API-Based NFT Startup Rarify Raises $10M Funding Round, Led by Pantera Capital

Rarify, an application programming interface (API) platform, announced on Thursday that it raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by crypto investment firm Pantera Capital.

Rarify said that it plans to use the funding to accelerate hiring and product launches with enterprise partners.

Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera, further elaborated how Rarify intends to use the newly raised funds: “Rarify removes the biggest hurdles companies face when introducing NFTs to their existing products. We’re excited to partner with the Rarify team to accelerate their growth trajectory and make NFTs accessible to companies and, by extension, consumers at large.”

Other investors, including Eniac Ventures, Greycroft, Hyper and Slow Ventures, also participated in the funding round. The fresh financing gives Rarify a valuation of $100 million.

Meanwhile, Revas Tsivtsivadze, the co-founder of Rarify, also commented about the financing and stated that the firm aims to simplify the buying and selling of NFTs just the way Block Inc (formerly Square) made it super easy to accept payments. Tsivtsivadze illustrated that while the check-out process of marketplaces like OpenSea is something sort of a 14-step process, Rarify aims to cut down the process as little as three steps.

Making Commercial NFT Adoption a Reality

Launched in 2021, Manhattan-based Rarify is considered a rapidly growing company that continues to provide infrastructure to help firms build non-fungible tokens (NFT) to their platforms. The firm is also one of the major venture capital firms in the cryptocurrency industry.

One of Rarify’s main offerings is an NFT-commerce-focused application programming interface that enables companies to create, manage, integrate, and scale NFT products in their platforms. The API also allows firms to mint and port NFTs between different blockchains.

Rarify currently offers NFT embedding services that enable owners of websites, marketplaces, and merchants’ platforms to integrate simplistic NFT buying and selling features. The firm is working to do a service where minting and selling digital assets can become a non-hassle for industries like entertainment, music, applications, and gaming. Rarify is also developing a data API that can track NFTs across multiple blockchains, verify a user’s NFT profile picture, and evaluate the value of specific NFTs.