Yuga Labs, the investment vehicle behind popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club is in talks with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)for a $5 Billion funding round, as per Financial Times.
Sources close to the matter revealed that the deal involves Yuga Labs selling a multimillion-dollar stake of their firm to a16z in exchange for the funding. The announcement comes soon after popular NFT YouTuber NFtNick.Eth’s podcast with Captain Kix and Pio Vincenzo, where speculations surrounding the deal made early rounds.
The agreement also represents a16z’s commitment to their investment thesis, which involves looking out for hot trends within the crypto space. The a16z’s website states – “We invest in all areas of crypto, including infrastructure, new layer 1s, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, DAOs, social tokens, decentralized social networks, web 3 apps — and new ideas that don’t have names or categories yet”. In late-January, the venture capital firm said that it was looking to raise $4.5 Billion for new crypto funds.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s rise to dominance continues to draw more heads in the crypto community, thanks to an overflowing demand for Non Fungible Tokens. As of 4 January, total sales of BAYC stood at $1 Billion. In September 2021 alone, a stack of 101 Bored Apes were sold at $24 Million in an auction. World’s largest NFT marketplace by users OpenSea revealed that a single BAYC NFT went for a 97 ETH floor price at the time of writing.
BAYC’s rise within the NFT limelight has drawn attention from an array of TV celebrities and music artists. Recently, rapper Eminem made headline after purchasing a BAYC NFT for 123.45 Ether, worth $452,000 at press time. In November last year, Post Malone featured the fashionable NFT’s in his new release “One Right Now”, days after purchasing 2 BAYC NFT’s.
Since no official announcements were made by Yuga Labs, its not certain as to how the funds would be utilized. However, many expect that Yuga Lab’s dream project could kick in extra gear following a record end to 2021.