The NFT marketplace, which counts Stanford-StartX Fund as an investor, has raised series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
OpenSea, a US-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace operator backed by Stanford University-affiliated Stanford-StartX Fund, secured $100m in series B funding on Tuesday at a valuation of $1.5bn.
The round was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and also featured investment manager Coatue and private investors Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Dylan Field, Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher and Tobi Lutke.
Founded in 2017, OpenSea operates a marketplace for crypto collectibles and NFTs: crypto assets that record ownership of digital items certifying them to be unique and not interchangeable.
The company had previously secured $23m from Andreessen Horowitz, Standard Crypto, Flamingo DAO, 1Confirmation, Pascal Capital and Blockchain Capital in March this year.
Stanford-StartX Fund invested in the company through a $2.1m round in late 2019 alongside Gumi Cryptos, a subsidiary of mobile game producer Gumi, mobile game developer Animoca Brands, 1Confirmation, Blockchain Capital, YC Combinator, Dylan Field and David Pazdan.
OpenSea had collected $2m in 2018 from Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of digital currency exchange Coinbase, and media and consumer-focused investment company Chernin Group, as well as Founders Fund, 1Confirmation, Foundation Capital, Blockchain Capital, Stable Fund and Blockstack.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
