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July 21, 2021 Coin Telegraph

OpenSea is the latest crypto unicorn after 0M funding round

100 million

OpenSea also announced expanded support with Polygon, and noted that “Buyers no longer have to pay blockchain fees when making trades on OpenSea.”

OpenSea has become the latest crypto unicorn after it announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

The unicorn status is attributed to firms that are valued at over $1 billion, and OpenSea now joins a long list of crypto unicorns such as Coinbase, Animoca Brands and Chainalysis to name a few.

We're expanding! Announcing our $100M raise and $1.5B valuation, led by @a16z

OpenSea is also now cross-blockchain. NFTs that you create can now be gas-free, allowing creators to fully earn their way into crypto for the first time

Details ↯ https://t.co/EeQfyZTxUA 1/2
— OpenSea (@opensea) July 20, 2021

The fundraise included participation from hedge fund and private equity firm Coatue, along with backing from figures such as former Walt Disney president Michael Ovitz, actor Ashton Kutcher and NBA star Kevin Durant.

In a July 20 blog post, alongside the $100M funding round OpenSea also officially announced expanded-blockchain support, starting with a “gas-free” marketplace on Polygon, a layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution.

“Buyers no longer have to pay blockchain fees when making trades on OpenSea, and creators can fully earn their way into crypto for the first time,” the firm revealed.

According to TechCrunch, OpenSea also is planning to expand support to Dapper Lab’s Flow blockchain along with Tezos in the future.

The latest funding round shows significant growth for one of the top NFT marketplaces in the industry and follows on from its $23 million Series A funding round in March, which was also led by Andreessen Horowitz.

OpenSea specifically didn’t confirm what the funds would go toward, but a Forbes report stated the funds will be used to grow the team, building further cross-chain support, and improving user experience. Kathryn Haun, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz will also be joining OpenSea’s board of directors.

OpenSea also teased that it has ambitions to launch other projects to accompany its NFT marketplace in the future:

“Our broader mission is to help create the systems and standards that enable the conversion of all types of digital wealth into forms that are truly ownable and freely exchangeable.”

Despite a general cool down of hype towards the NFT over the past few months, Cointelegraph reported on July 7 that NFT sales in the first half of 2021 topped $2.5 billion.

According to data from DappRader, the OpenSea marketplace has seen $181.92 million worth of volume from 553,000 transactions over the past 30 days.

Dapper Labs-backed NFT avatar platform raises $65M in funding

May 4, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Avatar developers Genies are set to launch an NFT marketplace on Flow later this year after closing a Series B funding round with $65 million.

Digital avatar developer, Genies, has raised $65 million to build an NFT marketplace for digital avatars on the Flow blockchain led by several heavyweight investors, including Flow’s developers, Dapper Labs.

SEC filings dated May 3 reveal the California-based company recently closed a $65 million Series B funding round led by investment firm Bond, alongside Coinbase Ventures, Tull Investment Group, Breyer Capital, and Dapper Labs.

The $65 million is slated to fund the development of Genies’ NFT Marketplace, which will allow users to create and trade tokenized avatars, in addition NFT clothing worn by the avatars. Genies expects to launch its marketplace in beta during the third quarter of this year.

In a tweet revealing the funding, Genies stated it hopes to become the single “virtual portable identity across the digital world,” offering users a means to express themselves within the virtual metaverse.

Genies launched in 2017, initially targeting for its avatars to be used on centralized social media and messaging platforms. On April 29, Genies announced it would be teaming up with Dapper Labs to launch a Genies marketplace on the Flow blockchain.

Move over NBA Top Shot @dapperlabs has a new pet project. The Genies Marketplace is on track for a beta release this summer⚡️https://t.co/Oui29g1sqa
— GENIES (@genies) April 28, 2021

In an interview with VentureBeat’s gaming division, Genies’ CEO, Akash Nigam, noted the firm is transitioning to target a broader audience after initially planning to offer celebrities customized avatars to use in the context of digital events and launches.

Nigam stated the platform will host simple and intuitive tools allowing kids as young as six to “create their own digital wearable and goods collection and then release it in the marketplace and sell to the masses as well.”

In March, Genies released a series of NFTs in March commemorating pro-soccer player Mesut Ozil’s move from Arsenal F.C to Galatasaray in the firm’s first foray into nonfungible tokens. The tokens were auctioned on Nifty Gateway, with Genies selling out of 518 tokens for $670 each, or roughly $347,000.

Series B funding

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