NFT marketplace startup Rarible closes $14.2 million Series A

You’ve likely seen the headlines surrounding the pretty major decline in NFT sales from the market’s recent peak, with some reports indicating as much as a 90 percent decline in recent weeks. And while plenty of crypto speculators are on the losing end of that rapid decline, others see a future where digital collectible and digital goods take over the internet.

NFT marketplace Rarible announced Wednesday that they’ve closed a $14.2 million Series A from Venrock Capital, CoinFund and 01 Advisors. The startup allows users to buy and auction off digital art. The firm also has its own Rarible governance token which allows users to make and vote on proposals around the platform’s features and fees.

The startup says it has reached $150 million in sales on the platform since launching 18 months ago.

NFT startups have raised major sums in recent months as investors coalesced around backing early players in the digital collectibles space. OpenSea, one of the most popular NFT hubs, raised a $23 million funding round in early spring from Andreessen Horowitz and Naval Ravikant. In March, invite-only NFT marketplace SuperRare raised a $9 million Series A. Last month, Bitski raised $19 million in bid to become the “Shopify of NFTs.”

Alongside the funding announcement, Rarible shared that they’ve officially partnered with NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs to bring their NFT marketplace to Dapper’s Flow blockchain. Dapper Labs has begun building out a wider coalition of NFT platforms on its proprietary blockchain which is more energy efficient and less costly than transactions on the Ethereum network, though it is also much more centralized. Rarible says they will make this transition in the “next couple of months.”

The startup has broad goals for making the NFT space more approachable to everyday web users, saying in a a blog post that they hope to use this funding to explore more user-friendly developments like accepting credit card payments. “We need a world where an indie creator can effortlessly create an NFT and sell it for $5 to his community of supporters, as well as where a pop icon can use NFTs to establish close contact with her multi-million audience in a sustainable way,” the post reads.