Source: OpenSea
OpenSea recently announced that it had closed a staggering $300 million Series C funding round that increased the company’s overall value to $13 billion. Hedge fund Coatue Management and Paradigm led the fundraising efforts. The recent growth shows the most impressive jump OpenSea had so far and resulted in unmatched success over the last few months.
The OpenSea is a digital economy where investors and enthusiasts can buy, sell, auction, and discover digital assets such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), rare digital collectibles, and crypto collectibles. It is currently the largest NFT marketplace in the world, welcoming a wide range of patrons, from NFT collectors, artists, investors, and traders. OpenSea was founded in 2017 and has since demonstrated outstanding success over the years, scaling its value from thousands of dollars to billions today.
OpenSea raised a total of $1.5 billion last year. The company aimed a raise at the valuation of almost $15 billion before the investors settled to $13 billion. Besides Coatue Management and Paradigm, the Series C funding round was fueled by prominent personalities and entrepreneurs, including Kathryn Haun, previously a partner at 16z, and now the leading brain behind a new Web3 and crypto-focused investment fund.
Furthermore, over the last 30 days, OpenSea has seen a volume in its transactions amounting to over $2.4 billion, along with millions of dollars in transaction fees. The company’s unprecedented growth has been valued at $1.5 billion by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm. On top of OpenSea’s own growth, the industry itself also benefited from the recent success as other NFT firms and platforms, such as Dapper Labs, raised over $7.6 billion last year.
OpenSea is continually increasing its value over the years. In a recent tweet, Joe Pompliano highlighted how the company’s transactions volumes grew from $474k in 2018 to over $8 million the following year. Then, the transactions nearly tripled in 2020 at $24 million before hitting its highest record yet of $15 billion in 2021. The exponential growth of the platform can be attributed to the rise of Non-Fungible Tokens and the relevance such assets play in the rapidly-emerging metaverse.
Although OpenSea faces much competition in the industry, the company is confident that it could reach greater heights and stay on top of its game in 2022. OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer explained that the recently raised funding would be used towards product development efforts, customer support, hiring, Web3 investments, and many other worthy causes that would propel the platform further. In addition, the funding gives OpenSea a game-changing advantage in the NFT market and will allow it to stay ahead over emerging platforms.
“We are committed to expanding the entire NFT ecosystem. 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,” said Finzer. “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.”
