Timeless, the Berlin-based company founded in 2018, has just secured €12 million in funding for its platform that lets users buy shares of a wide range of luxury assets – democratising the asset investment arena.
The luxury goods market is historically a thriving industry. Culturally significant assets in particular, in particular, the art market alone represents an estimated €1.5 trillion asset class. The only problem is that the asset category has also historically been closed off to the masses, and remained as an investment opportunity for the wealthy.
Enter Timeless. The young company is on a mission to democratise access to the asset category (including artwork, watches, classic cars, memorabilia and so on) by enabling users of its platform to purchase fractional shares of items from as little as €50. Timeless buys the items, fractionalises, and deploys them through a blockchain protocol, meaning it can fully trace the history of collector items.
Led by EQT Ventures — with participation from existing investors including C3 EOS VC, La Roca Capital, and Porsche Ventures — the new funding will be used to grow the supply to meet consumer demand and bring a wider range of assets onto the platform. Alongside the funding, Timeless is also announcing the launch of its trading platform as a secondary marketplace.
Co-founded by Jan Karnath (CEO), Andreas Joebges (CTO) and Malte Häusler (CFO), the company’s ambition is to go beyond ownership, and to transform asset investment to being more about acquiring ownership of a piece of history and culture.
Jan Karnath, CEO and co-founder of Timeless, commented: “We’ve seen a recent boom of physical and digital collectables, whereby most investors can’t participate due to limited access, expertise and capital — leaving attractive treasures only accessible to the elite, closed to the average consumer. But that’s about to change. Timeless is for investors interested in rare collectables, ranging from watches and shoes to classic cars and art. It is our mission to provide smaller investors the opportunity to attain such assets through tokenization and fractional ownerships”
The platform currently has 75,000 users and already is seeing assets sell out in a matter of minutes. From Bansky artwork that sold out in 11 minutes, to the Michael Jordan Collection (Jordan 1985 sneakers and signed jersey), there is an asset investment available to everyone.
It’s estimated that over the next 30 years the generational transition of Baby Boomers to Generation X to Millennials will result in trillions of euros of wealth exchanging hands – giving massive opportunities for new demographics to enter into an investment. With this new era of investment, it’s high time for a new approach to investment – which Timeless is offering.
