OpenSea launches venture arm, NFT ecosystem grant program

OpenSea is the latest crypto company to enter the venture capital scene. 

In an announcement Friday, the NFT marketplace said that it will back companies and projects across the market for non-fungible tokens and Web3 by offering capital and access to its leadership and investors, including Standard Crypto and a16z.

“We hope that OpenSea Ventures will provide Web3 developers and NFT creators around the world with the resources they need to build new decentralized economies that give creators, developers, and consumers greater freedom and ownership,” the firm said. 

OpenSea joins a number of crypto startups that have launched their own venture units, including unicorns Alchemy and FTX. The latter has committed $2 billion to invest in new crypto startups. 

As for OpenSea Ventures, the new operation will focus on four main themes: new NFT protocols, social and gaming projects and NFT aggregators. 

OpenSea also announced a new “Ecosystem Grants” program. “We see Ecosystem Grants as a way to kickstart community ideas and provide ongoing financial support to initiatives that we believe have the potential to expand web3 and the NFT universe,” the firm said. 

OpenSea — which supports the exchange of NFT assets — raised capital in a fundraise this year that valued the company at more than $13 billion.