Dibbs—an easy-to-use, mobile-first platform that makes collectible trading an essential part of the fan experience—was born.
How is it different?
Dibbs combines the physical sports cards market with sports-related digital tokens. Traders can send physical cards to Dibbs to have them digitally represented so that they can then be instantly traded on the Dibbs platform either as a whole card or as fractional interests. This digital representation is managed via NFT technology, which makes card tokens non-fungible Digital Assets that are transferable on blockchains including Ethereum, Flow, and WAX. Card Tokens are then fractionalized for trading using smart contract technology.
One of the key differences of our marketplace is that it’s available to collectors with budgets of all sizes, starting at just $1. Trading cards and other collectibles can be expensive and fans often find themselves “priced out” before getting in on the action. The Dibbs platform levels the playing field: fans can now own fractions of cards that otherwise would have been out of reach.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
We are targeting the sports card market to start, with other collectibles verticals to follow. Market research indicates that the sports card industry was worth $13 billion in 2019 and could be worth as much as $100 billion by 2027.
What’s your business model?
Dibbs makes a profit on each trade a buyer makes. Each trade will include a fee ranging from 0.1% to 5.0% of the Order Value, paid by the buyer.
How has the business impacted by COVID-19?
Our business began at the beginning of the pandemic and grew quickly as a result of so many people having more time at home. Day-to-day interests shifted, with people rediscovering—and discovering for the first time—their passion for collectibles. During its limited iOS, an invite-only beta that started in March of 2021 and ended in July, for example, Dibbs processed millions of dollars across more than 110,000 trades.
What was the funding process like?
This most recent round we were able to leverage the data and success of our beta period and answer a lot of lingering questions we faced frequently during our seed round financing. We were able to garner interest relatively quickly from investors and athletes, all of whom were very intrigued by a platform that allowed people to buy pieces of sports trading cards in a more accessible and fun way.
This most recent round we were able to leverage the data and success of our beta period and answer a lot of lingering questions we faced frequently during our seed round financing. We were able to garner interest relatively quickly from investors and athletes, all of whom were very intrigued by a platform that allowed people to buy pieces of sports trading cards in a more accessible and fun way.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Despite the growing popularity of NFTs and sports cards, some people were still skeptical. Many were concerned about people’s need to physically hold an item and I think this past year and the explosion of digital collectibles showed that people are more than willing to own things digitally, separating ownership from possession.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Our platform allows more people to invest in sports cards they could not traditionally afford, expanding and modernizing the market simultaneously.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Over the next six months, we’re focused on improving our product and introducing new features, specifically evolving the sharing and community elements of the platform. We’re also focused on a vertical expansion, as we’ve seen that fandom knows virtually no bounds, so we want to support fans from all walks of life. We’re also looking to expand Dibbs’ presence outside of the US.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
This is a historically great time for raising early-stage capital! COVID, and the acceptance of Zoom-based pitching, has made it much easier to connect with venture capital funds and angel investors across the world. You are truly no longer limited to Silicon Valley or funds in LA. Entrepreneurs should be looking across the board for potential investors and starting with well-connected angel investors is always a great start. The spider web of introductions that spawn during early fundraising conversations can be incredibly powerful.
This is a historically great time for raising early-stage capital! COVID, and the acceptance of Zoom-based pitching, has made it much easier to connect with venture capital funds and angel investors across the world. You are truly no longer limited to Silicon Valley or funds in LA. Entrepreneurs should be looking across the board for potential investors and starting with well-connected angel investors is always a great start. The spider web of introductions that spawn during early fundraising conversations can be incredibly powerful.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We are constantly growing our team with the best talent we can find both here in LA and across the world. As we build out the team, we will keep growing our market share in the collectible card market while we evaluate and build towards future collectible offerings for the platform, both in the physical and digital collectible realms. Then, we’ll buckle down to getting Dibbs into the hands of people across the globe.
What is your favorite restaurant in LA?
Favorite is a really hard question, but El Cholo is my mainstay. They get more of my business than any restaurants combined.
