New Investors and Investments

As NFT adoption grows, massive amounts of capital are pouring into the industry. 

January 2022 saw the close of investment rounds in several high-profile companies, including NFT marketplace OpenSea, which raised US$300 million in Series C funding from investors led by Paradigm and Coatue. The new investment valued OpenSea at US$13.3 billion.

Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands, a prolific investor in NFTs and gaming that is on a mission to build the open metaverse, completed a capital raise of US$358,888,888, with a valuation of over US$5 billion. The round was led by New York-based Liberty City Ventures with participation by more than 18 other investors including Kingsway Capital, Sequoia China, Smile Group, Soros Fund Management and Winklevoss Capital.

Animoca’s subsidiary, The Sandbox, meanwhile, completed a capital raise of US$93 million led by the SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Animoca has invested in more than 150 of the world’s most noteworthy NFT and metaverse-related companies, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yield Guild Games and Axie Infinity.

NFT data provider CryptoSlam, which itself closed a US$9 million strategic seed round funding led by Animoca in January, said NFTs have entered the mainstream over the past year and are now attracting a much wider pool of investors. 

“Since 2018, we’ve been laying the groundwork to provide ultimate transparency for the NFT industry, and this strategic capital raise marks a key milestone for us as we continue to grow along with it,” CryptoSlam founder and CEO Wasinger said in a statement.

Jefferies, a U.S. investment bank, predicts the market capitalisation of all NFTs could grow to more than US$35 billion in 2022 and may exceed US$80 billion in 2025.