Bored Ape Yacht Club Member Jenkins The Valet And Tally Labs Just Completed A $12M Seed Round

Tally Labs, the company behind popular Bored Ape Yacht Club brand Jenkins the Valet and The Writer Room NFT project, announced they have completed a $12 million seed round.

“Today, we announce a monumental step in the growth of Jenkins the Valet, The Writer’s Room, Tally Labs, and our community,” Jenkins wrote in a Medium article. “Tally Labs has closed on a $12m seed round led by a16z Crypto and other leaders across Media, Sports, and web3.”

Some of the other notable investors in Tally Labs were NBA player Paul George, Odell Beckham Jr, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Lionel Richie, Dapper Labs, among several other notable venture capital firms and industry leaders.

Check out some of the investors below:

“From Day 1, we told ourselves that we would never take in outside capital from people who didn’t genuinely believe in our vision for our business and for the future of decentralized content,” Jenkins wrote. “More importantly than that, they needed to believe in our community. They needed to feel as strongly as we do that nothing is possible without all of us together. Throughout our fundraising process, we spoke with many folks who were simply not the right fit. Every single person or entity on the above list is there because they believe content and IP should be community-owned and generated, composable and collaborative.”

Following the announcement, Tally Labs investor and early-stage venture capital firm, Penny Jar Capital took to Twitter to explain why the firm invested in Jenkins and the Tally Labs' team.

“We've been following along since the team brought @Jenkinsthevalet to life, and we're eager to dive in. Here's why we did it,” the firm tweeted. “Both @valetjones and @seeapefollowape are bringing an incredible vision to life, combining IP development with token gated software. They're reimagining what media and entertainment in the world of Web3 looks like right before our eyes. Mickey. Marvel. Pokémon. For decades characters have been developed into the fan favorites we all know/love today. The next wave of characters could come from anywhere. Web3 is providing infrastructure for creators, bringing the next wave of potential household names to life. While creators are dreaming up new worlds and stories to be told, software is needed to bring Web3 IP holders and Web2 creatives together — software with legal, payment, and community voice solutions working together at scale. Tally is making this possible.”

Following the seed round announcement, Writer Room community members took to Twitter to congratulate Jenkins and the Tally Labs team. “Epic news out of the @TallyLabsNFT team today,” FilmBook tweeted. “Announcing a $12 million seed round led by @a16zand a list of visionaries, cultural heavyweights, and builders!!”

You can find out more about the seed round and the Tally Labs investors here: https://jenkinsthevalet.medium.com/tally-labs-12m-fundraise-the-who-what-when-where-why-25a5fae64b41

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow Jenkins the Valet and the Writer’s Room and let you know what they do next!