NFT marketplace OpenSea has raised $300m in Series C funding in a bid to “become the core destination for new open digital economies to thrive”.
In a blog post, OpenSea revealed the round was led by Paradigm and Coatue alongside further participation from new and existing investors, and raises the total valuation of OpenSea to an impressive $13.3 billion.
In line with its vision of “building the world’s friendliest and most trusted NFT marketplace”, the investment will be used to accelerate product development, improve customer support and safety on the platform, invest in the wider NFT and Web3 community and expand its team further.
Announcing Series C! We’re building the friendliest & most trusted NFT marketplace with the best selection across many chains. The funding helps us accelerate product development, improve trust & safety, and invest deeply in the web3 community & ecosystem. https://t.co/OmRPleMCOX
— OpenSea (@opensea) January 5, 2022
Outlining a focus on lowering the barriers to entry for NFTs, OpenSea will begin by introducing features and ‘simplified flows’ that can remove the complexities behind blockchain and NFTs.
In addition, it will focus on “accelerating multi-chain support” and bringing improvements to users with “better tools, analytics, and presentation” of NFTs.
OpenSea is also expanding efforts involving “customer support, trust and safety” alongside “site stability and integrity”.
The improvements include product and technical investments to bring more power to its users along with significant investments in in-person customer support operations.
To help kickstart the process, OpenSea has added Shiva Rajaraman, formerly of Meta and YouTube, as its new VP of Product.
In addition, having already scaled its customer support and trust and safety teams to more than 60 people throughout 2021, OpenSea now expects to more than double this by the end of 2022.
However, despite current efforts, sub-par customer support and lack of reliable infrastructure have both remained a major gripe within the NFT community.
Users have been quick to note that OpenSea’s ambitions within a ‘web3’ environment are misaligned thanks to its ownership structure and lack of a native utility token, which many have called for to re-establish trust and belief in its long-standing market dominance.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.