10 Crypto VCs That Are Enthusiastic About Investing in NFTs: Who Else Besides Animoca Brands?
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10 Crypto VCs That Are Enthusiastic About Investing in NFTs: Who Else Besides Animoca Brands?
A few years ago, NFTs began gaining popularity within niche circles of blockchain and crypto enthusiasts.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Plamena Malinova
A few years ago, NFTs began gaining traction within niche circles of blockchain and crypto enthusiasts. It wasn't until March 2021, when artist Beeple's collage "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" sold for $69.3 million at Christie's auction house, that crypto art officially exploded into the mainstream and captured public attention.
Meanwhile, last year, two of the world's largest venture capital firms—Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Paradigm—emerged as major investors in the NFT space.
They weren't alone in betting on the heavily hyped digital assets. Numerous fund managers and venture capital firms followed suit, establishing dedicated NFT strategies and investment frameworks.
According to data tracked by PitchBook, as of October 13, global capital has poured into 1,071 NFT-related deals, with funding surging to $5.7 billion.
Top 10 Venture Capital Firms Investing in NFTs by Number of Deals
Below is a list of institutions actively investing in NFTs from 2021 through September 16, 2022.
NFT investment data comes from PitchBook and reflects additional or new investments made by each firm during this period.
Animoca Brands
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NFT Investments: 93
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Headquarters: Hong Kong, China
Founded in 2014, Animoca Brands is a venture capital and software gaming company developing digital property rights for gamers via NFTs and games to build an open metaverse. In September this year, Animoca Brands announced a $110 million funding round backed by Temasek Holdings, Boyu Capital, and GGV Capital. The company plans to use these funds for acquisitions, investments, and leveraging “popular intellectual properties” to further bring the metaverse into the public eye. Animoca Brands has heavily bet on the NFT and metaverse sectors, making early investments in crypto unicorns such as Sky Mavis, OpenSea, Decentraland, and Sandbox, significantly advancing the development of the NFT industry.
Further reading: Aggressive Moves in Crypto Winter: Animoca Brands Is Buying Like Crazy
AU21 Capital
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NFT Investments: 63
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Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Established in 2017, AU21 Capital is a venture capital firm focused on investing in companies operating in blockchain and artificial intelligence. In April last year, AU21 Capital made a strategic investment in the NFT platform Refinable. This February, the hedge fund announced its investment in Sidus Heroes, a metaverse-based blockchain game project—an NFT-centric MMORPG that revolutionized the decentralized gaming industry by transforming traditional play-to-earn models through its metaverse-focused game design.
Shima Capital
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NFT Investments: 60
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Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Founded in 2021, Shima Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage cryptocurrency and blockchain startups, providing them with funding and resources. In June this year, Mech.com—an NFT-based metaverse game—announced a $6 million seed round led by Shima Capital, with participation from Polygon and BreederDAO. Its portfolio includes real-time multiplayer NFT fighting game Battle of Guardians, play-to-earn NFT game Continuum World, and 3D pixel NFT game Crypto Fight Club.
NGC Ventures
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NFT Investments: 46
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Headquarters: Singapore
Founded in 2017, NGC Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in blockchain and fintech. On September 6, the firm provided undisclosed seed funding to PANONY, a blockchain consulting service provider, to help expand its operations into other jurisdictions and launch new products and network features. NGC Ventures' NFT investments include NFT infrastructure platform All.Art, social NFT platform DeFine, and NFT fighting game Battle of Guardians.
Sfermion
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NFT Investments: 44
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Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois
Founded in 2019, Sfermion focuses on investing in blockchain startups and NFTs to advance the development of the metaverse. Its NFT portfolio includes Bridgesplit, an NFT fractionalization, pooling, and lending protocol on Solana; Flowty, a peer-to-peer NFT collateral lending platform on Flow; Galaxy Fight Club, the first cross-IP PvP game in the NFT world; DNABLOCK, a 3D avatar NFT creation platform; and Hyperspace, an NFT aggregator on Solana.
Exnetwork Capital
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NFT Investments: 44
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Headquarters: Philippines
Established in 2018, Exnetwork Capital is a fund, accelerator, and incubator with a focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain investments. Its NFT investments include Polkally, a P2P NFT auction platform; PolkaRare, a multi-chain NFT marketplace; Koi Metaverse, a digital collectibles platform; Duelist King, an NFT card game; 2CrazyNFT, an NFT esports and gaming platform; and Starbots Game, the first robot battle NFT game on Solana.
Magnus Capital
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NFT Investments: 41
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Headquarters: Amsterdam
Founded in 2015, Magnus Capital is an Amsterdam-based venture capital firm and incubator focused on cryptocurrency investments. In September, it participated in a $3 million funding round for MetaFi, a European Union-based metaverse startup founded earlier this year that provides services, tools, and infrastructure for NFTs, the metaverse, and game finance. Magnus Capital’s NFT-related investments also include 2CrazyNFT, a platform for NFT esports and gaming; Chronicle, a fan-focused digital collectibles platform; and DareNFT, a universal NFT 2.0 protocol for digital assets.
Genesis Block Ventures
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NFT Investments: 41
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Headquarters: Cayman Islands
Founded in 2020, Genesis Block Ventures is a firm specializing in seed, early, and late-stage investments in blockchain operations. Its NFT investments include AFKDAO, an NFT liquidity solution; Aura Network, an NFT-centric Layer 1 blockchain; Genopets, a move-to-earn NFT game powered by Solana; Mintverse, an NFT service platform; and Refinable, an NFT marketplace.
HG Ventures
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NFT Investments: 40
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Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea
Founded in 2017, HG Ventures invests in seed, early, and late-stage blockchain technology companies. Its NFT investments include DeFine, a social NFT platform; KlayCity, a play-to-earn game on the Klaytn network allowing users to own NFT virtual assets; PolkaRare, a multi-chain NFT marketplace; TooNFT, an NFT webcomic platform; and Vera Labs, an open financial platform for NFTs.
ZBS Capital
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NFT Investments: 37
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Headquarters: Kyiv, Ukraine
Founded in 2017, ZBS Capital is a venture fund focusing on blockchain, marketing, and finance. Its NFT investments include Colexion, an NFT marketplace; GhostMarket, a cross-chain NFT marketplace; HoDooi.com, an NFT marketplace; NFT Stars, a multi-chain NFT marketplace; MADworld, a digital collectibles and NFT platform; and XP.network, a multi-chain NFT bridge.
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