Pudgy Penguins to raise $10 million for $50 million valuation, CEO calls the news false

SNEAK PEEK

  • Pudgy Penguins is raising $10 million in a round that would take the valuation of the project at $50 million.
  • The project’s CEO has denied the news about the funds raise program.
  • The deal is the latest fund raise by any notable NFT project.

Pudgy Penguins has emerged as the latest NFT collection to get support from venture capitalists.

The project is in discussions regarding a seed round to generate over $10 million, as stated in documents that also include outreach to proposed investors, a term sheet and snippets from a pitch deck. If the seed round closes, Pudgy Penguins will seek a valuation of $50 million. 

However, Luca Netz, Pudgy Penguins CEO, has refused to raise money and called the reporting wrong information. Furthermore, he warned about publicly branding any story based on fake news. 

Netz acquired Pudgy Penguins in April for $2.5 million and became its CEO. Post that, he created plans to launch a range of toys and tweeted a prototype’s image in August.

It was also the time when there were speculations that the project will launch a token. According to the documents, the launch has been planned for April 2024.

The $10 million raise takes the form of SAFE or Simple Agreement for Future Equity round, with token warrants included. 

Popular NFT projects are attracting venture capitalists despite the crypto winter. Recently, it was unveiled that Chiru Labs is closing a raise of $30 million. In September, Doodles also made an announcement regarding a $54 million round. A month earlier, i.e. in August, Proof Collective generated $50 million. Also, in March, Yuga Labs set the path with a $450 million round.

Pudgy Penguins is one of the most followed NFT collections. In August 2021, it grabbed a spot in a New York Times column. Presently, a Pudgy Penguin can be purchased at 3 ETH. Based on data from OpenSea, ever since the project began, Pudgy Penguins worth 63,664 ETH have changed hands on secondary markets.