DATA analytics start-up StarApple Analytics Limited, through a planned expansion of its services, will over the next few months be seeking to launch the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) among its suite of offerings available for take-up in the local market.

The offer, which the company said was not new in its arsenal of services, forms part of a greater push to promote and get more companies involved in the trade of digital assets. This, as it also seeks to book new clients and drive additional revenues for firms operating in the space.

The technology-driven company will target chiefly large financial investment entities that have access to large portions of data. Private investors who may want to create new companies and are interested in generating revenues from the data they produce will also be scouted. StarApple Analytics helps businesses to empower their employees to predict, optimise and make decisions based on data.

“The launch of NFTs will be linked to our business services [to] which we will be applying our own algorithmic approach to help companies to extract value from the data they produce, which is a big thing globally. The model that we have developed for clients will help them to track the values generated, and once a company purchases any of these NFTs, it can access the specific services for the year including staff training, market research and data science services,” said Adrian Dunkley, chief executive officer (CEO) of StarApple Analytics, speaking to the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

“Through our investors locally we are trying to provide value in the local market as we seek to make Jamaica the hub for data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). The reality is that majority of the data collected by companies are not being utilised for business value, so we will be providing direction as to how they can apply these techniques to get that value,” he told the Business Observer. He notes that a concierge data scientist will be assigned to conduct market research, test data and assess the value in potential new products which can be sold by companies.

NFTs are pieces of digital content linked to blockchains, the digital database which underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. However, NFTs – unlike cryptocurrencies which are generally more fungible – are unique and not mutually interchangeable. They are tokens that can be used to represent ownership of unique items including data, art and other collectibles.

Globally, NFTs represent a billion-dollar industry which, up to the end of 2021,saw trade in assets climbing to US$22 billion, up from US$100 million in the previous year according to data from DappRadar — a firm that tracks sales.

“We want this to spur a new industry where local artists can use NFTs. Not just visual artists, but musicians and all others, to ensure they get full intellectual property (IP) value out of all of the things they are producing,” Dunkley stated.

StarApple Analytics, following a 15 per cent acquisition of the company by the RJR/Gleaner group last year, said it was further positioning to double down in markets as it also moves to grow the operation.

“We will be doing a Caribbean expansion with plans to open about five offices before the end of this year. The idea is to also open these offices to support thrift industries locally including agriculture, manufacturing, predictive policing and crime prevention, and non-profits,” the CEO said, further adding that, “Beyond the NFTs, which we are seeking to launch, we also have very practical underground projects that we’ve pushed out. Over the last year we have significantly increased our staffing as well as ramped up a lot of the experiments we’ve been working on. It’s an ever-changing field so we have to stay ahead of the cutting edge – and a big part of that for us is creating customer lifetime value.”