Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea announced the firm has raised $300 million in a Series C funding round led by Paradigm and Coatue. Opensea’s latest capital raise has propelled the company to a $13.3 billion post-money valuation.
Opensea Raises $300 Million, Commands Post-Money Valuation of $13.3 Billion
In mid-November, a report authored by theinformation.com’s Kate Clark and Berber Jin explained that Opensea was fielding new investments after investors were allegedly chomping at the bit to fund the project. At the time, Opensea’s estimated valuation was $10 billion and two sources said: “investors are clamoring for a piece of the startup.”
48 days later, Opensea has revealed it raised $300 million in a Series C finance round. The team says that the new funding will go toward “accelerating product development,” “significantly improve customer support,” “investing in the wider NFT and Web3 community,” and expanding the Opensea team. The funding round was led by Paradigm and Coatue, and a number of other strategic investors joined.
Opensea All-Time NFT Sales Near $15 Billion, Eclipsing Competitors, Firm Plans to Launch Grant Program
According to Opensea, the new funding gives the company a $13.3 billion post-money valuation. Opensea is also the largest NFT marketplace, in terms of all-time sales, as the company has recorded $14.68 billion in sales across 1,387,357 traders worldwide. Sales are up more than 25% during the last 30 days with a recorded $2.91 billion in volume. The $14.68 billion in sales is a lot larger than any other NFT project or market.
For example, the second-largest market, Axie Infinity, has $3.94 billion in all-time sales which is 73.16% lower than Opensea’s sales. Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of Opensea, explained in the funding announcement that the team is creating a grant program to help expand the “entire NFT ecosystem.” At press time, the Opensea platform supports NFTs based on the Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) networks.
“This quarter, we are launching a grant program to give us the opportunity to directly support the developers, builders, and creators shaping the future of the NFT space,” Finzer said in a statement. “Our ambition is to foster the scale and growth of the broader NFT ecosystem including raising the profile of emerging creators and investing in the people who shape the NFT space for the better today.”
