Two longtime Seattle-area tech leaders are teaming up in a new company that sells NFT-based customer engagement technology to consumer-facing businesses.

Former Starbucks executive Adam Brotman and startup investor Andy Sack just raised $10 million for Forum3.

The new funding comes after co-CEOs Brotman and Sack recently advised Starbucks on the launch of Starbucks Odyssey, a new NFT initiative from the coffee giant that allows Starbucks Rewards members to earn and purchase collectible digital stamps, then purchase them. and sell them in a marketplace with other members of the loyalty program.

Through its technology platform, Forum3 plans to work with brands to remove the normal frictions that come with blockchain technology, such as having a crypto wallet or owning cryptocurrencies. Users will be able to interact with a company’s customer loyalty platform with their credit cards and phones. The goal is to sell a white-label version of the Odyssey to other consumer-facing brands, Sack told GeekWire.

Sack said that brands offering something like Odyssey will be the “predominant consumer use case for blockchain.”

Forum3 plans to target other midsize to large companies in industries ranging from consumer packaged goods, hospitality and travel. You will earn money through licences, royalties and other service fees. Sack said that Forum3 will be “chain agnostic,” meaning it will eventually work with all kinds of blockchain platforms.

The startup’s first project was a three-stage NFT “drop” with author and screenwriter Ben Mezrich, and he also helped on a collaboration with the Boston Globe. After that, in April, Starbucks leaders reached out and Forum3 became strategic advisors to Odyssey.

There are a number of players in the Web3 loyalty space advising brands and individuals on NFT-based loyalty technology. Hang recently raised $16 million and works with brands like Budweiser and Bleacher Report. Sack said Forum3 will be able to compete because of his and his and Brotman’s experience and connections.

Sack co-founded the Seattle-based early-stage investment fund Founders’ Co-op, then ran Techstars Seattle for five years, with a cohort producing three unicorns. Subsequently, he worked alongside Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as an innovation and digital transformation consultant. Most recently, he was an investor in the native blockchain venture fund Keen.capital.

Brotman was the chief digital officer for Starbucks, where he helped create the Starbucks mobile app, which now handles more than a quarter of the company’s orders. He is also the former CEO and current president of Brightloom, a startup that helps companies turn their customer data into personalized marketing campaigns.

“We understand how to work with big brands,” Sack said. “There will be aspects of our platform that are very different than standard players in the space.”

Blockchain startups have struggled to secure funding this year, part of the broader market downturn and flurry of negative headlines hanging over the crypto space. Venture capitalists deployed just $4.44 billion into crypto-related ventures in the third quarter of the year, Bloomberg reported, down 37% from the same period last year.

The rapid collapse of digital asset exchange giant FTX last month also sent contagion through the crypto industry.

Sack said that some people have been “building Ponzi schemes and scams around cryptocurrencies and these tokens, and they are of no use in the world.”

“All of that is somewhere in left field,” he said. “We are far away in a totally different space. We have a real business case.”

The financing round was led by Decasonic, with the participation of Bloccelerate, Liberty City Ventures and Arca. Other investors include Polygon Ventures and Valor Siren Ventures.