NFT marketplace Zora raises $50 million in round led by Haun Ventures

Zora, an Ethereum-based marketplace for buying, selling and curating NFTs has raised $50 million in new funding, valuing the company at $600 million.

The round was led by Haun Ventures, founded by Katie Haun, who formerly helped run Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund. It also includes investments from Coinbase Ventures, Kindred Ventures and others.

This is the first round led by Haun’s new firm, which launched in March. Before becoming the first female general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Haun started in crypto as a prosecutor for the Department of Justice focusing on cybersecurity.

Zora, which lets creators make NFTs, has also held many NFT auctions, including for the first TikTok-inspired NFT, and auctions for the Warhol Foundation.

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“We have only seen the tip of the iceberg of NFTs in web3 and believe Zora will become one of the most important protocols (and DAOs) as the NFT ecosystem and associated use cases meaningfully expand in the years to come,” wrote Sam Rosenblum of Haun Ventures, in a blog post.

Research collected by The Block shows that weekly trade volume of NFTs peaked in August of last year at over $1 billion. Recently, it has cooled to just over $150 million.

Ethereum continues to dominate as the most popular chain by trade volume.