The Bored Ape Yacht Club is reportedly in talks with investment fund Andreessen Horowitz over a funding round which could value it at $5bn.
Digital collectibles from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 algorithmically generated, unique cartoon images, have been snapped up by the likes of Gwenyth Paltrow, Jimmy Fallon and just this week Justin Bieber forked out 500 ETH ($965,000) for one of the highly prized non-funigble tokens (NFTs).
Yuga Labs, the company behind the project, wants to sell a multimillion dollar stake in the business which is attracting interest from VC heavyweights according to the FT. The company could be valued between $4bn and $5bn a report said.
The terms could still change, and discussions will not necessarily result in a deal people familiar with the matter told the FT.
The deal would mark the first institutional investment into Yuga Labs, led by founders Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, No Sass and Gargamel, who set up the Bored Ape project little over a year ago.
Andreessen Horowitz was an early investor in Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb and Stripe. It has invested extensively in crypto projects, recently unveiling plans for a $4.5bn crypto fund.
Last year the NFT art market exploded into a multi billion dollar, international industry with an estimated $40bn poured into the space. At present, the market is still plagued with technical hitches with Opensea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, facing reports of stolen Apes and listing bugs which saw the assets sold at their old listing prices, below market value.
The current floor price for a Bored Ape NFT on Opensea is £186,000.
Read more: Elon Musk lashes out at Twitter over NFT profile pictures
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