← State of Embedded Finance 2026

Courtyard

“Can a phygital (physical + digital NFT) marketplace make collecting more entertaining and liquid by vaulting assets and enabling instant buy-back guarantees?”

Founded2022
HQSan Francisco, CA, USA
FoundersNicolas le Jeune, Paulin Andurand
Latest roundYC W'22
IndustryMarketplace / Collectibles & NFT
The story

Founded in 2022 as a Web3 marketplace for physical trading cards, Courtyard pioneered the concept of 'vaulted and insured' physical collectibles represented as NFTs. The company initially operated on Ethereum but migrated to Polygon in August 2023 to cut costs and enable fiat (credit card) payments alongside crypto, broadening its collector base beyond Web3 natives. The embedded finance angle is primarily crypto-native: users hold USDC balances in platform wallets, purchase collectibles via credit card or on-chain USDC, and rely on Veriff KYC before physical redemption. The platform is expanding from trading cards into broader collectibles, fashion, and entertainment-driven commerce.

Last 12 months
2024-12
Product timeline
2022
Founded as Courtyard Inc. (Delaware), participated in Y Combinator Winter 2022 batch; launched platform for tokenizing physical trading cards as NFTs on Ethereum.· pivot
2023
Migrated blockchain infrastructure from Ethereum Mainnet to Polygon to reduce gas fees and improve accessibility for non-crypto collectors; introduced credit card purchasing alongside crypto.· pivot
2024
Launched Auctions beta with no-reserve live auctions accepting credit card and USDC on Polygon; expanded product categories beyond trading cards to include watches, comics, and fashion.· banking
2024
Introduced KYC requirement via Veriff for asset redemption; updated Terms of Service (December 2024).· pivot
The stack
Accounting gap: significant