San Francisco-based NFT platform MakersPlace has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Pantera Capital.
MakersPlace most notably facilitated the $69.3 million sale of Beeple’s EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS in partnership with Beeple and Christie’s.
The round saw participation from Sony Music Entertainment, Uncork Capital, Draper Dragon Digital Assets, 9Yards Capital and Coinbase Ventures.
Other strategic investors include Eminem, Paul Rosenberg and 3LAU, who sold a NFT collection for $11.6 million via an online auction in February.
The number of collectors using MakersPlace’s platform has already grown over 10x in 2021, according to the company, which also reports to have facilitated over $100m in transactions this year. MakersPlace launched in 2018.
Other strategic investors in the series A round include Larry Fitzgerald and Shari Glazer from the sports world, and Eric Baker, Julia and Kevin Hartz, Vinny Lingham and Tobias Lütke in tech, plus many others.
“We see this fundraise as continued validation for our mission.”
MakersPlace
“We see this fundraise as continued validation for our mission,” said the company in a blog post announcing the fund raise.
“We will continue to push boundaries and empower digital creators with better tools and services, while finding more ways to introduce digital art and NFTs to a mainstream collector audience.
“From the very beginning, we’ve always prioritized trust, quality and ease of use for our artists and our passionate collectors and we’re only going to double down on these efforts.”
xMusic Business Worldwide