Overview
Chiru Labs is a tech startup known for creating Azuki – a web3 anime brand that has become one of the most popular NFT collections in 2022.
Spearheaded by an Asian-American team and former Overwatch Art Director Arnold Tsang, the company is building decentralized brands at the intersection of anime art, blockchain technology, and streetwear.
Headquarters
🇺🇸 Los Angeles
Employees
👤 15-30
Est. Revenue (2022)
🪙 $90 Million
Vision of Chiru Labs
The vision is for Azuki (Chiru Labs) to be a blueprint for what a decentralized brand looks like, where the community has ownership in the brand and can actively participate in the success of it.
Zagabond, Founder Chiru Labs
Products
Founders
Alex Xu
Zagabond
Co-founder, CEO
10 years of work experience from 0x Labs, Google, Amazon
UNKNOWN
2PM.FLOW
Co-founder, CTO
Worked at Google, went to Y-Combinator
UNKNOWN
Location TBA
Co-founder, Engineer
Former Facebook software engineer
UNKNOWN
Hoshiboy
Co-founder, CPO
Worked at startups that went to Y-Combinator twice
Executive Summary
Pros
- $90M+ in estimated revenue in 2022
- Strong execution of their timeline in creating digital & physical utilities for the community
- Cooperations with brands like Red Bull Racing and Bilibili
- Artwork done by ex-Overwatch Character Art Director A. Tsang
- Introduced ERC-721A smart contract to optimize mint costs
- Introduced the Physical Backed Token that ties a physical item to a digital token on the blockchain
Cons
- Not fully public founders team with unverified backgrounds
- The team has shared a mind map but not a specific roadmap yet for the foreseeable future
- Business model is dependent on trading royalties which are not enforced by new marketplaces
- High percentage of fake followers on Twitter and Discord
- Zagabond, one of the founders, has abandoned other NFT projects in the past