NFT marketplace Rarible closes $14M fundraising round led by CoinFund

Published at: June 23, 2021

Major venture capital firms responsible for crypto investments have led the latest $14.2 million fundraising round for Rarible, the online marketplace behind many nonfungible token listings.

In a Wednesday announcement, Rarible said crypto investment group Coinfund and Venrock — the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family — had led a $14.2 million Series A fundraising round for the nonfungible token, or NFT, platform. Rarible said it will use the funds to hire new team members. Other participants in the fundraising round include 01 Advisors.

In addition, Rarible said it would be launching an NFT marketplace on the Flow blockchain, with users able to mint NFTs while listing them on Rarible. The platform announced it had partnered with artists and creators including Maxim, Ghostface, Johnny Nunez, and Xeo Chu to release NFTs.

“Flow has a fantastic track record of bringing NFTs mainstream by creating native experiences for non-crypto audiences,” said Rarible co-founder Alexander Salnikov. “As a blockchain, Flow enables easier access and lowers the entry barrier for consumers and brands via gasless minting, low-cost transactions, and scalability.”

Related: DeFi and NFT crossover project Aavegotchi releases ‘Gotchiverse’ litepaper

CoinFund originally partnered with Venrock to support innovation in crypto and blockchain firms in 2018 during the initial coin offering boom. The New York-based crypto investment firm also made an undisclosed investment into Rarible in September.

Rarible said at that time that the NFT sector would likely see a 50% growth in capitalization. The NFT market was worth $338 million in 2020. However, Cointelegraph reported last month that NFT trading volume could reach $175 million by October 2021, with an industry market capitalization of $470 million.

Tags
Nft
Related Posts
Buyer of Beeple’s $69M NFT on Christie’s discloses identity
The mysterious buyer of the world’s most expensive non-fungible token “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Beeple, has revealed their identity. Metapurse, a global NFT fund whose founder successfully bid and acquired the piece in a Christie’s auction for $69.3 million in early March, penned a blog post Thursday, disclosing the real names and stories of key figures behind the project. According to the announcement, Vignesh Sundaresan is the real name of MetaKovan, the pseudonymous founder of Metapurse and the buyer of the Beeple’s $69 million NFT. Before founding Metapurse, Sundaresan had been actively involved in the crypto industry since …
Adoption / March 18, 2021
The portfolio of crypto startups that anyone can gain exposure to
A crypto project says its goal is democratizing a type of investment that has been “in the hands of the rich for far too long.” Nodeseeds says it tokenizes private sales and seed rounds — allowing enthusiasts to gain exposure to promising startups at all stages of their evolution if they have an appetite for risk. The project’s founders hope to tackle some of the biggest problems that exist in public sales at present. Those interested in getting involved often need to complete Know Your Customer checks on platforms they may be unfamiliar with, and their contributions can be capped. …
Technology / May 17, 2021
Avalanche creates $200 million fund to lure top crypto devs
The Avalanche Foundation has unveiled “Blizzard” — a fund offering more than $200 million in incentives to developers who build on the Avalanche network. The fund will provide liquidity to those early-stage projects that innovate decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and other products on Avalanche. Avalanche is a Proof-of-Stake network that launched in September 2020. The network boasts Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatibility, allowing developers to port decentralized applications over from Ethereum. The network now boasts more than 320 projects that are currently building on it, including top stablecoin issuer Tether, popular DEX SushiSwap, and oracle providers Chainlink and …
Decentralization / Nov. 2, 2021
Vodafone auctions world’s first SMS “Merry Christmas” as NFT for charity
British telco giant Vodafone has reportedly plans to auction the world’s first Short Message Service (SMS) in the form of a nonfungible token (NFT) on Dec. 21. The SMS, that reads “Merry Christmas”, was sent 29 years ago over the Vodafone network on Dec 3, 1992, and was received by Richard Jarvis, an employee at the time. The historic 15 character-long SMS will be auctioned off as an NFT in a one-off sale conducted by the Aguttes Auction House in France, according to Romanian news outlet Ziarul Financiar. By auctioning off the world’s first SMS in the form of NFT, …
Adoption / Dec. 18, 2021
New $250M TONcoin Fund targets DEX and NFT tools on TON blockchain
The TON Foundation, an organization building on the Telegram-initiated blockchain project, The Open Network (TON), has chosen the TONcoin Fund as its official ecosystem fund. The TONcoin Fund announced on Monday the launch of an ecosystem fund focusing on supporting TON-based projects, securing an initial collective commitment of up to $250 million from major firms within the industry. The fund has earned the title of the TON Foundation’s official incubation partner, meaning that they will support the fund’s portfolio investments. The fund’s contributors included firms like Huobi Incubator, Kucoin Ventures, MEXC Pioneer Fund, 3Commas Capital, the blockchain startup Orbs, TON …
Adoption / April 11, 2022