Following its seed funding, Wild successfully launches Season 0 Artist Releases & Wild Oasis NFT Collection
San Francisco, CA – March 9, 2023 – Wildxyz, a hyper-curated experiential art platform for artists and collectors, has raised a $7M seed funding round, led by Matrix Partners and joined by notable investors and advisors from top tier venture capitalists and well-known figures in Silicon Valley, Web3, and Hollywood, including Founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman; COO & CFO at Google’s X, the moonshot factory, Helen Riley; CEO & Founder, Metatheory and former founder of Twitch, Kevin Lin; President of the Philadelphia 76ers, Daryl Morey; Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell; Crypto and NFT Investor, Cozomo de Medici; and more. In addition to its dynamic portfolio of investors, Wildxyz is advised by NFT artist Emily Yang (pplpleasr), Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, and celebrated NFT collector, JDH.
Awed by the caliber of artists producing inspiring digital art, Wild founder and CEO, J. Douglass Kobs, most recently CEO and founder of Apartment List, noticed an increasing need for makers to be better supported and a way for fans and collectors to form deeper connections with artists via virtual experiences and built-in collaborations.
"Web3 is upon us and here to stay. We believe the future of the internet is spatial, and people are going to spend more and more of their time in immersive, digital spaces,” said Douglass. “The world's best experiences - online and offline - are created by artists, so we wanted to build a more creative, trusted platform where global makers can showcase immersive art that will transform how we spend our time online.”
Wild is a platform for progressing creative expression, building a trusted network of artists and collectors with access to the Wild ecosystem that includes an artist residency and a curated destination for immersive art and propriety drops.
Wild’s Artist Residency
Wild’s Artist in Residency is a virtual program that helps catapult artists to the cutting edge of digital creativity where they’ll build the future of ‘the spacial internet’— where collectors and artists will create and experience art in immersive, ever-evolving virtual settings. Artists from varying disciplines and geographies are handpicked by Wild and paired with advisors for a 12-week program dedicated to mentorship, storytelling, and community building. At the end of each program, artists release original collections exclusively on Wild. Wild artists take NFTs beyond their static 2D form and bring both the artwork and minting experience to life through multimedia elements, positioning each piece as part of a larger story and introducing new concepts around user agency where artworks evolve through holder participation.
Wild is the only platform that combines an artist residency program with an exclusive marketplace and built in collector base, positioning Wild as the first-of-its-kind launch pad for artists at the nexus of digital art and web3. Wild debuted its inaugural Season 0 drops on January 23. The Season 0 artist cohort includes several renowned artists as well as emerging talent, including Hideo, Mitchel F. Chan, Aluna, Sasha Belitskaja, Auguste Wibo and more. To date, all four of Wild’s Season 0 artist releases have sold out and collectors have minted over 675 NFT artworks across all collections— Hideo’s “quasar fighter”, “Freaky Flowers” by Jeffrey Scudder, “Common Spaces” by Sasha Belitskaja sold 100 pieces, and Wild’s latest generative art release, “Machines” by Caleb Ogg, which overnight reached a cumulative total of 38 ETH on secondary markets. Wild will host the remaining Season 0 artist releases over the next months before launching artworks from its next cohort.
“The Wild Residency is an incredible opportunity for artists to share creativity, ideas, and energy,” said Mitchell F. Chan. “The program has created meaningful connections in my art practice that will continue to shape my career.”
Wild Oasis
Wild's weekly artist releases are available to the public via auction, but holders of a Wild Oasis, its 1,000 NFT membership collective, get early access, set mint prices, and ongoing perks as Wild expands its digital experiences. Since its launch in November of 2022, Wild has hosted daily sold out auctions for Wild Oasis, where bids start at .1ETH.
In the coming months, Wild will continue to release Season 0 collections, introduce Season 1 artists, welcome new collectors through Wild Oasis, and expand offerings on the Wild platform. As the NFT ecosystem prepares for the next cycle of growth, Wild is creating best in class experiences for artists and collectors through a multi-dimensional platform that brings boundary-pushing art to audiences across the globe.
About Wildxyz
Founded in 2022, Wild is building a home for experiential art through an artist residency, reinvented collection drops, and immersive digital experiences in service of pioneering the spatial internet. Wild partners with genre-bending and progressive artists to design the world their work comes to life in and push the boundaries on how fans can experience it.