Canada-based virtual trading card developer Dapper Labs received $250m yesterday from investors including GV, a corporate venturing arm of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
Investment manager Coatue Management led the round, which included Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Version One Ventures and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC. It valued the company at $7.6bn, a source familiar with the deal told CoinDesk.
Dapper Labs uses its Flow blockchain technology to let users trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of sports clips to then trade as unique collectibles. Its NBA Top Shot platform is still in open beta but has been responsible for 13 million transactions representing over $780m in items being bought and sold.
The company will use the money to scale its offering and add new products for other sports and areas of entertainment. It recently formed a partnership with Spanish football league La Liga to create its own NFT collectibles.
In March this year, Coatue led a $305m round for Dapper Labs that included 93 Ventures, Sound Ventures, Dreamers VC and AG Ventures along with assorted private investors including athletes and entertainment figures.
Samsung Next, a subsidiary of electronics manufacturer Samsung, joined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase’s investment arm, Coinbase Ventures, and gaming publisher Animoca Brands in a $12m round for the company in August 2020.
Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund, Blockchange Ventures, BlockTower Capital, Union Square Ventures, North Island Ventures, Accomplice, Distributed Global, Valor Capital Group, Greenfield One, Republic Labs, L1 Digital, Pirata Capital, A.Capital, Reed Company, Eonxi Ventures and numerous individuals also took part in the 2020 round.
Previous corporate investors in Dapper Labs include music label Warner Music Group and esports company Axiomatic, which contributed to its $11m series A round in September 2019, and talent agency Endeavor, which had participated in a $15m round the previous year boosting its total funding to $27.9m.
Dapper Labs chief executive Roham Gharegozlou said: “Dapper Labs is growing quickly but we are just scratching the surface of what this new technology can do for people.
“We are excited to partner with our incredible investors to scale NBA Top Shot and launch our upcoming titles as well as unlock the potential of the open ecosystem building on Flow.”
