By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
Sfermion would be leveraging on its experience in investments in the NFT space to build a portfolio “of investments that underpin the development of the metaverse.”
Sfermion, an investment firm focused on the burgeoning non-fungible token (NFT) space has been able to raise $100 million from a number of popular crypto investors like Marc Andreessen, Alan Howard, the Winklevoss twins, and Digital Currency Group to “accelerate the emergence of an open, decentralized metaverse.”
According to a press statement issued to this effect, the fund, tagged “Fund II” will focus on investing in infrastructures that could be used to build the blocks of the digital funds. And unlike the first fund which was targeted at direct “NFT investments” the new fund would focus on investing in the metaverse.
In recent times, the word “metaverse” has become exceedingly common especially as Facebook recently renamed itself to Meta in an attempt to show where its focus would be for the foreseeable future. Many tech analysts and crypto enthusiasts alike have stated their belief that the “metaverse” could be the next big thing after the discovery of the Internet in the late 90s.
So, with the metaverse dawn right upon us, crypto investors and innovators have begun positioning themselves for this new reality which Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg expects at least one billion people to be in by the next decade.
Andrew Steinwood, the managing director of Sfermion and host of the Zima Red podcast said “Having been focused on the NFT markets since 2019, it is incredible to see our thesis play out that NFTs were the key missing piece of technology needed for the metaverse to come to fruition. We created this fund based on the notion that NFTs are the trojan horse to crypto mass adoption and the next multi-trillion-dollar industry.”
Per the press statement, Sfermion would be leveraging on its experience in investments in the NFT space to build a portfolio “of investments that underpin the development of the metaverse.”
It is expected that NFTs will play an active role in the formulation of the metaverse as it would already allow users to own digital assets in the virtual world.
Already, the firm has a healthy list of investments as it has invested in some top NFT companies like OpenSea, SuperRare, Artblocks, Yield Guild Games, Nifty Island, DeHorizon, Mojito, and Alethea AI.
The general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Dixon, one of the participants in the funding round said “NFTs are transforming digital experiences and creating new investment opportunities across a variety of decentralized marketplaces. Sfermion is well-positioned to succeed by leveraging Andrew’s deep experience and insightful perspective on the NFT markets.”