NFT company Doodles received a $54 million cash injection in a funding round backed by Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six.
The Series A funding round also included the likes of San-Francisco-based Acrew Capital, FTX Ventures, which recently invested in a new blockchain project Aptos, and 10T Holdings, an investor in Animoca Brands, which counts Sandbox as a subsidiary.
The fundraising took the company’s valuation to $704 million. The new funds will expand the NFT company’s reach into music and gaming.
Since Doodles NFTs launched less than a year ago, they have become one of the most prominent NFT profile picture collections. Boasting 10,000 unique pastel images, the collection is valued at $121 million, with prices starting at 6.9 ETH. It counts pop star superstar Justin Bieber and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk among its owners.
Bieber also owns an NFT from Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection also angling for broader reach through music. Universal Music Group executive Celine Joshua is pioneering a story arc for a four-member BAYC band called Kingship, including albums and metaverse performances. Joshua has tapped a Grammy-award-winning production duo to help craft the sound of the virtual band.
New funds to be used for music and gaming expansion
On the other hand, Doodles has tapped singer and producer Pharrell Williams to be the face of its brand as it brings greater public awareness of music NFTs. According to CEO Julian Hoguin, the goal is to create novel experiences for existing Doodles owners and use music as an onramp for users new to the Doodles ecosystem. Doodles will partner with Columbia Records to launch the music NFT experience in the next six months.
The NFT company is also dipping its toes into NFT gaming with Space Doodles. It will also look to onramp people into its ecosystem by allowing them to buy characters without cryptocurrencies.
To its community, the company tweeted, “we hear you, we appreciate you, and we will continue to build with you.” Doodles will host a Twitter space at 8 p.m. ET to discuss the fundraising announcement.
What about Doodles 2?
In a further bid to expand its user base, the company announced the release of Doodles 2, an expansion of the original Doodles collection, at NFT NYC earlier this year. The company auctioned off Genesis Box NFTs at the conference, which is believed to play a crucial role in the new ecosystem.
While the original Doodles collection had 10,000 NFTs, the Doodles team has suggested that the collection size of Doodles 2 could run into the millions. Doodles 2 will offer basic NFTs that can be adorned with additional traits from Genesis Boxes and be used as profile pictures on social media.
Doodles 2 will not be on Ethereum but more likely on Dapper Labs blockchain Flow since two of Doodle’s founders are former employees of Dapper Labs.
There has been no official launch date announced for Doodles 2.
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