Key Takeaways:

  • Creator of Azuki NFT Collection, Chiru Labs, is closing in on a US$30M Series A fundraising.
  • This funding round came after a week Doodles NFT Collection raises US$54M in their first round of funding on 13 September 2022.

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The much-hyped NFT collection took space by storm. Azuki single-handedly carried the “anime” meta in terms of design and desirability and is gunning for more. Chiru Labs, the creator of Azuki, now plans to raise at least US$30M in an upcoming Series A funding round.

According to The Block, “Neither Chiru nor the project’s pseudonymous founder Zagabond responded to requests for comment.”

This news came after a week Doodles NFT raised US$54M with a valuation of $704 million valuation, in a round led by Reddit co-founder and NFT enthusiast Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm 776.

Fundraising amongst NFT projects isn’t unfamiliar territory. Back in August, the startup behind Moonbirds, Proof Collective, raised US$50M led by a16z. Even the biggest brand in the NFT space, the ape series made by Yuga Labs also saw efforts in fundraising back in March this year.

Read More: Moonbirds Creator Proof Collective Raises $50M Led By a16z, Token Expected in 2023

The highest Last Sale for Azuki #9605 was transacted at 420.7ETH

About 6 months ago, the Azuki NFT you see above transacted at 420.7ETH, (at that time worth more than a million US$) the highest recorded purchase for an individual Azuki.

As of writing, the floor price of an Azuki ranges with a price tag of 10ETH according to Opensea Data.

However, Azuki’s ascent has not been without incident. Its founder Zagabond wrote about three failed NFT ventures that they eventually abandoned before founding Azuki in a blog post that was published in May.

In the same period, the average price of an Azuki fell from nearly 30 ETH to 10 ETH, and it has not yet increased.

The bear market has seen its impact on the NFT market. Data from The Block Research suggests NFTs failing to top $100 million in weekly sales since May. In August last year, close to $1 billion in sales of the same type of NFTs were generated in a single week.

[Editor’s Note: This article does not represent financial advice. Please do your research before investing.]

Featured Image Credit: ChainDebrief