Aptos Labs Makes Strategic Investment in Mereo to Revolutionize Fan Engagement

[PRESS RELEASE – Palo Alto, United States, August 29th, 2024]

Aptos Labs Teams Up with Mereo to Address Asset Scalping and Strengthen Fan Loyalty, Transforming the Artist-Fan Connection Through Fairer Engagement Practices.

Aptos Labs, a leading innovator in blockchain technology, today announced a strategic investment in Mereo, a pioneering platform reshaping fan engagement and loyalty. This partnership aims to revolutionize how artists and IP owners connect with their fans and address the growing challenge of IP-related asset scalping in the music and entertainment industries.

Fans around the world engage daily with their favorite artists through music streaming, purchasing merchandise, and attending live events. However, effectively identifying the most loyal fans and fostering meaningful engagement remains a significant challenge for the industry, which often relies on disparate data from multiple platforms to build fan communities.

Mereo offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges, empowering artists to recognize and reward genuine fans while creating opportunities for casual fans to deepen their engagement.

A Paradigm Shift in Fan Engagement

Mereo’s platform introduces a transformative model for artists and IP owners to allocate access to real-world assets and experiences based on fans’ historical actions. Fans can earn benefits such as early access to merchandise and enhanced experiences at live events by accumulating financial and non-financial contributions on their fan journey. These contributions are securely recorded on-chain as soulbound digital assets linked to a fan’s on-chain identity.

Unlike platforms using fungible tokens and NFT collections where access can be bought and sold, Mereo offers a more equitable and inclusive model for fan engagement. A fan’s reputation, captured through non-transferable tokens, allows them to publicly and pseudonymously demonstrate their loyalty to their favorite artists.

“Our team is committed to building infrastructure that enables fans to control the value of their actions and gain recognition from their communities and beyond,” said Jaeho Jang, Co-Founder of Mereo. “We are excited to revolutionize the music industry by moving beyond traditional, ineffective multi-touch attribution models that fail to drive meaningful revenue. By partnering with artists, we provide transformative value through deep insights, helping them understand and engage their fans more effectively.”

Innovative Technology for Genuine Fan Engagement

Engaged fan communities collectively generate substantial value for assets such as tickets or merchandise.

Aptos utilizes the Digital Asset (DA) standard, a cutting-edge Non-Fungible Token (NFT) standard designed to solve complex industry problems. These NFTs can be customized to be transferable, soul-bound, burned, or mutated, providing unparalleled flexibility.

In collaboration with Mereo, Aptos Labs is developing a novel solution to combat IP-related asset scalping through soul-bound, tokenized, redeemable real-world assets. This innovative approach allows artists and other IP owners to allocate assets to their verified loyal fans, ensuring these assets remain non-transferable. Owners of these assets cannot profit from scalping but are entitled to a full refund once a burn transaction has been completed and verified on-chain.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Mereo to tackle asset scalping and better recognize true fan loyalty,” said Christie Lee, Head of Partnerships, APAC at Aptos Labs. “Integrating our technology with Mereo’s platform is set to create a more rewarding and fair experience for artists and their fans alike.”

By addressing the core issues of the modern fan engagement, Mereo aspires to restore the joy and excitement that come with being a part of a community, making every experience not just an action but a celebration of the artist-fan connection.

About Aptos Labs

Aptos Labs, co-founded by Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, is dedicated to creating better network tooling and seamless usability to bring the benefits of decentralization to the masses. Having now raised over $400M, Aptos Labs is backed by top-flight investors, including a16z, Jump Crypto, Dragonfly, PayPal Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Franklin Templeton Investments. For more information: www.aptoslabs.com & X.

About Mereo

Mereo is revolutionizing fan engagement by empowering IP owners to identify and create more engaged fans. As an experiential and social platform, Mereo enables fans to earn benefits from their reputation. By onboarding the intangible value of community action on-chain, Mereo aims to transform these actions into redeemable real-world assets and experiences.

Official website and X