Roham Gharegozlou is a Canadian entrepreneur and angel investor best known as the co-founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, the Vancouver-based studio behind some of the most widely adopted NFT products in crypto history. Before founding Dapper Labs in 2018, he co-founded Axiom Zen, a venture studio that incubated early blockchain experiments including the viral collectible game CryptoKitties, which launched in late 2017 and temporarily congested the Ethereum network. Gharegozlou studied at Stanford University and has been based in Canada throughout his career.
His reputation as a builder-investor grew alongside Dapper Labs, which raised over $600 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, and the NBA itself. Rather than functioning as a traditional fund manager, Gharegozlou operates primarily as an operator-turned-angel – backing early-stage crypto, NFT, and Web3 projects that intersect with consumer adoption, digital ownership, and sports entertainment. His investment thesis has consistently favored mainstream-facing products over infrastructure plays, reflecting Dapper's own product focus.
Notable investments and projects
- Dapper Labs / NBA Top Shot – Co-founded and leads the company behind the NBA Top Shot marketplace, which generated over $1 billion in sales by 2021, making it one of the most commercially successful NFT platforms to date.
- Flow blockchain – Dapper Labs built the Flow blockchain specifically to support high-volume consumer applications, departing from Ethereum to avoid the scalability problems CryptoKitties exposed. Flow now hosts NFL All Day, UFC Strike, and LaLiga Golazos in addition to NBA Top Shot.
- CryptoKitties – The 2017 collectible game that introduced millions of users to NFTs and helped establish the ERC-721 token standard.
- Early-stage Web3 startups – Gharegozlou has participated in angel rounds for Web3 consumer and gaming projects, though a complete public list of his personal angel portfolio is not available. His Crunchbase profile and public disclosures list approximately 10 investments.
Team and background
Gharegozlou co-founded Dapper Labs alongside Mikhael Naayem (Chief Business Officer) and Dieter Shirley, the engineer who co-authored the ERC-721 standard. As an individual angel, he does not manage a formal fund or team of partners – his deals are personal investments typically made at pre-seed or seed stage, often accompanied by advisory roles. His operating background at Axiom Zen and Dapper Labs gives him credibility in the consumer NFT and gaming verticals that most financial-only angels lack.
Recent activity
Dapper Labs faced significant headwinds in 2022 and 2023 as the NFT market cooled sharply. The company laid off staff in multiple rounds – roughly 22% of its workforce in late 2022, followed by further reductions in 2023 – and NBA Top Shot volumes fell well below their 2021 peak. Gharegozlou acknowledged publicly that Dapper had scaled too aggressively during the boom. By 2024 and into 2025, the company refocused on its core sports IP and the Flow ecosystem, pursuing partnerships in football (soccer) and combat sports to diversify beyond basketball. Public information about new personal angel bets during this period is limited; no major new investments have been announced through official channels as of early 2026.
Gharegozlou remains one of the more prominent operator-investors in crypto with a clear track record in consumer NFTs. His bets depend heavily on mainstream sports licensing deals and the continued relevance of the Flow blockchain, both of which face competitive pressure from Ethereum layer-2 networks and rival collectible platforms. Investors and founders approaching him should expect a focus on user experience, licensing strategy, and mass-market reach rather than pure DeFi or infrastructure plays. For verified investment disclosures, see his Crunchbase profile and LinkedIn.
