Funding Roundup: a16z backs Story’s $80M raise

The biggest raise of the week was an $80 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto team, with participation from Polychain, for PIP Labs, the firm behind Story. 

Story claims to be the world’s IP blockchain, and has — with this latest round — raised over $140 million. 

To put it simply: the project is a “Layer 1 that seeks to tokenize the multi-trillion-dollar asset class of intellectual property, making programmable IP in the era of AI. Creators not only use Story to declare the sovereignty of their IP and define usage parameters around their IP, but also to bootstrap a global network that turns fans into evangelists by remixing, selling, and distributing their IP,” a press release said. 

Story seeks to be used by independent creators, which could include multiple mediums from short video content to blogging. By helping to protect the IP of such creatives, Story seeks to help them “flourish” so they’re not “crushed.”

“But AI is transforming IP in both positive and negative ways. On the one hand, it empowers individuals worldwide to produce studio-quality IP independently at their fingertips. On the other hand, it leads to IP theft, with the big tech and LLMs sucking in all the traffic and profiting all the upside without creator consent,” the press release said. 

Chris Dixon, managing partner at a16z crypto, noted that AI is have an effect on content creators. 

“PIP Labs is building the necessary infrastructure for a new covenant in the AI age. Blockchains are perfectly suited for large-scale economic coordination, and Story’s platform ensures creators are compensated for their IP feeding the AI systems. S.Y. is a proven innovator, and we’re excited to support his ambitious vision by leading our third round in the company,” Dixon said. 

But Story wasn’t the only project to announce a double-digit (in the millions, mind you) raise. 

Fabric, a cryptography firm, announced that it raised $33 million. 

The team will use the Series A funding — led by Blockchain Capital and 1kx — to build chips, software and cryptographic algorithms. 

“The VPU is the first custom silicon chip that uses an instruction set architecture specific to cryptography. This means that any cryptographic algorithm can be broken down into its mathematical building blocks that are natively accelerated and supported by the chip,” a press release said. The VPU chip is set to go into production later this year. 

Other notable rounds:

• Arch Lending raised a $5 million seed round, co-led by Morgan Creek Digital and Castle Island Ventures. It also raised a $70 million loan financing facility provided by Galaxy, per a press release.
• SatLayer, a restaking platform built on Babylon, said it raised $8 million in a pre-seed funding round. Hack VC and Castle Island Ventures led the round, with Franklin Templeton Digital Assets, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures and others participating. 
• GenLayer announced a $7.5 million seed round led by North Island Ventures to build an intelligent blockchain with AI-powered smart contracts.
• Sorella Labs, which seeks to mitigate the threat of MEV, emerged from stealth with a $7.5 million seed round. Paradigm led the round, with participation from Uniswap Ventures, Nascent and Robot Ventures. 
• Corn, the “first bitcoin-centric super yield network,” announced a $6.7 million raise led by Polychain Capital.

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