Last Updated on March 22, 2023
Quick take:
- Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends has closed a $50 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
- The NFT project said it will use the capital to support building the future IP of the 283 VeeFriends characters.
- VeeFriends also plan to use the funds to scale its creative, technical and experiential operations.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT universe is about to get bigger after securing $50 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The popular NFT creator and investor first rose to the top echelons of NFT kingpins last year after making $90 million in 90 days.
Since then, Gary Vee, as he is synonymously referred to in the NFT space, has gone on to partner with leading multinational brands with his signature NFT characters, VeeFriends also gaining recognition.
Read more: What is the VeeFriends NFT collection?
And now, one of the leading venture capital firms facilitating the shift from web2 to web3, a16z has joined VeeFriend’s growing portfolio of partnerships after leading the NFT project’s huge seed round.
VeeFriends said it will use the funds to support its intellectual property ecosystem, which contains 283 VeeFriends characters, as well as, fund the expansion of its creative, technical and experiential operations.
Commenting on his company’s investment in VeeFriends, Chris Lyons wrote:
“Not only is Vee Friends an exciting NFT project, it also provides offline and in-person utility through curated experiences like VeeCon, which brought over 7,000 NFT ticket holders together for a week of informative conversations on web3, live music, and networking. VeeFriends represents the ethos of entrepreneurship, and we’re humbled by the opportunity to support Gary and the VeeFriends community on this journey.”
VeeFriends NFT characters are among the most popular in the NFT ecosystem, amassing over 200,000 ETH in primary and secondary sales since launching in May 2021. The company has released more than 10 collaborations, including its partnership with Mattel Creations to launch VeeFriends UNO Deck last December. Uno Deck is a popular American card game containing 108 cards.
In January, Gary Vee also announced the launch of BOOK GAMES, a Layer 2 NFT project featuring 125,000 burnable tokens in a game that’s played forever, along with a token exchange.
VeeFriends’ fundraising comes despite the challenges created by the crypto winter. While market activity indicates a declining appetite for NFTs and other crypto instruments, venture capital activity suggests otherwise.
In a report published by Reuters, venture capital firms pumped $17.5 billion into crypto during the first half of 2022, which puts Web3 fundraisings for the current year on course to surpass last year’s reported $26.9 billion.
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