KEY POINTS

  • A significant portion of the funds has reportedly been committed
  • Once closed, the funding would increase Chiru Labs' valuation to around $300 million to $400 million 
  • The deal has yet to be finalized, according to a source

Chiru Labs, a Los Angeles-based firm known for the creation of viral NFT collection Azuki, is aiming to complete its Series A funding round and raise a whopping $30 million.

Three people familiar with the matter confirmed the funding amount, according to a report from The Block. One source reportedly suggested that a huge portion of the funds is already committed and that it would value Chiru Labs somewhere around $300 million to $400 million once closed. However, another source reportedly said the deal has yet to be completed.

The report did not reveal the participants in the funding round as any confirmation has yet to be had from Chiru or the project's pseudonymous founder, Zagabond.

Azuki is a collection of 10,000 sideways-facing anime characters adorned with various accessories like weapons. The cheapest ones among them cost around 11.2 ETH, as per data from OpenSea.

A rare Azuki NFT was sold in March 2022 for 420 ETH, which was worth more than a million dollars at the time. The transaction broke all previous records for the collection.

As reported earlier, fellow NFT project Doodles raised $54 million in collaboration with Reddit co-founder and executive chairman Alexis Ohanian's venture capital firm, 776, and the venture of FTX exchange, FTX Ventures. 10T Holdings and Acrew Capital also took part in the funding, and the project's valuation is now $704 million.

Yuga Labs, the firm behind popular NFT projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, also aims to raise around $50 million with the launch of a new NFT collection titled Mecha Apes later this year.

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