Amid dull conditions in the NFT market, Doodles announced over Twitter that they have raised $54M at a $704 million valuation.
The funding round was led by Seven Seven Six – the VC firm backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Acrew Capital, 10T Holdings and FTX Ventures were the other participants.
Plans for the funds
Doodles intends to use the capital to expand its current team of 11 members and add more world-class engineers, creatives, marketers and business executives. It also wants to dive into product development, proprietary technology acquisitions, branding and collector experiences.
“Next week, our careers page will go live with 18 new full-time positions. This will grow our team from 11 to 30. All of these hires will be meticulously crafted to accomplish Doodles’ long-term goal of being the most important Web3 native entertainment brand in the world,” tweeted the company.
Doodles, created by Web3 entrepreneurs Evan Keast and Jordan Castro and digital artist Burnt Toast, is an NFT profile picture collection of 10,000 artworks, each featuring a joyful and colorful animated character portrait of humans, aliens, skeletons, cats, and apes on the Ethereum blockchain.
In June, at an NFT NYC event, Doodles had first disclosed ongoing talks with Seven Seven Six to raise funds but hadn’t revealed the amount or other interested parties.
About the new investment, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six, Katelin Holloway said:
“Reimagining storytelling through the blockchain, Doodles is changing the way the world connects and interacts. We’re so excited to partner with Doodles and the team as they continue transforming what the next generation of entertainment and media looks like.”
Following the news, Doodles NFTs are flying off the shelves with a near 1000% rise in sales volume and about a 15% jump in floor price in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam data.
