TRLab's founder Li Xin (Chairman) and Ou Jinqiao (CEO)
• TRLab led by women collaborates with top artists, foundations, and art institutions worldwide, launching multiple original digital art experiences with educational significance.
• Founders Li Xin and Ou Jinqiao combine their extensive expertise gained from leading international auction houses and important contemporary art museums to place interactive experiences as the core of art pieces, embarking on new explorations in the digital domain.
• This round of funding will be used to expand the impact of the two-year-old startup company in the international market and continue to co-incubate new projects with global artists, foundations, and institutions.
September 6, 2023—Innovative company TRLab, which combines top-level art and cutting-edge technology, announced that it has raised $5 million in seed funding, led by blockchain-focused investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners and OKX Ventures, with participation from investment branch HashKey Capital of the HashKey Group.
The successful completion of this round of financing signifies that this team, founded and led by women, has once again gained favor in the capital market. TRLab, co-founded and led by Li Xin, the Non-Executive Vice Chairman of Christie's Auction House, and TRLab CEO Ou Jinqiao, was incubated by Dragonfly Capital and has received support from many heavyweight art collectors and tech entrepreneurs, including Pace Gallery, Animoca Brands, BAI Capital, as well as Artsy, the world's largest online art trading platform, and the founder of the top contemporary art institution Shanghai Bund Art Museum (RAM).
Since its establishment in New York and Hong Kong, TRLab has been committed to collaborating with artists, foundations, and art institutions, incubating and producing projects, while providing high-quality digital art interactive experiences for collectors. So far, TRLab's platform has collaborated on multiple projects with mainstream fashion magazine Vogue, Alexander Calder Foundation, which represents the twentieth century's most important sculptor Alexander Calder, contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, and Rhizome, a digital art organization affiliated with New Museum in New York. TRLab's concept is to combine online learning, interactive challenges, and digital art collections to make it easier for audiences in the digital age to access and understand contemporary art and art history. Through the "play-to-learn" approach, TRLab has popularized Alexander Calder's career and works among participants from 60 different countries. The multi-faceted collaboration with the Calder Foundation will continue until 2024.
This round of funding will be used to introduce more artists, foundations, and cultural institutions to collaborate with TRLab, expand the company's market share in the international market, and integrate new technologies to enhance the digital art collection experience. In the next six months, TRLab will launch several digital art experiences in collaboration with renowned artists and foundation institutions, and will hold its first offline art exhibition in November this year.
TRLab Co-founder and CEO Eur Jinqiao said, "We are honored to receive the favor and support of Hivemind and OKX Ventures through the innovative way of collecting art. TRLab has always established our unique style in the field of digital art and has built a solid foundation by following our mission, and has discovered broader development opportunities. This also proves the great demand of the public for art experiences centered around digital technology, and our original digital art projects continue to promote people's deep understanding of art and artists."
Hivemind and OKX Ventures see TRLab's unique values as key factors in their investment decisions and will provide strategic support to TRLab in the markets of the United States and Asia, respectively.
Zhang Yechuan, Founder and Managing Partner of Hivemind Capital Partners, said, "Hivemind believes that TRLab has the ability to lead the cultural renaissance of the digital art era, perfectly integrating world-renowned artworks with cutting-edge technology. With their team's vision and excellent partnerships, we are delighted to support their mission to create a future for high-end digital collection."
Jeff Ren, Partner at OKX Ventures, said, "OKX Ventures firmly believes in the transformative power of art in the digital process. TRLab makes art collection more diversified, and their team pioneers a new era that combines digital technology with timeless artistic expressions. We are honored to support such a mission."
About TRLab
TRLab combines innovative technology with contemporary art, dedicated to creating the future of art collection. Since its establishment in 2021, TRLab has successfully launched digital art collection experiences collaborating with leading digital and traditional artists, including the multi-season educational project "Questions from Kaldor" developed in partnership with the Kaldor Foundation; the interactive collection journey "Your Daytime Fireworks" in collaboration with contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, which has been shortlisted for the 2022 Lumen Prize; the first digital art collection series "Vogue Meta-Ocean" curated and selected globally by Vogue, and more. The 2021 limited edition NFT series "Blow Yourself Up" developed by TRLab in collaboration with Cai Guo-Qiang is now permanently collected by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
About Hivemind Capital Partners
Hivemind Capital Partners is an investment firm focused on Web3 and blockchain technology. Hivemind is dedicated to standardizing digital asset investments by combining native cryptographic technology and expertise with institutional-level risk management and practices. With a research-driven and multi-strategy approach, Hivemind aims to unlock the potential for digital assets to become an investable asset class by providing carefully planned and scalable consultancy to institutional investors. Established in 2021 and headquartered in the United States, Hivemind has offices worldwide.
About OKX Ventures
OKX Ventures is the investment arm of OKX.com, a leading global trading platform. It focuses on discovering the most promising blockchain projects globally, supporting cutting-edge blockchain technology innovations, and driving the flourishing growth of the global blockchain industry through long-term structural value investments. OKX Ventures started with an initial capital of $100 million. We are committed to building top-tier companies for entrepreneurs contributing to the development of the blockchain industry and providing global resources and industry experience to blockchain projects.
About HashKey
HashKey Capital is an institutional asset management company focused on the digital assets and blockchain industry. With a digital-native and globalized presence, HashKey Capital helps traditional institutions, Web3 founders, and top talents capture high-growth opportunities in the blockchain industry. As one of the most influential and largest crypto funds globally and one of the earliest institutional investors in Ethereum, HashKey Capital has managed assets totaling over $1 billion since its establishment, investing in 500+ projects across various tracks such as infrastructure, tools, and applications. With a profound understanding of the global blockchain industry, the HashKey team has built an ecosystem connecting entrepreneurs, investors, developers, community participants, and regulatory bodies.
