NFT-Related Startups Pulled In Over $2.6B This Past Year

NFTs have certainly been a buzzy topic in the startup world this past year. Companies in the space have also managed to raise some big rounds.

Over the past 12 months, just over 200 rounds for startups that feature NFT in their company description have closed, collectively raising over $2.6 billion in seed, venture or growth funding, per Crunchbase data. That total is up more than 25-fold from the year-ago period, when companies featuring NFTs raised just over $90 million.

Things are not cooling either. At this week’s SXSW confab in Austin, NFTs are front and center, featured in panel discussions, a hackathon, festival merchandise and even a promotional appearance by Dolly Parton featuring NFT collectibles. 

M&A activity is also heating up. On Friday, Yuga Labs, the NFT company behind the Bored Apes Yacht Club, announced it acquired the rights to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections, from Larva Labs. Bored Ape and CryptoPunks are known as the the most valuable NFT collections, worth a minimum of $3.6 billion, per TechCrunch.

And big rounds keep getting done. Over the past six months, the largest include:

• Sorare, a Paris-based global fantasy sports platform featuring NFT cards, raised $636 million in a September Series B round.
• OpenSea, an NFT marketplace for buying and selling digital assets, raised $300 million in a January Series C round.
• Autograph, an NFT platform that brings together brands and celebrities around digital collectibles, raised $170 million in a January Series B round.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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