Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs announced on Wednesday Asia time that it has raised US$450 million in a funding round, bringing the Web 3.0 company to a total valuation of US$4 billion. 

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Fast facts

  • The funding round was led by a16z crypto, with participation from game studios Animoca Brands and subsidiary The Sandbox, strategic partners LionTree, Sound Ventures, and Thrive Capital, and crypto leaders including FTX and MoonPay. 
  • The company plans to use the funds to scale its growing team, attract talent across creative, engineering and operations functions, and for joint ventures and partnerships.
  • Yuga Labs has made multiple headlines over the past few weeks with its acquisition of rights to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) CryptoPunks and Meebits, teasing its gaming metaverse project Otherside, as well as the launch of ApeCoin from ApeCoin DAO.
  • Nicole Muniz, CEO of Yuga Labs, said: “The possibilities for blockchain’s impact on culture are endless, and so we are building a beautiful, interoperable world for people to explore and play in. There’s a lot to come.” 

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