NFT infrastructure startup Rarify has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Pantera Capital at a $100 million valuation.
Pantera Capital's backing seems significant as the company is one of the top venture capital firms in crypto.
One of Rarify's core offerings is an NFT trading-focused application programming interface (API) that enables businesses to launch and integrate user-friendly marketplaces into their platforms. The API also allows NFTs to be minted and ported between different blockchains.
Speaking to Forbes on March 3, Rarify co-founder Revas Tsivtsivadze stated that the company aims to make buying and selling NFTs simpler similar to "how Square made it super easy to accept payments."
Tsivtsivadze highlighted the payment process of marketplaces like OpenSea, which he says has something "like a 14-step process" that could be boiled down to just three steps.
The latest funding round also builds on a $2 million seed round from late last year that included participation from Pareto, Eniac Ventures, and Protocol Labs, to name a few. The company intends to use the funds to increase its number of employees and launch new products with its partners.
Currently, the company offers NFT onboarding services that allow owners of websites, such as blogs or shops, to integrate simple NFT buying and selling functions. Rarify is also working on a data API that can track NFTs across multiple blockchains, verify a user's NFT profile picture, and measure the value of specific NFTs.
The show of faith in a new NFT firm comes amid a difficult time for the sector. Cointelegraph reported yesterday that the number of unique NFT buyers in secondary markets had fallen 12% in Februarywhile Google search volume for NFTs is down 60-70% since the end of January.
Related: OpenSea Updates List of Banned Countries, Sparking Decentralization Debate
However, it may be a brief hiccup in the market as lately the focus has shifted to the cryptocurrency use cases relative to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Rarify has also been directly hampered by the situation. Tsivtsivadze told Forbes that four of his total 14 employees are currently in Ukraine, including the chief engineer and chief technology officer.
He said they are located in "two of the hot spots" in Kyiv and Kharkiv, but he has maintained communication with them throughout.
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