Tom Brady's NFT platform Autograph raises $170M to scale operations
The nonfungible token (NFT) market Autograph co-founded by Tremendous Bowl champion Tom Brady has introduced it closed on a $170 million funding spherical.
In a Wednesday announcement, Autograph said Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, and VC agency Kleiner Perkin co-led the $170-million Collection B spherical with contributions from crypto investor Katie Haun’s agency, Nicole Quinn of Lightspeed Enterprise Companions, and San Francisco-based enterprise agency 01A. The corporate stated it deliberate to make use of the funds to scale its NFT expertise and hinted at a collection of partnerships aimed toward increasing its consumer base.
Along with the funding spherical, Haun, a16z basic accomplice Arianna Simpson, and Kleiner Perkins accomplice Ilya Fushman will be a part of Autograph’s board of administrators, with a16z basic accomplice Chris Dixon becoming a member of the agency’s board of advisors. In keeping with the brand new members, Autograph will proceed to purpose for mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Massive information on the @Autograph entrance. We’re pumped so as to add some actually educated folks within the Web3 house to our group. This thread from @cdixon consists of some nice context on our enterprise. #ToTheMoon https://t.co/Xsmws3KQ05
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) January 19, 2022
Since its launch in August 2021, Autograph has partnered with main names in sports activities and leisure, usually for NFT collections. In December, Brady dropped a collection of digital collectibles representing moments from his soccer profession, together with cleats and a jersey, from the NFL mix. {The marketplace} additionally options NFTs from tennis star Naomi Osaka, skateboarder Tony Hawk and others.
Associated: Landing! Objective! Knockout! Crypto and sports activities collide in 2021
Andreessen Horowitz has been behind a few of the largest funding rounds for crypto and blockchain tasks in addition to its personal crypto-focused funds devoted to increasing the dimensions and marketability of blockchain tasks. The agency’s portfolio consists of Coinbase, Compound, Maker and lots of others.
