Top NFT collection Doodles announced a new round of funding Tuesday. Here’s a look at who invested in Doodles and what’s next.
What Happened: Doodles announced an investment of $54 million in a funding round led by Seven Seven Six, a venture capital fund founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Also participating in the funding were 10T Holdings, Acrew Capital and FTX Ventures. The funding values Doodles at $704 million.
The company said the investment will help scale its growth strategy and continue its plan to monetize its intellectual property in categories like music, culture and entertainment.
“With this capital, we aim to continue developing a new generation of engaging experiences and content using blockchain technology, including NFTs,” Doodles CEO Julian Holguin said. “We’re thrilled to have Seven Seven Six believe in our vision to build the largest and most coveted web3 media brand worldwide, bridging consumer, culture and entertainment.”
Seven Seven Six invested in Doodles in a previous funding round, announced by Benzinga in June.
“We believe Doodles is developing the next digital frontier of how we experience and create content, unlocking the real value behind NFTs,” Seven Seven Six Founding Partner Katelin Holloway said. “Reimagining storytelling through the blockchain, Doodles is changing the way the world connects and interacts.”
The new funding round follows earlier news this year that the company added musician and producer Pharrell Williams as Chief Brand Officer and former Billboard President Julian Holguin as CEO.
Related Link: NFT Collection Doodles Adds Pharrell To The Board, Gets Investment From Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian
About Doodles: Doodles was founded in 2021 by Evan Keast and Jordan Castro, alumni of Dapper Labs, and artist Scott Martin, known as Burnt Toast. A collection of 10,000 NFTs launched in October 2021.
Holders of Doodles NFTs include Justin Bieber, Future, Gary Vee, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Kygo, Diplo, Steve Aoki, Pranksy and more.
The collection ranks 11th all-time for sales volume of NFT projects at $526.2 million, according to data from CryptoSlam.
What’s Next: Doodles said it will use funding to help invest in talent across several areas of the company, including creative, operations and blockchain.
“Additionally, Doodles will be funding product development via acquisitions and proprietary technology, media and collector experiences,” the company said.
On Twitter, Doodles shared news of the funding round and also highlighted some key positions it will hire going forward.
“Next week, our careers page will go live with 18 new full-time positions. Key roles you can expect to see are: Head of Finance, Head of Business Affairs, Head of Marketing, Social Media Manager, Project Managers, Front-End Engineers, Back-end Engineers, Designers & Illustrators.”
Doodles plans to grow its team from 11 people to 30 and use the funding and new employees to strengthen its long-term goal of “being the most important Web3 native entertainment brand in the world.”
The company announced Brandon Rosenblatt as the Head of Brand Partnerships Tuesday. Rosenblatt brings experience working with Fortune 500 companies, including in the apparel space.
Doodles said in the next six months it will launch several products, including a “mainstream NFT experience meant for mass adoption.”
Doodles Records: Volume 1, a music themed launch, was announced earlier this year as a collaboration with Pharrell and Columbia Records, a unit of Sony Group Corp (NYSE:SONY). The album will be sold as an NFT.
Price Action: News of the funding round led to a spike in sales volume for Doodles. Over 77 Doodles were sold in the hour after the announcement.
The 77 Doodles sold came at a price point of seven Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) or higher, generating sales volume of 539 ETH, or around $877,173.
Sales volume for Doodles in the seven days prior was $1.1 million, highlighting how important the announcement could be to building momentum in sales and the floor price.
The floor price for Doodles is 8.6 ETH, or $14,158 at the time of writing.
Related Link: Benzinga Announces The Future Of Crypto Conference December 7th In NYC
Photo: Courtesy of doodles.app
