AfrofutureDAO Announces $1M Africa Metaverse Fund for Africa’s Creative Industry on Hedera, launches ‘Derived’ a Web3 product for Museums and NFT Creators

Tuesday, February 07, 2023 – Lagos, Nigeria – AfrofutureDAO, a Web3 startup building tools for Africa’s Creative Industry to launch into the Metaverse, announces the launch of the African Metaverse Fund, a $1 Million grant fund for Africa’s Creative Industry to launch into Web3. The Africa Metaverse Fund is a collaboration between The HBAR Foundation and AfrofutureDAO to support Africa’s Creative Industry to be a first mover into Web3.

“The past few years have seen an explosion of African culture into the global mainstream through films like Blank Panther and artists like Burna Boy,” says Osinachi, Co-founder of AfrofutureDAO, “It’s important for Africa’s Creative Industries to be a first mover to the metaverse to unlock the immense value of Africa’s rich culture so we can reinvest it into the continent’s youth”

As a part of the announcement, AfrofutureDAO is announcing its first product, Derived, a platform for Africa’s cultural institutions and museums to collaborate with NFT artists to remix archives into their artwork. Museums can use the Derived to monetize their digital archives in new ways while co-creating the NFT artist community. Through their first product,

AfrofutureDAO aims to fulfill its mission of empowering Africa’s cultural and historical assets to launch into Web3.

Derived is launching with a collective of museum partners including the Centre For Memories in Enugu, and The Mohammed Amin Foundation in Nairobi.

“By telling Africa’s story through the power of photojournalism and the beauty and complexity of great art, we plan to share the rare, historic moments that shaped modern-day Africa.” says Salim Amin, Chairman of Camerapix and The Mohammed Amin Foundation, “The time is right. The continent is immersed in a tide of unprecedented economic, cultural and social development. And the recent history that drives the present – the often turbulent events of the past two generations – is well articulated in the stories and images represented by all the partners involved in this initiative.”

Camerapix is one of the oldest media houses in Africa, and its television crews and photographers have extensively covered nearly every country on the continent. Through its founder, legendary photojournalist Mohamed Amin, Camerapix has covered every major humanitarian disaster, conflict and success in Africa over the past five decades, including helping to re-write the history of famine relief and NGO involvement in Ethiopia in 1984.

To date, AfrofutureDAO has generated 36.45 Ethereum across 3 NFT auctions. The DAO organizes a flagship quarterly NFT drop week where 5 African creators' history NFTs and 5 still photographs from African history are dropped in a public auction format.

Museums can sign up for Derived at https://derived.art

To learn more about AfrofutureDAO, visit https://afrofuture.ai

About AfrofutureDAO

AfrofutureDAO is a Community DAO, launched as a part of Seed Club’s 2nd cohort, on a mission to fully unlock the value of Africa's history and creative industries in Web3. We do this through curated NFT drop weeks, bespoke metaverse events for African brands, and 1/1 commissioning of Africa’s top creators.

‍About The HBAR Foundation

The HBAR Foundation supports the creation of Web3 communities built on the Hedera network, by empowering and funding the builders developing these communities. The Foundation’s six funds - focused on the Crypto Economy, Metaverse, Sustainability, Fintech, Privacy, and Female Founders - each support communities within those areas, and the interconnectedness enables applications to participate as part of a larger ecosystem. The collective power of these funds enables entrepreneurs, developers, and enterprises of all sizes to tackle some of the world’s largest problems, and create and control their own economies, all built on the Hedera public network. Whether you’re building something new or migrating an existing EVM-based application and community, the HBAR Foundation is here to support you. For additional information, please visit https://hbarfoundation.org/