NFT marketplace OpenSea has closed a $300 million Series C funding round that values the company at $13 billion.

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OpenSea announced earlier this week that investors valued the company at $13.3 billion in the Series C funding round, over eight times higher than its previous $1.5 billion valuation in a $100 million Series B announced last July.

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Paradigm and Coatue led the round with participation from new and existing investors. With the funding, OpenSea aims to significantly improve customer support and customer safety, invest in the wider NFT and Web3 community, and expand its team.

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"We are committed to expanding the entire NFT ecosystem. This quarter, we are launching a grant program to give us the opportunity to directly support the developers, builders, and creators shaping the future of the NFT space," said CEO Devin Finzer. "Our ambition is to foster the scale and growth of the broader NFT ecosystem including raising the profile of emerging creators and investing in the people who shape the NFT space for the better today."

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The injection of capital will help OpenSea get ahead of the large number of rivals entering the NFT market. Coinbase, Kraken, and Blockchain.com are some of the few crypto exchanges set to launch NFT marketplaces later this year.

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