Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain, announced that it has closed $305 million in new funding led by Coatue. According to various reports, the latest funding round values the company at $2.6 billion USD.

The company received support from NBA legend Michael Jordan as well as current players and funds including Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Kyle Lowry, JaVale McGee, and Klay Thompson, as well as entertainment and music heavyweights including Ashton Kutcher, Will Smith and Shawn Mendes, among many others. Other strategics participating include venture capital giant a16z, The Chernin Group, USV, B.C.’s Version One, and Venrock, among others.

This round of financing brings the total capital raised by Dapper Labs to $357 million. 

The company plans to use the funds to scale their team to continue building out NBA Top Shot and expanding the platform to other sports.

The world’s fastest-growing marketplace

According to the company, NBA Top Shot is one of the world's fastest-growing marketplaces, with nearly $500 million in collectibles bought and sold, more than 800,000 registered accounts, more than 338,000 customers with at least one NFT, and over 3 million transactions, less than five months into its open beta. 

"NBA Top Shot is successful because it taps into basketball fandom – it's a new and more exciting way for people to connect with their favorite teams and players," said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. "We want to bring the same magic to other sports leagues as well as help other entertainment studios and independent creators find their own approaches in exploring open platforms. NFTs unlock a new model for media that benefits the fans much more than advertising or sponsorships." 

Based on the Flow blockchain

NBA Top Shot is based on Flow, an open source blockchain developed by Dapper Labs and launched in 2020. Flow enables NFT marketplaces and other decentralized applications that need to scale to handle mainstream demand without extremely high transaction costs ("gas fees") or environmental concerns.