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§ Private Profile · San Francisco, CA, USA
Rare Bits is a company.
Rare Bits has raised $6.0M across 1 funding round.
Key people at Rare Bits.
Rare Bits was founded in 2017 by Amitt Mahajan (CTO, Co-Founder).
Rare Bits has raised $6.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Rare Bits operates as a specialized online marketplace for unique digital assets, commonly known as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. The platform enables users to discover, buy, and sell crypto-collectibles, primarily focusing on items derived from blockchain-based games and applications. It facilitates peer-to-peer exchange of these digital goods and includes features like an asset value estimation system, aiming to provide liquidity and transparency in the nascent crypto-asset market.
The company was co-founded in 2017 by Daniel Lee, Amitt Mahajan, David Pekar, and Payom Dousti, a group of experienced entrepreneurs with a history of collaborating on multiple early-stage ventures. Their prior experience includes significant roles at companies such as Zynga, Google (post-Red Hot Labs acquisition), and NumberFire (acquired by FanDuel). The founders identified a growing need for a dedicated platform to trade unique digital assets as blockchain technology began to foster new forms of digital ownership and gaming.
Rare Bits targets a diverse user base, including avid crypto collectors, blockchain game developers, and artists seeking to tokenize their creative works through its associated platform, Fan Bits. The company’s overarching vision centers on driving broader mainstream adoption of NFTs by providing a robust ecosystem for asset tokenization and frictionless digital commerce, emphasizing the inherent rarity and uniqueness of blockchain-backed collectibles.
Rare Bits has raised $6.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $6.0M Series A in April 2018.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2018 | $6M Series A | Spark Capital | Accel, Benchmark, Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, General Catalyst, Hanabi Capital, Operator Stack, Polychain Capital, Race Capital, Sancus Ventures, South Park Commons, The General Partnership, Matt Mazzeo, Aditya Agarwal, Avichal Garg, Emmett Shear, Justin KAN, Neil Mehta, Robin Chan, Ruchi Sanghvi, Steve Jang, Tony Chen, David O. Sacks, First Round Capital, SV Angel | Announced |
Rare Bits was founded in 2017 by Amitt Mahajan (CTO, Co-Founder).
Rare Bits has raised $6.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Rare Bits's investors include Spark Capital, Accel, Benchmark, Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, General Catalyst, Hanabi Capital, Operator Stack, Polychain Capital, Race Capital, Sancus Ventures, South Park Commons.
Key people at Rare Bits.
Rare Bits is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling, and discovering crypto assets, particularly non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles.[1][3][4][5] Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, it enables users to trade unique, provably scarce digital goods with zero fees, solving the problem of fragmented exchanges for blockchain items by providing a unified platform for discovery, management, and auctions.[3][4] The company serves gamers, collectors, creators, and blockchain enthusiasts, with early products like Fan Bits allowing non-technical users to create and monetize collectibles tied to smart contracts, such as charity-linked cards.[1] It raised $6 million in a Series A round, achieving over 1 million assets listed, though recent Mosaic Score indicates potential market challenges.[3][4]
Rare Bits was co-founded in 2017 by Dave Pekar, Amitt Mahajan, and Danny Lee, who previously met after selling their gaming startups to Zynga, alongside Payom Dousti from fintech VC 1/0 Capital.[1][3] The idea emerged from the founders' gaming and digital platform expertise, aiming to capitalize on blockchain's potential for secure ownership of digital goods like cryptographically unique kittens, monsters, and cards.[1] A pivotal moment was the 2018 launch of Fan Bits, a platform for blockchain-tied collectibles that empowered non-technical creators, backed by a $6 million Series A from investors including First Round Capital, Spark Capital's Nabeel Hyatt, and South Park Commons.[1][4] This built early traction in the nascent NFT space, with the mission to enable worldwide exchange of online and offline property on blockchain.[1]
(Note: A separate entity, Rare Bits Technology Private Limited, founded in 2020 in Hyderabad, India, focuses on eCommerce for small businesses and is unrelated based on distinct profiles.[2])
Rare Bits rode the early NFT and crypto collectibles wave in 2017-2018, predating the 2021 boom and positioning itself as a pioneer in tokenized digital ownership amid rising interest in blockchain for gaming and art.[1][3][4] Timing was ideal as blockchain shifted property exchange paradigms, with market forces like smart contracts and DeFi favoring scarce assets over centralized platforms.[1] It influenced the ecosystem by democratizing NFT creation via Fan Bits, spurring supply from non-developers and competing with developer-only dApps, while its investor network (e.g., Zynga alumni, top VCs) bridged gaming and crypto.[1][4] Today, it exemplifies the evolution toward fractionalized and hybrid online-offline assets in a maturing Web3 landscape.
Rare Bits could pivot toward integrated gaming ecosystems or AI-driven asset generation, leveraging founders' Zynga roots amid resurgent blockchain gaming trends.[1][4] Regulatory clarity on digital assets and layer-2 scaling will shape growth, potentially reviving its marketplace if NFT volumes rebound. Its early-mover status and zero-fee edge position it to influence tokenized real-world assets, evolving from niche collectibles to a broader property exchange hub—echoing its founding mission in an increasingly on-chain world.[1]
