Business

“We want to be a blockchain startup factory,” says Fausto Vanin, partner at OnePercent

Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner of OnePercent. Photo: OnePercent/Courtesy.

OnePercent works with blockchain solutions and is behind some of the latest innovations in the Brazilian market, such as the world’s first tokenized carbon credit, MCO2, from Moss, a startup focused on blockchain environmental solutions that became OnePercent partner in May last year. MCO2 is the first Brazilian crypto asset listed on major global exchanges, such as Coinbase and Gemini, in addition to Brazil‘s Mercado Bitcoin, and has already helped offset the carbon footprint of more than 300 companies such as GOL, Reserva, iFood, and Hering, allocating more than BRL 100 million for conservation projects in the Amazon rainforest.

“We started early. We entered the segment when the topic was still in its infancy. And our model has evolved interestingly over five years,” said Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner of OnePercent, in an interview with LABS.

According to him, OnePercent’s business model journey can be divided into three key moments: The first was marked by the development of blockchain software, which focused on the tech background for different segments. In a second moment, OnePercent started to have its own product, an asset tokenization software, which still worked through a product contracting model, but not as a service.

Now, in its most mature phase so far, OnePercent claims to have structured a model that allows it to co-create new businesses using its technologies. “Today we act as venture builders, as we build new businesses with our expertise and technology. We not only provide the technology and knowledge, but we participate from business modeling to execution, creating new businesses together,” said Vanin, noting, without giving too many details, that “the company grew 20 times between 2020 and 2021 “.

He believes that the future entry of new investors into the business would be essential to develop its venture building model. “With this positioning, we have two approaches to investors: we want to make the businesses derived [from our expertise] viable, bringing in investors as co-founders or financial enablers,” said Vanin.

Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner of OnePercent. Photo: OnePercent/Courtesy.

We want to be a blockchain startup factory, strengthening businesses in specific segments. We do some of that with Moss and Netspaces [another Brazilian real estate ‘digitization’ startup]. We want this model to take shape over time
Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner at OnePercent.

The Netspaces’ case is one of the main success stories of OnePercent so far. The startup worked with the concept of digital property, developing one of the first real estate tokenization projects in Brazil in partnership with Netspaces and Imovelweb (one of Brazil‘s most prominent real state ads portals).

“The Netspaces project was very interesting for introducing the concept of digital property. Both in the approach of renting or selling real estate and having this product presented in digital form by the NFT, as well as for opening a series of possibilities. Netspaces works with tokenization of assets in the real estate market, articulating technological solutions. Create a digital experience with legal and contractual security. It was a very interesting case as an example to show the potential of this model,” said Vanin.

Another interesting example was a partnership with Volkswagen to celebrate the relationship between the brand and its fans. OnePercent developed a collection of 600 packs of NFTs that sold out in less than a day. The product was marketed in South and North America, in addition to Europe. “We create collectibles in the form of packs, as well as experiences, such as a virtual tour of the company’s factory. Buying the Volkswagen NFT, you got exclusive pieces of art. We sold all the items in just 8 hours. We even auctioned off some items too, which performed very well over the course of a week.”

Today, OnePercent’s business model has a revenue mix. Some projects have an equipment assembly cost that requires an initial effort to make the project viable. “In general, we seek to develop new businesses that can connect with the technological base we already have. So we pay an operating cost so that the operation continues to work,” said the co-founder.

Another critical source of revenue is profit sharing, which allows the startup to keep a portion of the income from the products it places on the market. With the venture building guideline, this should evolve into equity participation in new businesses.

Metaverse, new businesses and social impact

Buzzwords like ‘metaverse’ help open up new business opportunities for companies like OnePercent, but not everything is really new.

This topic is, at the same time, superheated and very vague. I personally believe in multiple metaverse experiences, not just one metaverse as it is often treated. I feel that this novelty creates a market expectation that is positive because it attracts attention to our business. On the other hand, it brings confusion, as the promises of the metaverse are already a reality. Tokenized assets, augmented and virtual reality… All this already exists; it is not something that depends on the metaverse
Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner at OnePercent.

The financial and the games markets are also segments that interest OnePercent. “I believe that today we are experiencing a moment of transformation similar to the emergence of digital banks. There is a perception that it is possible to make processes and segments go fully digital, and this creates many new opportunities,” he added.

The company is a partner of Universus.Game. Using play-to-earn gaming, blockchain-based games allow users to receive rewards that can be paid in cryptocurrencies, tokens, or even NFTs. The game is yet to be released, and OnePercent is doing all the tokenomics part — tokens, NFTs, among other interaction points in the game that have blockchain applications. But in addition to the new markets to be explored, Vanin highlights the importance of not forgetting the social potential of blockchain.

“\We also believe that blockchain goes beyond that, and has very strong social potential. We’ve been talking to some very interesting projects that use technology to have a social impact. So that people have more access to new economies, the financial industry safely and with less costs and barriers. We want to reach the vulnerable population of Brazil, the so-called “unbanked” public. We have seen initiatives that increase microcredit and make financial accessibility possible. Blockchain can be that connecting element, allowing people to be financially connected on a scale not regional or national, but global.
Fausto Vanin, co-founder and partner at OnePercent.

This post was last modified on May 16, 2022 5:32 pm