Our Investment in Blockchain-Enabled Applications in Sports, Entertainment, and Art

Launches NFL ALL DAY Worldwide

Raises over $550 million in its latest financing rounds

By Brent MacDonald – Principal @ Rising Tide VC

The National Football League (NFL), the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), and Dapper Labs announced that NFL ALL DAY – the exclusive digital video highlight NFT platform – is officially open and available to fans worldwide, just ahead of the 2022 NFL season. “The early success of NFL ALL DAY highlights the power of creating a platform that provides long-term value to the fan experience,” said Roham Gharegozlou, Dapper Labs CEO and Co-Founder. “We’re excited to welcome the millions of football fans to NFL ALL DAY and enable them to own a piece of the sport they love as well as join a strong and vibrant community of fellow fans.”

Launched in 2018, Dapper Labs was spun out of Axiom Zen to bring the decentralization benefits of blockchain technology to the first billion consumers through the power of play, fairness, and true ownership. Dapper Labs got its start with CryptoKitties (initially launched within AxiomZen), a collectible game where users breed and trade NFT kittens. With over 1.5 million users who were responsible for over $40 million worth of transactions, CryptoKitties effectively “clogged up” the Ethereum blockchain, prompting the development of Dapper Labs’ ‘Flow’ blockchain network. Flow is designed to support games and consumer applications, and the developers and teams that create them, with the throughput necessary to scale to millions of active users. The Company plans to expand the Flow blockchain to support previously announced collaborations with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Warner Music, and the UFC, among others. Dapper Labs also recently launched a ‘Smart Wallet’ with the goal to make crypto and crypto collectibles far easier to use and is an essential building block for the adoption of cryptocurrency and decentralized applications. Dapper Labs Smart Wallet supports Flow and Ethereum, allowing consumers to access assets and applications on both networks.

Flow Launches $725 Million Ecosystem Fund

Flow recently announced a new $725 million Ecosystem Fund designed to hypercharge innovation and growth across the Flow community. The largest joint commitment made towards any blockchain ecosystem, the Ecosystem Fund participants will provide existing and future developers with support in building applications on the Flow blockchain through investments, FLOW token grants, and in-kind support.

Why We Are Excited:

The team at Dapper Labs has taken the right approach to attract a passionate audience to its brands and underlying technology, the Flow blockchain. By focusing initially on gaming, paired with the nostalgia of trading cards and the scarcity that goes with them, they have struck a chord with a captive and growing audience. Furthermore, they continue to lead the blockchain industry in terms of mindshare by partnering with notable, well-regarded brands, artists, and communities, essentially creating a snowball effect around the Dapper Labs and Flow blockchain. We believe this strategy is the right one and will create an unstoppable pace of escape velocity in a nascent area of technology. Given the sheer size volume of transactions and their value, as well as demand that outstrips supply on NBA TopShot[1] and UFC Strike alone, it is clear that Dapper Labs has the potential to be one of the most important companies in the blockchain world. This is truly just the beginning.

See recent funding press release:

Dapper Labs Announces $250M in Funding, link here.

NBA and NFL players and VCs invest $305 million in Dapper Labs, link here.

Rising Tide Fund Managers, LLC and its affiliates (“Rising Tide” or “We”) is a United States venture capital firm investing primarily in the information technology and healthcare/life sciences markets. Over the last 35 years, we have partnered with family funds, high-impact investors, and strategic partners to help launch and expand startups in a variety of industries across three continents. We are dedicated to cooperating with our entrepreneurs at all stages: from financing to leveraging our international networks to facilitating exits by design. For more information, visit www.rtf.vc.

The portfolio companies described herein do not represent all the portfolio companies purchased, sold, or recommended for portfolios advised by Rising Tide. The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified were or will be profitable. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should be aware that a loss of investment is possible.

[1] NBA Top Shot virtual cards come in the form of a floating digital cube that includes a video highlight of an NBA player and come with a non-fungible token, backed by blockchain technology, certifying its authenticity and scarcity. A LeBron James dunk highlight sold for $210,000 recently but more common cards can often be had for less than $10.