Rodrigo Blanco and Luisa de Blanco are an entrepreneur and married couple who, together with a multidisciplinary team made up of several Guatemalans, part of the company Portafolio Diversificado, created their own metaverse with an NFT collection of 5,000 virtual homes, named Platzees.
Portafolio Diversificado, which was founded by Guatemalan husband and wife team, Rodrigo and Luisa, is a private real estate investment fund that invests in housing properties in several U.S. cities, since it started in 2019.
The company owns more than 100 real estate properties with a portfolio valued at US$14 million and has 230 shareholder partners from Latin American countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, among others.
Rodrigo Blanco, founder and CEO of the company, told Bloomberg Línea that they recently raised an important round of private investment that allowed them to value the company at US$14 million (close to Q109 million).
Part of that investment was oriented to the creation of a real estate metaverse called Platzeeland, the virtual city where the 5,000 Platzees will be built, developed 100% with Guatemalan talent and brilliant minds.
Investment backed real estate
The Platzees, digital properties developed in the metaverse created by the company (Platzeeland), allow placing capital through NFT technology with the backing of U.S. real estate.
This is accessible investment model, according to Blanco, since an NFT (unique digital certificate) is purchased, which is registered in a blockchain (blockchain transaction system) to provide security and ownership to the investor who has a “valuable, profitable and collectible asset”.
The minimum amount to invest and become a shareholder of Portafolio Diversificado is US$40,000, but through this new model it will be possible to invest from US$500 (about Q3,842), even if you are in Guatemala or another Latin American country.
The investment is backed by the company, which will pay a guaranteed 8% per annum for the first year on the capital contributed, and the following years the return will be the average return of all the companies in the portfolio, with an estimated 6 to 11% per annum.
“The dividends generated by this investment come from actual income on physical, tangible properties in the United States. Each NFT is backed by real estate assets that generate dollar rents, making the project solidly backed. Platzees is the only collection of NFT’s that generates annual dollar returns backed by real estate,” said Blanco.
An NFT is comparable to owning a piece of digital art, which has the opportunity to appreciate in value over time because it is unique with a record that cannot be copied.
The Platzeeland metaverse
The NFT collection, designed by Portafolio Diversificado, was called Platzees. They are digital properties developed in a new virtual real estate marketplace, which the company also created, called Platzeeland.
Each element of the collection that was designed for Platzees was hand-digitized in 3D. In addition, each property was produced to life-size scale, which will allow the owner to interact with the Platzeeland metaverse.
There are 5,000 virtual houses, all unrepeatable, as they have been algorithmically produced with a computer program developed by Portafolio Diversificado.
Luisa de Blanco, human resources director and co-founder of Portafolio Diversificado, commented that the NFT collection, called Platzees, is a 100% Guatemalan creation. “The work team is made up of men and women over 19 years of age,” she said.
The waiting list for Platzees began on April 1. Those interested should go to platzees.io. On this page they will be able to register on the list of those interested through the “Discord” platform.
Those who are on the interest list will be able to purchase Platzees as of April 29.
“As an additional surprise for investors, among all the Platzees houses there is one that has US$40,000 of money for a real investment in Portafolio Diversificado,” the company explained in a press release.
The unveiling of the NFT collection will be in July 2022 and the launch of the Platzeeland metaverse is projected for next September.
WARNING: This is an informational article. Geek Metaverse is a media outlet, it does not promote, endorse or recommend any particular investment.
