Solana’s Top NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Announces $27M Raise
Notable investors included Paradigm, Sequoia, and Solana Ventures.
Key Takeaways
- Magic Eden has raised $27M in its Series A.
- The Series A was led by Paradigm and the funding is primarily meant for hiring, gaming, partnerships, and mobile applications.
- The same major venture firms have funneled money into other Web3 projects as well.
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Magic Eden has raised $27 million in a Series A led by venture capital firm Paradigm.
OpenSea Competitor Raises $27M
The Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden has completed its Series A funding round.
Magic Eden announced today its $27 million raise via a Series A round led by the crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm. Sequoia, Solana Ventures, Electric, Greylock, Kindred, and Variant were also involved in the raise.
The NFT platform’s co-founder and chief executive officer, Jack Lu, said:
“Magic Eden will be much more than a place for users to purchase NFTs. Our goal is to make a clear distinction between Web2 and Web3, allowing creators, collectors, and supporters to engage with each other and lead the direction of their online interactions.”
The money raised in the Series A is slated to be used for expanding Magic Eden’s team, (currently consisting of more than 60 full-time employees), investing in partnerships, building Web3 gaming verticals, and developing mobile applications for the NFT marketplace.
Magic Eden launched MagicDAO recently, which included a 30,000 NFT collection drop. A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization, where decisions are made via voting from members (usually based on tokens or NFTs).
Magic Eden was launched last September, and it accounts for the vast majority of the Solana blockchain’s NFT market share.
While the company’s valuation has not yet been disclosed, the NFT industry’s dominant player, OpenSea, achieved a $13.3 billion valuation earlier this year.
The prominent venture firms that took part in Magic Eden’s Series A have invested frequently in the crypto space recently. For example, last November, Paradigm launched what was at the time the crypto industry’s largest ever fund of $2.5 billion. The next month, Solana Ventures announced a $150 million Web3 gaming funding initiative. Both Sequoia and Paradigm took part in a $1.15 billion investment into Citadel Securities in January, noting the potential for the major market maker to incorporate digital assets into its business model. On Feb. 17, Sequoia Capital announced an up to $600 million crypto fund, following Sequoia Capital India’s leading participation in Polygon’s $450 million investment round.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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