- Genies continues to attract funding from investors after securing $150 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1 billion.
- The startup’s funding round was led by Silver Lake, which is a California-based private equity firm.
- The funding will be used to increase internal capacity within Genies’ engineering department and will also be used to invest in new technologies.
Genies, a non-fungible token (NFT) startup, continues to attract funding from investors after securing $150 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1 billion. This makes it the latest crypto-focused platform to reach “unicorn” status.
The startup’s funding round was led by Silver Lake, a California-based private equity firm which as of 2021 has a total of $88 million in assets under management. The funding round also saw funding come in from existing investors, namely Tamarack Global, BOND, and NEA.
According to Genies, the funding will be used to increase internal capacity within its engineering department, and will also use the funding to invest in new technologies.
Analytics done by Nansen revealed recently that metaverse projects are re-igniting the NFT industry as the NFT market’s metaverse segment is growing rapidly–despite the rate of NFT sales decreasing since reaching its peak in September 2021.
Furthermore, Nansen added that the NFT market is growing faster than the broader cryptocurrency market despite extreme volatility.
Genies is an avatar technology company founded in 2017, and first targeted social media and messaging platforms. The company is now trying to capitalize on the growing metaverse sector. Using the Genies platform, users can create custom avatars that can then be deployed in virtual worlds. Its NFT marketplace, also known as “The Warehouse,” is built using Dapper Labs.
Genies claimed that they have official partnerships with Universal Music Group (AS:UMG) and Warner Music Group, and therefore have been able to gain 99% market share for celebrity avatars.