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Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm, announced that it is heading a massive $50 million seed round for Gary Vaynerchuk's NFT initiative, VeeFriends, signaling a bright spot in a challenging funding environment for firms specializing in digital assets. VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk introduced VeeFriends in May 2021. According to a Medium post, VeeFriends plans to use the seed money to grow its intellectual property (IP) of the 283 VeeFriends characters across physical and digital channels. The platform intends to hire new personnel as well.
a16z Supports Developing Web3 Company
General partner at Andreessen Horowitz, Chris Lyons, tweeted more information on his business's support of the "developing Web3 company." Each cartoon animal, such as an "intelligent wasp" and a "kind gerbil," was hand-drawn by Vaynerchuk in the doodle art style and given a particularly human characteristic. A limited edition UNO deck has seventeen of these characters. https://twitter.com/ChrisLyons/status/1552686624064131074 Some "important traits for mankind," such as tolerance, patience, and sincerity, were found by Lyons to be motivating to the neighborhood. Each token entitles the bearer's entry into the VeeCon conference, the inaugural of which was held in Minneapolis this past May. VeeFriends reported that in its relatively brief existence, the collection had generated over 200,000 ETH in primary and secondary transactions. Lyons commended VeeFriends and Vaynerchuk's "commitment to assisting his community members' improvement," saying they "reflect the essence of business." It ranks in the top 30 collections on OpenSea for all-time trading volume.
VeeFriends Series 2 Collection Features Additional Characters
VeeFriends Series 2, a spin-off collection featuring additional characters, was launched earlier this year. A collectible trading card game is a valuable feature of the second collection. Co:Create, a new protocol that aims to assist the expansion of NFT projects and provide them with the ability to introduce their native tokens, was recently funded by a $25 million seed round led by a16z. Investors included VaynerFund, Vaynerchuk's investment vehicle.