NFT finance protocol Insrt raises $2.2 million in SAFT round

Insrt Labs, the core contributor of the Insrt Finance protocol, raised $2.2 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Hashkey Capital and Infinite Capital co-led the round, with Sky9 Capital, Polygon’s head of DeFi Hamzah Khan and others participating, Insrt Labs said Thursday. The funding was realized via a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT), Lauris Zvirbulis, co-founder and CEO of Insrt Labs, told The Block.

Insrt Labs was founded in March 2022 by Zvirbulis, Daniel Tsoy and pseudonymous crypto trader “hentai avenger” aka Steven, said Zvirbulis. The Insrt Finance protocol went live last December and allows users to acquire NFT exposure and earn returns.

The protocol’s first product, ShardVaults, lets users acquire “fractional NFT spot exposure combined with passive yield farming,” according to its website. “We believe that NFT finance primitives should focus more on capturing the 30,000 daily active NFT trader user base over pure DeFi yield farmers, considering that most new wallet interactions are with NFTs,” said Zvirbulis.

The current total value locked or TVL in ShardVaults is $600,000, said Zvirbulis — adding that Shard holders can currently generate 13%-15% annual percentage yield in addition to spot NFT exposure. Shards are NFTs that represent fractional ownership of a ShardVault’s base NFT. The base NFT itself is then put to work to generate yield.

Insrt Finance is built on Ethereum but has plans to support other blockchains in the near future. Zvirbulis said Insrt plans to launch “omnichain ShardVaults with a partner in the space in the coming two months” and looks to also work with Polygon.

The Insrt token is expected to launch in the third quarter of this year, according to Zvirbulis.