Foley & Lardner LLP recently represented Gary Vaynerchuk's NFT project VeeFriends on its $50 million seed investment from a16z crypto, a venture capital fund managed by Andreessen Horowitz that invests in crypto and web3 startups.
VeeFriends will use the capital injection to support building the future intellectual property of its 283 VeeFriends characters across multimedia platforms, including physical and digital spaces. The company intends to use the investment to fuel expansion plans for its creative, technical, and experiential operations, as well as recruit best-in-class talent from the entertainment and Web3 industries.
At the foundation of VeeFriends' intellectual property are meaningful attributes for humanity — such as tolerance, patience, and authenticity — displayed through simple cartoon characters hand-drawn by Gary himself. VeeFriends NFTs are brought to life through motivational storytelling and creative on-chain character development. Since its launch in May 2021, VeeFriends has amassed over 200,000 ETH in primary and secondary sales, has released more than 10 collaborations, and has built one of the largest communities on Discord for an NFT project.
The Foley team was led by Of Counsel Andy Lee, with support from Partner Tim Voigtman, Senior Counsel Jordan Bergmann, and Senior Counsel Sarah Null.