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OpenSea, one of the most talked about blockchain startups in Silicon Valley, said on Tuesday that it has raised $300 million in new venture capital, making it the latest company to rush to fund cryptocurrency start-ups.
The new financing round, led by investment firms Paradigm and Coatue Management, has increased the valuation of the company to $13.3 billion just four years after its founding. According to data provided by the company, OpenSea has previously raised more than $100 million from a number of investors, including investment firm Andreessen Horowitz and actor Ashton Kutcher.
Founded in 2017, OpenSea was created as a marketplace for people to buy and sell NFTs, or immutable tokens, which are unique pieces of digital code powered by blockchain technology.
NFT items vary, but the most popular tokens are digital art pieces created by artists who list their works for auction on the OpenSea site, similar to listing them on eBay. Winning bids can sometimes reach hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, many of which are linked to NFT types.
As crypto-focused start-ups have become more popular in recent months, OpenSea has become a central place for enthusiasts to trade NFT. This has caught the attention of investors who are increasingly willing to place larger bets in the busy cryptocurrency space.
More than $3 billion in private investment gone to NFT companies In 2021, according to data compiled by PitchBook, a firm that tracks private investments. PitchBook said investors spent more than $28 billion on cryptocurrency and NFT startups globally last year overall.
“In 2021, the world has awakened to the potential of NFTs to unlock utility and economic empowerment across a wide range of industries, communities and creative categories,” said Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea. “Our vision is to be the destination where these new open digital economies will thrive.”
Still, many cryptocurrency critics consider the craze around NFTs and blockchain technology to be a fashion chock-full of questionable activity. There was a brief controversy surrounding OpenSea last week after one of its bosses claimed that. $2.2 million NFT stolen from him. (OpenSea later froze the stolen assets and banned the trading of items on its site.)
These concerns have not stopped technologists. Start-ups focusing on cryptocurrencies and NFTs hiring large numbers of employees from large tech companies Meta, like Google and Amazon, lures them in with the promise of working on new and potentially lucrative technologies. Last year, Brian Roberts, Lyft’s former chief financial officer, left the ride-hailing company to join OpenSea as its first chief financial officer. The company also recently hired Meta’s former vice president of commerce, Shiva Rajaraman, as vice president of product.
The company said it plans to use the new funding to add more than 90 employees, while doubling the size of its trust and security team. The company also plans to invest heavily in product development to make blockchain technology more accessible to mainstream consumers and will soon launch a grant program to support creators and blockchain creators in the NFT space.
There were earlier reports that OpenSea was seeking funding. reported tech newsletter by Newcomer.
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