Crypto funding: A16z bets on blockchain infrastructure

The tech VC participated in rounds for two infrastructure projects that went through a16z’s crypto startup school this summer

article-image

Suriyawut Suriya/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This week, venture fund a16z joined two crypto funding rounds. This follows recent reports from Axios indicating a delay in Andreessen’s upcoming crypto investment initiatives to 2025.

Both rounds centered on blockchain infrastructure ventures.

A16z led a $4.2 million seed round for Pimlico, an infrastructure product working to let wallet developers abstract away parts of the payment process. In a blog post announcing the raise, a16z general partner Sriram Krishnan said Pimlico CEO Kristof Gazso participated in the venture firm’s crypto startup school in Los Angeles. 

“By the end of Crypto Startup School, we were convinced that no one was better equipped to build the supporting infrastructure for account abstraction than Kristof,” Krishnan wrote.

The use of Pimlico’s form of account abstraction has increased for four straight months, according to data from 1confirmation general partner Richard Chen.

A16z also participated in a $5.5 million seed round for the developer tool Stackr. 

Stackr built a software development kit (SDK) to let developers build Web3 apps using general-programming languages — starting with JavaScript. Stackr lets developers create “micro-rollups,” the platform’s term for rollups that separate execution and proving. This design prioritizes ease of development over decentralization, adapting rollup technology to better suit developers’ needs.

The Stackr investment came from a16z’s 2023 crypto startup school.

These two investments mark a16z crypto’s return to backing blockchain infrastructure startups. Their last similar move was in LayerZero’s $120 million round in April, according to CryptoRank. Meanwhile, Lightspeed Faction announced its $285 million crypto venture fund this week, telling Blockworks that Faction is primarily interested in infrastructure and protocol level projects.

A16z did not return a request for comment. Other notable recent ventures from the megafund include a restaurant rewards app and a Web3 gaming studio

Read more: A16z eyes $3.4B raise for next venture funds: Axios

Decentralized AI project lands $25 million

The decentralized AI project Ritual secured $25 million in seed funding, Blockworks previously reported. The round was led by Archetype with participation from Accomplice and Robot Ventures.

In a blog post announcing the fundraise and the company, Ritual highlighted that the crypto space is already working to address key challenges for AI startups, such as centralized APIs, closed-source code and high computational costs.

Ritual hopes to launch its platform in early 2024 with a focus on letting AI preserve transparency and privacy. The project is advised by the founders of NEAR Protocol and Eigenlayer.

Ritual’s raise comes the same week as OpenAI’s DevDay conference and shortly after X debuted its own chatbot, Grok. 

Other notable fundraises

Updated Nov. 15, 2023 at 1:00 pm ET: Clarified that a16z’s Stackr investment was only through its crypto startup school.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

LTIPPanalysis.png

Research

This report is a retroactive analysis of Arbitrum's Long Term Incentives Pilot Program (LTIPP). We collect relevant data at a protocol level and review bi-weekly updates to analyze recipients, their strategies, and the impact of the incentives on high level growth metrics. In particular, we want to highlight outperformers and underperformers, and glean any best practices or lessons learned for protocols distributing ARB incentives in the future. The overarching goal is to synthesize lessons learned that the DAO can reference as it begins thinking about future incentives programs–namely, the working group for incentives that is being actively discussed–especially as Timeboost introduces new conditions for trading and economic activity.

article-image

Sponsored

AI project Zerebro intersects the spheres of artificial intelligence, finance, art, music, and culture

article-image

Allmight is focused on furthering the United States’ leadership in crypto

article-image

The conditions Charles Schwab is waiting for before jumping headfirst into crypto could take shape soon

article-image

The FCA’s director of payments and digital assets shared some takeaways from chats with crypto companies and law firms

article-image

Let’s take a look at how US equities typically perform this time of year and what we might see in the coming days

article-image

Lumina introduces transparency and permissionless integration via an OP stack-based optimium, challenging traditional oracle designs