Miami-based music startup Unitea reports it has raised $7M in seed funding

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Unitea, a provider of an engage-to-earn music platform, announced it has raised $7 million in seed funding over several rounds. The rounds were led by 1st Class Guernsey, Chaos Capital, TokenSociety and Fuel Venture Capital.

Led by co-founder and CEO Ketan Rahangdale, Miami-based Unitea deepens connections between artists and their fans while giving brands advertising opportunities that enhance the end-user experience, the company says. The app enables this by incentivizing music fans to support their favorite artists by creating content with music and branded filters from their favorite artists in exchange for blockchain-authenticated rewards. Brands use that data in advertising, and artists can also access the data for valuable fanbase insights that deepen their connection with fans.

“We’ve cracked the code on deriving meaningful benefits through engage-to-earn within the music space. Unitea gives digital assets real purpose across the engagement cycle, empowering artists and brands to cultivate and grow a passionate fan base organically,” said Rahangdale, in a statement.

Rahangdake founded Unitea, formerly JOOX Music, in 2013 while a student at the University of Central Florida. In 2015, JOOX won the university track pitch competition at eMerge Americas.

The company reports that it has generated 2,000 reward activations since 2020 and its board includes Pitbull (Armando Perez) and Claude VonStroke (Barclay Crenshaw). Miami-based Fuel VC funded the company in 2019. Unitea moved its office to the One Flagler building in downtown Miami in 2021.

Unitea is using the seed funding to expand the capabilities of the platform within the music industry and beyond.

“Today’s fans are looking for a different level of interaction from the brands they love, and this technology finally makes that possible,” said Simon Nicholls, chairman of family office 1st Class Guernsey. “The level of engagement data collection that is possible with Unitea’s platform is incredibly enticing, and we’re excited to be a part of this movement as it grows.”

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Nancy Dahlberg

I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

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