In Brief:
- OpenSea has raised $300 million in Series C funding at a king-sized valuation of $13.3 billion.
- The funds backed by Paradigm and Coatue will be used to facilitate the product development, to improve customer support and safety.
- The funds will also be used to meaningfully invest in the NFT and Web3 community and also to grow their team.
As digital economies continue to thrive, so does OpenSea’s vision to be the leading host for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In an attempt to do so, OpenSea has raised $300 million in Series C Funding Round and reached a king-sized valuation of $13.3 billion with the backing from Paradigm and Coatue.
An official blog post by CEO and Co-Founder, Devin Finzer, read, “We are excited to work with these incredible partners, thinkers and builders who collectively bring a depth of experience in Web3, NFTs, and best in class consumer experiences”.
Finzer stated that the funds will be used for four major purposes and that included- to efficiently facilitate the product development, to primarily improve customer support and customer safety, to meaningfully invest in the wider NFT and Web3 community, and also to grow the team.
Speaking on customer security and support, Finzer explained that they have already scaled the customer support and trust and safety teams to more than 60 people, and that number is expected to be more than double by the end of 2022.
To expand the NFT space, OpenSea is launching a grant program to support the developers, builders, and creators that have a strong vision for shaping NFT’s future.
Also, Shiva Rajaraman, who was previously the VP of Commerce at Meta is joining OpenSea as a new VP of Product, as per the post.
It is interesting to mention that the marketplace has witnessed a trading volume of $2.4 billion in the past 30 days, as per DappRadar.
The bustling business for OpenSea has been the indicator of its goodwill in the crypto industry. It was thus not a surprise when in November, OpenSea had reportedly received investment offers worth up to $10 billion even though it did not start the fundraising discussions.