Bored Ape Yacht Club Creator Snags $450M in Funding for $4B Valuation

Yuga Labs, the creator behind blue-chip NFT collection BAYC, notched a $4 billion post-money valuation on its latest raise

article-image

Bored Ape Yacht Club | Source: NTFS.WTF

share

key takeaways

  • Venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) led the round
  • Yuga Labs recently acquired the intellectual property rights to NFT collections CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs

Yuga Labs has secured a virtually unprecedented $450 million in seed funding, bringing the startup to a post-money valuation of $4 billion.

Best known as the creator of popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs will use the capital for staff expansion and future partnerships, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The raise was led by venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz (a16z). Other participants included blockchain-based game studio Animoca Brands, The Sandbox, LionTree, Sound Ventures, FTX and MoonPay.

“This capital will give Yuga speed to market on many things underway, and bring in new partners with strategic thinking that share the vision,” Guy Oseary, partner at Yuga Labs, said in a statement.

The move follows Yuga Labs’ recent acquisition of commercial rights to NFT (non-fungible token) collections CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. The consolidation gives Yuga Labs the intellectual property rights of some of the three most profitable cryptoassets in the industry.

“Already, a new economy is possible with the IP of Apes, Punks, and Meebits, owned by the community,” Nicole Muniz, chief executive of Yuga Labs, said in a statement. “The possibilities for blockchain’s impact on culture are endless, and so we are building a beautiful, interoperable world for people to explore and play in. There’s a lot to come.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates (11).png

Research

We believe that Exponent is best positioned to dominate the Solana yield market – the fastest-growing sector in the ecosystem – with topline liquidity increasing at an annualized rate of nearly 600%. The founding team (ex-Squads, Kamino, Solana Foundation) cares deeply about product, security, design, and user experience and understands the foundation for building a great protocol. The team’s deep ties in Solana DeFi also present a significant strategic advantage, as evidenced by Exponent PTs being onboarded as collateral on Kamino, Drift, and Loopscale before its main competitor, RateX. In this regard, we view PT integrations in money markets as the most compelling avenue for Exponent to expand its market share and own its vertical.

article-image

Franklin Templeton’s Innovation Head Sandy Kaul says institutions will issue stablecoins and tokenized cash offerings to stay competitive

article-image

Surviving financial doomsday takes some preparation

article-image

Pump.fun’s launch partners include Kraken, Kucoin, Bitget, Bybit, Gate and MEXC

article-image

Monad Foundation’s Keone Hon said the team’s been “thinking about how to grow the onchain economy for some time”

article-image

Cuts to government R&D budgets may prove penny wise, bitcoin foolish

article-image

Still relatively little is known about the memecoin platform’s forthcoming token