NFT marketplace Rarible closes $14M fundraising round led by CoinFund

Rarible said it will use the funds to hire new team members, and announced the launch of a marketplace on the Flow blockchain.

Major venture capital firms responsible for crypto investments have led the latest $14.2 million fundraising round for Rarible, the online marketplace behind many nonfungible token listings.

In a Wednesday announcement, Rarible said crypto investment group Coinfund and Venrock — the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family — had led a $14.2 million Series A fundraising round for the nonfungible token, or NFT, platform. Rarible said it will use the funds to hire new team members. Other participants in the fundraising round include 01 Advisors.

In addition, Rarible said it would be launching an NFT marketplace on the Flow blockchain, with users able to mint NFTs while listing them on Rarible. The platform announced it had partnered with artists and creators including Maxim, Ghostface, Johnny Nunez, and Xeo Chu to release NFTs.

“Flow has a fantastic track record of bringing NFTs mainstream by creating native experiences for non-crypto audiences,” said Rarible co-founder Alexander Salnikov. “As a blockchain, Flow enables easier access and lowers the entry barrier for consumers and brands via gasless minting, low-cost transactions, and scalability.”

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CoinFund originally partnered with Venrock to support innovation in crypto and blockchain firms in 2018 during the initial coin offering boom. The New York-based crypto investment firm also made an undisclosed investment into Rarible in September.

Rarible said at that time that the NFT sector would likely see a 50% growth in capitalization. The NFT market was worth $338 million in 2020. However, Cointelegraph reported last month that NFT trading volume could reach $175 million by October 2021, with an industry market capitalization of $470 million.