Jay-Z and Andreessen Horowitz back a $19 million investment in NFT platform Bitski

• Bitski is an NFT platform that aims to simplify creating, buying, and selling non-fungible tokens.
• The platform closed a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
• Jay-Z and Serena Williams were also investors.

An NFT platform that's branding itself as the "Shopify for NFTs" raised $19 million in Series A funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Jay-Z.

Bitski is an NFT marketplace that aims to enable brands to easily create and sell non-fungible tokens through its platforms. Its website encourages content creators to "jump in, zero blockchain experience required," and allows users to purchase digital art with credit cards.

A16z's Sriram Krishnan said the venture firm led the Series A funding round and he will be joining the Bitski board.

"We have a number of investments focusing on NFTs and the metaverse - from Dapper Labs to OpenSea. It only stands to reason we invest in the infrastructure that makes NFTs accessible," Krishnan said in a blog post.

Other investors in the funding round include MrBeast's Night Media, and Ari Emanuel, Endeavor CEO. Galaxy Digital, Winklevoss Capital, and Coinbase Ventures participated in a $1.81 million seed funding round in November 2019 for Bitski.

The popularity of non-fungible tokens has boomed in 2020, though some warn that a bubble is forming and ready to burst, particularly in the market for NFT art.