Dapper Labs, a Canada-headquartered developer of virtual trading cards, which counts corporates Alphabet, Coinbase, Samsung, Animoca Brands, Endeavor and Axiomatic as investors, raised $305m in funding yesterday.
Investment management firm Coatue led the round, which also featured 93 Ventures, Sound Ventures, Dreamers VC and AG Ventures, valuing the company at $2.6bn, a person with knowledge of the matter told USA Today.
The round was filled out by a range of private investors including past and present NBA basketball professionals such as Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant, as well as athletes from other sports and rapper 2 Chainz.
Dapper Labs runs a blockchain-based online platform called NBA Top Shot which allows users to trade non-fungible tokens (NFT) of NBA video highlights, the NFT model making them unique and therefore capable of accruing value as collectibles.
Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, said in a statement quoted by USA Today: “We want to bring the same magic to other sports leagues as well as help other entertainment studios and independent creators find their own approaches in exploring open platforms.
“NFTs unlock a new model for monetisation that benefits the fans much more than advertising or sponsorships.”
The company had received a total of $52m as of a $12m round in August 2020 featuring mobile game publisher Animoca Brands, Samsung Next and Coinbase Ventures, which invested on behalf of consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung and digital currency exchange Coinbase respectively.
The round included Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures (USV), Accomplice, Distributed Global, Valor Capital Group, Blockchange Ventures, North Island Ventures, Eonxi Ventures, A.Capital, AppWorks, BlockTower Capital, Reed Company, Greenfield One, Republic Labs, L1 Digital, Pirata Capital and assorted individuals.
Dapper Labs had raised $11m from Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz, Venrock, Version One Ventures, Accomplice, AppWorks, Autonomous Partners, Fenbushi Digital, USV, Digital Currency Group, SV Angel, CoinFund and various angel investors in September 2019.
Venrock led a $15m round for Dapper Labs 10 months earlier that also featured GV, part of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, as well as Samsung Next, Animoca Brands, talent agency Endeavor and esports brand Axiomatic.
Andreessen Horowitz, USV, SV Angel, Digital Currency Group, Hex Capital, Rising Tide Fund, CoinFund, HOF Capital, June Fund, GBIC and assorted individuals also backed the late 2018 round. The company’s earlier backers include media holding company WndrCo, Green Bay Ventures and Steve Huffman.
