NFT Infrastructure Startup Rarify Raises $10M at $100M Valuation

API-based NFT infrastructure startup Rarify raised $10 million in a Series A funding round at a $100M valuation led by Pantera, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS on Thursday (March 3).

The new funding follows a $2 million seed round backed by Pareto, Eniac Ventures, Greycroft, Scott Belsky, Protocol Labs and others. The fresh capital was used to step up the hiring process and product rollout with enterprise partners.

Rarify aims to lower the bar to entry for NFT technology and facilitate participation by businesses to take part in a sector that is in the midst of rapid growth. NFTs may be a new asset class, but Rarify said that “they will become native to the internet and should be inclusive of any web users.”

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A central component underlying Rarify’s drive is the belief that all platforms should have the ability to enable trading and provide their users with everything they need to engage with NFTs as creators, owners and sellers. The process currently requires specialized technology to build NFT capabilities, and companies often aren’t versed in compliance standards. Blockchains also lack interoperability, and decentralized apps make adoption more challenging.

“Rarify removes the biggest hurdles companies face when introducing NFTs to their existing products,” said Paul Veradittakit at Pantera.

Founded last year and headquartered in Manhattan, Rarify’s co-founders Lasha Antadze, Dmytro Haidashenko, Revaz Tsivtsivadze, and Vlad Dubinin have combined blockchain and enterprise API developer experience dating to 2014. The startup is aiming to close the gap between decentralized technology and widely adopted application layer protocols.

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“Opportunity is best harnessed by early movers, and Rarify makes NFT feasible for more companies than ever before possible,” said Jon Oringer, founder of Pareto and Shutterstock. “What’s more, Rarify has a rare combination of a strong team with a proven track record for scaling API-based products, a market-oriented vision for product execution, and perfect timing aligned with the explosive growth of the NFT market.”