Vancouver’s Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain, has raised USD $250 million in new funding.
Led by Coatue, the new round brings together existing investors a16z, Google Ventures and Vancouver’s own Version One Ventures with new investors including BOND and GIC.
Dapper Labs spun out of startup studio Axoim Zen in 2017 and was named to Techcouver’s 10 Homegrown B.C. Startups to Watch in 2021.
Dapper Labs’ Flow has emerged as a go-to destination for over 3,000 developers, artists, creators and brands looking to build out their own blockchain based experiences and communities.
In addition to supporting soon to hit experiences from UFC, Genies, Warner Music Group and more, Flow will be the home of fan and league driven experiences from Dapper Labs later this year and early next, including LaLiga announced today.
LaLiga is the top professional men’s football division of the Spanish football league system.
.@roham and the whole @dapperlabs team are building something special – and despite the massive success it still feels like super-early days for the company and NFT’s in general (& as a die-hard soccer fan I’m very excited to see @LaLiga on @flow_blockchain 🇪🇸⚽️) https://t.co/jsE5itK90k
— Boris Wertz (@bwertz) September 22, 2021
“Coatue has been investing in technology trends for over 20 years and web 3.0 is one of the most exciting trends we’ve seen,” said Dan Rose, Chairman, Coatue Ventures.
“We think Dapper Labs is a leader in the space at the infrastructure level with Flow blockchain and in the application layer with NBA TopShot. We continue to be impressed by Roham’s strong leadership and vision and we could not be more proud to partner with him and the entire team at Dapper.”
This latest round follows a year of exponential growth for Dapper Labs. While still in open Beta, its flagship NBA Top Shot grew by 30x in 2021, with more than USD $780 million in collectibles bought and sold, more than 1.1 million registered accounts of which over 48% own at least one moment, and over 13 million transactions.
“Blockchain and crypto are foundational underpinnings for the next wave of technology evolution,” said Mary Meeker, General Partner of BOND. “With NBA Top Shot and a compelling pipeline of products to come, Dapper Labs is leading the way with the innovative Flow platform. We are excited to be a part of this journey – and its next iterations – with Roham and team.”
“Dapper Labs is growing quickly but we’re just scratching the surface of what this new technology can do for people,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO, Dapper Labs. “We’re excited to partner with our incredible investors to scale NBA Top Shot and launch our upcoming titles as well as unlock the potential of the open ecosystem building on Flow.”
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