The company announced on January 19 that it has raised a whopping $ 170 million in a Series B funding round led by veteran Silicon Valley venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz (often called a16z).
Officially launched within a year, Autograph has already received over $ 200 million to support the NFT platform, a digital collection that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
It probably helps that Tom Brady is a co-founder.
The National Football League star started the company with serial entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt and Dillon Rosenblatt, the son of Rosenblatt.
Sign is a series of successful “drops” featuring NFTs affiliated with star athletes such as Naomi Osaka, Tiger Woods and Simone Biles, rapidly becoming a major player in the relatively new digital collector space. Established.
Dillon Rosenblatt said the new funding will help the company expand its platform while providing new experiences to its users and expanding its product offerings.
“We want to work more meaningfully in other areas,” he said. “I currently see us as leaders in sports-based and athlete-based NFTs and want to do the same with music and entertainment.”
In July, the company announced a partnership with Lionsgate Entertainment. This will allow Autograph to create a series of NFTs to celebrate the studio’s popular movie franchises such as “John Wick” and “The Hunger Games.” He then partnered with Billboard for the pop star The Weeknd’s NFT collection.
Autograph also has an important partnership with DraftKings Inc., a fantasy football and sports betting site, to support the sale and trading of NFTs inspired by Autograph athletes.
Rosenblatt said such a partnership will be announced later this year, and the company is working on a list of star-studded personalities to support future digital products.
“We have built our own system to actually sign every individual NFT released by the talent,” Rosenblatt said. “This is very exciting because it adds a very important layer of reliability in Web3.”
Web3, a major technology buzzword, is a vision for the future of the Internet supported by venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz. Andreessen Horowitz is reported to have raised $ 1 billion for seed investment in Web3 startups as part of its latest venture fund.
The Web3 concept relies heavily on the theoretical potential of blockchain digital ledgers to decentralize online transactions and promote more transparent sales of digital products.
NFTs are at the core of this vision. They exist only in the digital domain, but are sold and traded on the blockchain. Proponents of this technology give buyers true ownership of the file, creating the same rarity that accompanies physical works of art and souvenirs.
According to Rosenblatt, Web3 and related technologies represent an opportunity for fans and collectors to build a community to interact with digital products from Autograph and other NFT creators.
“When someone owns an NFT, they connect with other members of the community,” Rosenblatt said, and the company will promote these connections through digital events that allow customers to interact with sports icons like Wayne Gretzky. I said that.
“We look forward to more digital experiences, more live events, and more opportunities to excite the user community,” he said.
NFTs may be a new technology that many consumers aren’t used to yet, but Rosenblatt said he’s confident that this technology will continue.
“These projects we incubate in sports, entertainment and music will make us the industry leader in fandom,” he said.
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