21/01/2022 Tom Brady's NFT agency raises $170 million in funding from crypto investors

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Did you know that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady co-founded an NFT agency? Well he did! It's called Autograph, and you won't be surprised to find out that it's doing pretty well.

The company told TechCrunch on Wednesday that it had just completed its Series B funding round and had raised $170 million from venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, among several others. Both firms have been investing in cryptocurrency related projects and Autograph is the latest one.

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So what exactly is Autograph? TechCrunch described it as "an agency go-between for celebrity athletes and entertainers looking to find a personal presence in the incredibly noisy NFT world."Some celebrities and athletes have gotten blowback from fans and the public at large over their involvement in cryptocurrency or NFTs, and TechCrunch believes Autograph's goal is to help those people get involved in NFTs in a more "curated" way.

EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 02: Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates a successful two-point conversion in the fourth quarter of the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on January 02, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Tom Brady's NFT startup Autograph just raised $170 million in capital. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Autograph has an impressive roster of athlete partners. Beyond Brady, they've also partnered with Tiger Woods, Simone Biles, Derek Jeter, Naomi Osaka, Usain Bolt, Wayne Gretzky and Tony Hawk. Brady, the co-founder of Autograph, is on the board of the company, as is Abel Tesfaye, who is more commonly known as The Weeknd.

While Autograph told TechCrunch that it started a partnership with DraftKings over the summer, they are mainly focused on athletes as individuals. Looking at their list of athlete partners, only a few of them play a team sport, and every single one of them has gone beyond their sport and moved into the larger cultural consciousness. Working with athletes who don't just exist in the sports space and who have a broad base of appeal appears to be their strategy.

Arts

https://sports.yahoo.com/tom-bradys-nft-agency-raises-170-million-in-funding-from-crypto-investors-164349652.html

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The idea for this piece was borne out of a tweet of mine that caused a bit of a stir. I’d posted a link to a blog article I’d written a number of months previous titled ‘Who is the Creator’ discussing various types of creative collaborations and why I hire people to work on my animations. It generated a lot of debate around creation and attribution with the community split on whether it’s right or wrong for an artist to hire other professionals to help them realize their art projects. I decided to push the boundaries even further and see how the cryptoart community responded. What if I quite literally had nothing to do with the physical or digital elements of the work other than coming up with the concept and coordinating it? I decided there was one artist in the space who could add huge value to this idea on levels that none other could and so I gathered my courage and contacted the great José Delbo to ask him if he’d be interested in a very unique collaboration. I explained to him that to make this piece ‘work’ he couldn't have any say in what I produced and moreover, he wouldn’t even be allowed to see the animation until it was dropped on MakersPlace. To my surprise, Mr Delbo agreed to my proposal. The animation tells the story of the creative process, which includes my roles as writer, director, and producer working with a team and making edits and changes ‘in real time’. The dialogue between myself and my ‘hired guns’ plays out in front of the viewer. The music written for the piece adds to the nostalgia of the comic book superhero theme but other elements such as the snapping and kicking of the pencil and the signing of my signature at the bottom incorporates further layers and challenges the viewer to ask important questions, such as, is the ‘Art’ the final animation (the creation) or is the ‘Art’ the concept/credit for the creation itself?
X*Y=K
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