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Bored Ape Yacht Club Owner Yuga Labs Raises $450M Led by A16z
Now valued at $4 billion, the company will use the funds to build out its NFT-based metaverse.
Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular non-fungible token (NFT) project Bored Ape Yacht Club, has raised a $450 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
The round, first reported to be in the works back in February, values the company at $4 billion.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
The official announcement of the funding caps off what has been a monumental two weeks for Yuga Labs. The company acquired the intellectual property of rival blue-chip NFT project CryptoPunks on March 11, and on March 16 the Bored Ape Yacht Club-linked ApeCoin (APE) token launched by proxy. ApeCoin now boasts a $12 billion market cap, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Yuga Labs says it plans to use the new funding to build out an NFT-based, ApeCoin-powered gaming metaverse called “Otherside.” The company released a trailer video for the project on Twitter days before the funding announcement.
See you on the Otherside in April. Powered by @apecoin pic.twitter.com/1cnSk1CjXS
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 19, 2022
Metaverse investor Animoca Brands, which made its play-to-earn Benji Bananas game ApeCoin-compatible on March 17, also participated in the round.
After the new funding was announced on Tuesday, Andreessen Horowitz changed its Twitter avatar to that of a Bored Ape.
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/UUYactKusp
— a16z (@a16z) March 22, 2022
Read more: What Is ApeCoin and Who Is Behind It?
UPDATE (March 22, 20:46 UTC): Added information about Andreessen Horowitz's new Twitter avatar.
Eli Tan
Eli was a news reporter for CoinDesk who covered NFTs, gaming and the metaverse. He graduated from St. Olaf College with a degree in English. He holds ETH, SOL, AVAX and a few NFTs above CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1000.
