Sixteen months after executing its first transaction, sports card marketplace StarStock says it has secured its largest capital investment to date. An $8 million round of Series A funding was announced Thursday, bringing the company’s total outside investment to $10 million.
The round is led by Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, with participation from several angel investors including NBA all-star Trae Young, Twitch Co-founder Justin Kan, Chief Operating Officer of BetMGM, Ryan Spoon, and Ilkka Paananen, Co-founder of Supercell.
The company plans to use the money to continue its growth, build a mobile app and hire additional employees.
StarStock also says it’s adding Jonathan Lai, a member of Andreessen Horowitz’s consumer investing team, to its Board of Directors; alongside existing members Scott Greenberg, Co-founder and CEO of the company and Nigel Eccles of Flick and FanDuel.
“We’re thrilled to have Jonathan join us on our journey to revolutionize sports card trading,” says Scott Greenberg, Co-founder and CEO of StarStock. “Jonathan brings impeccable knowledge of the sports and gaming space and will be a huge asset as StarStock continues to expand. The new funds will be used to continue scaling our card processing team, enhance the product and build a native mobile app experience.”
Founded in November 2019, StarStock enables collectors and fans to buy and sell graded and ungraded cards instantaneously. Users ship cards and unopened boxes to the company which scans and lists them on its website. Cards are then bought and sold in a stock market-like manner. Most never physically change hands unless the user requests them.
The cards are stored in a centralized, secure vault. Nearly 900,000 cards are currently listed on its marketplace with 50,000 cards added each week. StarStock receives five percent of each sale. The company says 600,000 cards have already been traded.
StarStock grew 500 percent from November 2020 to January 2021 in nearly every category including card submissions, sales, deposits, and member sign-ups. Late last year, StarStock received a $1.3 million investment from a group that included Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant.
“As a trading cards enthusiast myself, it was clear to me from the start that StarStock founders Scott, Nigel, and Mike are incredibly passionate about sports cards as both customers and industry veterans,” says Jonathan Lai, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with them on a journey to build the stock market for athletes.”
