Doodles is expanding to music and gaming NFTs with new capital raised from Alexis Ohanian’s 776.
Amid generally somber conditions in the non-fungible token (NFT) market, colorful-profile-picture maker Doodles raised $54 million of equity funding today, backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. Acrew Capital, FTX Ventures and 10T Holdings also participated in the fundraising.
Doodles, which began minting its pastel NFTs less than a year ago, has created one of the largest profile picture collections on the internet. The 10,000-image collection has a collective value of about $121 million, according to NFTPriceFloor. Bored Ape Yacht Club, the leading NFT series, has a market valuation of $1.27 billion.
The Doodles collection is based on 100 visual traits that were mixed and matched in different combinations to produce unique works—no two are alike. While they can be purchased for as little as 6.9 eth ($12,183), some have sold for as much as 296.69 eth (about $1.1 million at time of sale) because of rare attributes.
The rarest examples hold gold coloring, with #6914, the most expensive Doodle ever sold, holding one-of-a-kind ape traits.
The company plans to use proceeds of its capital influx, which it says will bring its valuation to $704 million, to expand in music and gaming, NFT sectors that are attracting growing interest
Overall NFT prices and trading have plummeted in recent months. After hitting a high of nearly $3.5 billion of transactions in May, only $191 million was traded during August, according to data from The Block.
Doodles, however, have been swimming against the tide. While the collection’s transaction volume is still down 6.41% over the last 30 days, major NFT collections have been hit much harder. Bored Ape Yacht Club is down 40% while CryptoPunks, the second-largest NFT collection by market value ($1.09 billion), is off a staggering 77%. A combination of the bear market and a shift away from risk investments has led to the decline in NFT transactions.
Katelin Holloway, 776 founding partner and Doodles board member, was introduced to Doodles by Ohanian, an early collector of Doodles. But it was after meeting the Doodles team at SXSW XSW last year that she was immediately drawn in by the brand’s diverse community.
Doodles CEO Julian Hoguin says Doodles is looking to draw from Holloway’s experiences as an HR executive to expand both internally and externally.
“As we scale and we scale rapidly,” adds Hoguin, “having her as a sounding board and as a true partner is going to be invaluable because we want to be built on culture, we want to elicit joy and creativity.”Doodles has demonstrated a strong history of community integration since its initial mint in October. Management made the controversial decision to close the collection’s Discord channel at 1,000 participants when it was first launching, a move that might have been expected to alienate potential collectors. But the action had the opposite effect, generating hype within the blossoming NFT community that increased the artworks’ popularity. Now, the collection touts major name collectors including DJ Steve Aoki, Justin Bieber and entrepreneur Gary Vee.
Since then, the team has continued to work with its collectors, allowing Doodles owners to commercialize their NFTs for up to $100,000 before requiring a licensing agreement, and even hiring holders and creators of derivatives of the artworks as illustrators.
“We’re very keen on actually developing other people’s opportunities to utilize their characters in their own commercial efforts,” says Hoguin. “It just needs to be controlled.”
Doodles brought on the singer Pharrell Williams as chief brand officer in June, opening the doors to different applications of blockchain technology. Music NFTs, says Holguin, are a way to introduce people to Web3, the nascent idea of a new, decentralized internet model based on blockchains.
“We want to create products for our core collector base, but at the same time utilize these great forms of marketing like music, to introduce new people to Web3 and onboard them into the Doodles ecosystem,” he adds.
Doodles’ music NFT project will be released in partnership with Columbia Records in the next six months. The company would not provide details, other than to say it involved a song that would get radio play and streaming exposure but have “an underlying adaptation experience” for NFT holders.
NFTs used in gaming, Doodles’ second area of focus, have grown to become the most traded type, surpassing the art-and-collectibles hype train of 2021. Gaming tokens made up 77% of weekly NFT sales in August, according to data from The Block.
Space Doodles, the company’s gaming branch, will look to ease the entry into the Doodles ecosystem. The company says it will allow users to purchase characters and animations with credit cards, instead of requiring crypto.
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This article was updated on Sept. 13 to spell out the company’s name in the first paragraph.
