OpenSea raises $100mn in Series B led by a16z; reaches $1.5bn valuation

By Pavithra R

OpenSea, building an open digital economy, has announced securing $100 mn in Series B financing led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), valuing the company at $1.5 bn. The firm also announced the launch of official support for multiple blockchains, becoming the first cross-blockchain NFT marketplace.

The investment round saw participation from Coatue and CAA, along with Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher. OpenSea is planning to use the finance to scale its NFT platform, with an immediate focus on hiring engineering talent and expanding internationally to new markets and audiences, making buying and selling NFTs more accessible to users.

“The team at OpenSea realized early on the need for an open, cross-blockchain marketplace where anyone can buy, sell and create digital NFTs which is why they are one of the most important companies in crypto today. We are thrilled to double down on this team, their technology and overall vision, as they continue to provide the best user experience for today’s creators, buyers and sellers, in one platform,” said Kathryn Haun, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and new addition to OpenSea’s board of directors.

The new injection of funding comes as OpenSea NFTs are expanding to more mainstream audiences, and represent an entirely new economy based on digital ownership. In June 2021 alone, OpenSea sold $160 mn in digital assets on its NFT marketplace and experienced a 45x increase in volume growth during the first half of 2021.

OpenSea provides both a marketplace and platform where users can easily connect their crypto wallets to instantly purchase or list their NFTs for sale. Additionally, The firm announced support for the Polygon blockchain, eliminating gas fees for creators, buyers and sellers on the OpenSea marketplace. The company also plans to invest in its next phase of ecosystem growth with cross-blockchain support, enabling a truly open data economy. Investing in the interoperability and scalability of OpenSea’s cross-chain marketplace is part of the company’s larger vision to bring users closer to Web3.

“With increasing market adoption around crypto economies, NFTs are quickly becoming the new internet. It’s pretty remarkable to be experiencing one of the biggest fundamental changes the internet economy has seen in decades. We’re proud to be leading this growing industry that we have been part of for a long time. As we continue to scale, our focus will remain on our customers, and providing the best user experience and entry point into NFTs,” said Devin Finzer, Co-founder & CEO of OpenSea.

Founded in 2017, OpenSea is the first and largest peer-to-peer marketplace for cryptogoods which include collectibles, gaming items, event tickets, domain names and over 25 million other assets backed by blockchains. It currently supports Ethereum, Polygon and Klaytn, and has plans to add new chains like Flow and Tezos in the coming months.