NFT Marketplace Zora Raises $50M In Seed Funding

The popular NFT marketplace Zora received a huge boost this week, raising $50 million in seed funding. Leading this latest round of funding is Haun Ventures, including Coinbase Ventures and Kindred Ventures.

Haun is a new venture fund making its first big move in the NFT space. The investment will help to improve Zora, the open-source marketplace protocol. Importantly, it will allow them to challenge a market that OpenSea dominates.

Zora isn’t your typical NFT marketplace, that is just a buy/sell operation. In fact, the Zora vision is a collective creation. Founded in 2020, it was initially a place to sell NFTs linked to physical items. However, over time, the marketplace has adapted to suit the needs of its audience.

Zora NFT marketplace offers useful development tools

It provides simple but effective development tools for creating online stores, marketplaces and websites in the flourishing NFT space. Significantly, Zora also has a focus on sustainability and protecting the environment. Users can purchase carbon offsets to help limit their footprint.

Haun Ventures see Zora as an outlier in the NFT industry, not obsessed with profit and wanting to help build a shared value economy.

“Haun Ventures is backing teams building a better internet,” Sam Rosenblum of Haun Ventures said. “NFTs are a core building block that is central to the future of the web. We believe NFTs will produce a new generation of creators and makers who will enjoy more equitable economics thanks to a web built with better incentives that fairly values the contributions of those who create the culture”.

The $50 million of funding is a big statement for the NFT marketplace industry. In an era of almost complete NFT marketplace dominance by OpenSea, Zora is taking a new approach with its open-source, on-chain protocol.