Slew of Venture Funds, Eminem, Paul Rosenberg Inject $30 Million Into NFT Platform Makersplace
On Wednesday, the non-fungible token (NFT) market platform Makersplace secured $30 million in a Series A financing round. The team behind the NFT marketplace says it plans to leverage the funds to “acquire additional talent and scale the business.” While the Series A was co-led by Pantera Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, the world-famous hip hop star Eminem also invested in Makersplace.
Makersplace Raises $30 Million to Scale the NFT Business
The company that developed the non-fungible token (NFT) market platform Makersplace has revealed the firm has raised $30 million from a number of investors. Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital co-led the financing round with participation from Sony Music Entertainment, Coinbase Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Uncork Capital, and Draper Dragon Digital Assets.
Moreover, Makersplace revealed the investment round saw notable angel investors like Paul Rosenberg and 3LAU in music, Eminem, Acquavella Galleries, Sabrina Hahn and Bill Ruprecht in the arts, alongside Julia and Kevin Hartz.
The Makersplace market was founded in 2018 by ecommerce veteran Ryoma Ito and two Pinterest co-workers Dannie Chu and Yash Nelapati. Dannie Chu, the Makersplace co-founder and CEO said the company views the work it does as “an investment in the future of creativity.” The NFT marketplace Chu co-founded three years ago, has seen over $100 million in sales and 10x the increase in unique collectors during the last 12 months.
“Makersplace played a central role in sparking a global conversation about NFTs and the future of the creator economy this spring,” Chu said in a statement. “With this Series A we will further our commitment to uniting the best digital artists with the most passionate collectors and continue to bring this new medium for creativity and collecting to a mainstream audience.”
A Great Number of NFT Marketplaces Are Raising Capital This Year, Makersplace Boasts the World Famous Beeple NFT Sale
Makersplace will be dealing with a lot of competition as there are numerous NFT markets these days. A great number of the top NFT marketplaces have been raising millions of dollars in capital during seed rounds hosted in 2021. For instance, the NFT marketplace Mintable, backed by the billionaire Mark Cuban, raised $13 million in a Series A on July 1. At the end of July, Opensea announced it raised a whopping $100 million in a Series B round. The NFT marketplace Rarible raised over $14 Million in capital and revealed plans to launch on the Flow blockchain.
The company will also face the two major exchanges Crypto.com and FTX as well. While Crypto.com already launched its NFT market with help from celebrities like Snoop Dogg, FTX recently revealed it partnered with the film, media, marketing, and television giant Dolphin Entertainment.
In the recent announcement, Makersplace thanked specific NFT artists and said the company’s sales results were driven by creators like Beeple, Bosslogic, Trevor Jones, Pak, DeadMau5, Urs Fischer, Patrick Mahomes, 3LAU, Jose Delbo, and Lushsux.
The $30 million in a Series A financing round announcement also mentioned one of the largest NFT sales that ever took place. Makersplace is well known for working with Christie’s when Beeple auctioned his “Everdays: The First 5000 Days” NFT collectible, which fetched a massive $69 million.
“We firmly believe that NFTs will power the next generation of digital art, collectibles, media, experiences, and much more,” said Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera Capital while speaking about the Makerplace Series A capital raise.
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