NFT platform Autograph raises $170 million in Series B funding

NFTs • January 19, 2022, 4:00PM EST
UPDATED: January 19, 2022, 3:35PM EST
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Autograph, a sports and entertainment non-fungible token (NFT) platform created by American football player Tom Brady, announced Wednesday that it received $170 million in Series B funding. 

The crypto-focused investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and the American venture firm Kleiner Perkins co-led the funding round. Additional participants include the venture firm 01A, Nicole Quinn from Lightspeed Partner and Katie Haun, who recently left a16z to run her own crypto fund. 

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Haun will joining the Autograph board along with a16z general partner Arianna Simpson, Kleiner Perkins partner Ilya Fushman. Current Autograph board members include Autograph co-founders Richard Rosenblatt and Tom Brady, The Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye and Sam Bankman-Fried among others. 

Autograph launched in April of 2021 to allow celebrities in sports, popular culture, fashion and entertainment to sell NFTs. Prominent figures using Autograph include Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, pro golfer Tiger Woods, baseball player Derek Jeter and the musician The Weeknd.

"Autograph has truly shown itself to be a rocketship in the past six months. Their NFT platform is delivering digital experiences that excite mainstream consumers, not just the crypto community," said Arianna Simpson, general partner at a16z, in a release. 

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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