By
Temitope Olatunji
April 19th, 2024
SKNUPS has raised vital funding and struck a working relationship with Dolce & Gabbana to promote fashion and metaverse integrated projects.
Digital fashion company SKNUPS has raised $3.5 million in pre-seed funding to push its blockchain game collectibles agenda. SKNUPS (pronounced Skin Ups) also announced a global gaming partnership with Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana. To commemorate the Dolce & Gabbana collaboration and subsequent lead into the first collectible campaign, SKNUPS also announced a key digital drive. According to the London-based digital fashion company, a new inaugural digital drop is now live on its official website sknups.com. An official statement on the website read:
“Dolce & Gabbana has entered a strategic partnership with SKNUPS to create and integrate branded skins into leading games, led by drops of limited-edition digital collectables launched exclusively on the SKNUPS platform.”
Participating investors in the SKNUPS funding comprised several fashion and Web3 platforms, angel investors, as well as traditional funds. Notable names include Redrice Ventures, Blue Wire Capital, and Adelpha, to name a few.
SKNUPS as Melting Pot for Fashion and Blockchain-powered Applications
Founded in 2020, SKNUPS seeks to enhance the user experience enjoyed by gamers, crypto followers, and fashion followers in Web2 and Web3. The platform empowers this class of end-users with the ability to level up their skins across the digital world.
In December 2021, SKNUPS launched in stealth open-beta mode. Since that time, the company has worked with a mix of global fashion brands as well as emerging young fashion designers. The latter category of up-and-coming fashion players includes Benny Andallo and James Mack. Speaking on the rationale behind SKNUPS’ mode of operation, company chief executive officer Fred Speirs explained in a media session:
“We saw the opportunity for brands to move more in a digital world to connect better with Gen Z consumers in the places where they were having fun and socializing.”
Furthermore, expositing on how gaming presents the best opportunity for brands to digitally connect with young contemporary consumers, Speirs also added:
“And that’s happening so much in games now. It was the excitement of how do you bring those two worlds closer together.”
SKNUPS intends to provide gamers with the resources they require for online self-expression. Speirs believes that the digital fashion collectibles startup is capable as it can wield the wealth of experience it has.
“We’ve got a really great team that brings together strong expertise and background on the fashion side, really strong deep tech know-how behind the platform and what we’re developing, and then lot from the game side as well,” said he.
SKNUPS Funding and Dolce & Gabbana Collaboration, Underscores Increasing Trend of Fashion Meeting the Metaverse
SKNUPS’ latest funding and key partnership with Dolce & Gabbana reflects the growing trend of fashion-oriented platforms integrating with tech virtuality. This virtual phenomenon also extends to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital currencies and crypto payments, as well as digital stores. Last week, online luxury fashion marketplace Farfetch announced that it would begin accepting crypto payments later this year. This follows a similar move by Gucci, which announced in May to start accepting crypto payments in select US stores.