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Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeFriends Secures $50M In Funding Led By A16z

  • Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT collection VeeFriends has secured around $50 million in seed funding from popular venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
  • According to the official announcement, the firm will use the seed funding to build “the future intellectual property of the 283 VeeFriends characters”

American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) decided to lead a $50 million seed funding round for the May-launched NFT project VeeFriends.

The funding to Internet personality and VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk’s NFT initiative clearly brings a light of hope for the digital asset-based startups during the challenging funding landscapes due to the ongoing crypto winter season.

According to a Medium post by VeeFriends, it has planned to use the seed funds to “support building the future intellectual property (IP) of the 283 VeeFriends characters.” The project also intends to use the fund to fuel expansion plans for its creative, technical, and research operations by recruiting “the best talent from the entertainment and Web3 industries.”

Each NFT entitles the holder to enter into the VeeCon conference, the inaugural of which was held in Minneapolis in May 2022. The tokens are divided into three levels based on rarity, background color, and level of access to Gary Vaynerchuk and VeeCon.

The general partner at a16z, Chris Lyons, took the announcement to Twitter and posted additional details about a16z’s backing of the “growing Web3 company.” He praised Vaynerchuk’s “commitment to supporting his community members’ personal growth.”

Notably, each cartoon animal featured in NFTs, such as a “wise wasp” and a “generous gerbil,” was hand-drawn by Vaynerchuk in the doodle art style and given a particular human characteristic.

Lyons claimed that VeeFriends “represents the ethos of entrepreneurship.” Some of those “meaningful attributes for humanity,” such as tolerance, patience, and authenticity, are motivating to the community, according to him.

VeeFriends reported that in its relatively brief lifetime, the collection had generated over 200,000 ETH in primary and secondary sales. By launching over ten collaborations and building one of the largest communities on Discord for an NFT project, it ranks in the top 30 collections on OpenSea for all-time trading volume.

Notably, VeeFriends Series 2, a spin-off collection featuring additional characters, was launched earlier this year. A collectible trading card game is one of the second collection’s utilities.

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Parth Dubey Verified

A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.

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