Zora Labs mints $50m round

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to gain popularity, the marketplaces for them continue to grow, the latest being San Francisco-based NFT marketplace protocol developer Zora Labs, which just raised $50m in a funding round backed by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, TechCrunch has reported.

Zora Labs’ protocol lets users create both NFTs and the marketplaces for them. It has its own central marketplace akin to NFT marketplace operator OpenSea’s, but its protocol is mostly used to create NFT exchanges through third-party sites.

Haun Ventures, the crypto-focused VC launched by Andreessen Horowitz alum Katie Haun, led the round with backing from Kindred Ventures.

OpenSea currently has a dominant position in the market, but investors pouring large amounts of capital into Zola Labs and other challengers.

The funding comes as Coinbase opened its own Ethereum-based NFT marketplace to the public earlier this week after having tested a beta version last month. It opened to lacklustre results, however, as only around 150 transactions were made on its opening day, amounting to roughly $75,000 in sales volume.

The round, which values Zora Labs at $600m, marks the first investment Haun Ventures has led since launching earlier this year.

Other major crypto exchanges like Binance also have their NFT trading platforms, while Coinbase has been putting its money behind others such as gaming NFT marketplace Fractal’s $35m seed round last month.

Zora still has a long way to go before it can hope to take the crown from OpenSea, which was valued at $13bn during its most recent fundraise, a $300m series C round in which Coinbase also participated alongside blockchain and gaming technology developer Animoca Brands and game publisher Gumi.

While at Andreessen Horowitz, Katie Haun led the $100m series B round for OpenSea in July last year.

Image courtesy of Zora