Follow the a16z investment trail to discover the next emerging narrative

2023.05.26

Follow the a16z investment trail to discover the next emerging narrative

This article presents a16z's investment activities in the first quarter of 2023 to date.

2023.05.26 - 08:31:03

a16z

Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights

This article presents a16z's investment activities in the first quarter of 2023 to date.

Written by: Surf

Translated by: TechFlow

Tracking venture capital flows can help you spot emerging trends early—and when it comes to crypto VCs, a16z is one firm you must keep an eye on.

Below is a summary of a16z’s investments in the first quarter of 2023 so far:

Cryptocurrency

Their largest portfolio positions are:

$UNI - $74.4 million;
$COMP - $8.82 million;
$MKR - $2.59 million.

Top 5 Cryptocurrency Investments by a16z in Q1 2023

1. Story Protocol

Funding Raised: $29.3 million in seed round;

Lead Investor: a16z;

Other Investors: Hashed, Mirana Corp, DAO5, Samsung Next, etc.

About Story Protocol:

• Story Protocol is a Web3 technology designed to revolutionize how narrative worlds are created.

• It provides a way to create, manage, and license intellectual property on-chain.

• It has the potential to transform how we create and consume stories.

Project Twitter: https://twitter.com/StoryProtocol

2. LayerZero Labs

Funding Raised: $120 million Series B;

Lead Investor: a16z;

Other Investors: Circle Ventures, Sequoia, OpenSea, Christie's.

About LayerZero Labs:

• They are developers of a blockchain messaging protocol enabling dApps to perform cross-chain operations.

• They solve the problem of cross-chain communication by allowing dApps to interact with each other without worrying about underlying blockchains.

Project Twitter: https://twitter.com/LayerZero_Labs

3. Capsule Wallets

Funding Raised: Not disclosed

Lead Investor: a16z

Other Investors: Spice Capital, Celo, Sommelier Finance.

About Capsule:

• Capsule Wallets is a cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure provider focused on helping developers build wallets with interoperable transactions.

• They provide SDKs that allow developers to easily create wallets that can interact across multiple blockchains.

4. Town (HNT Labs)

Funding Raised: $25 million Series A;

Lead Investor: a16z

Other Investors: Benchmark, Framework Ventures.

About Town & HNT Labs:

• Here Not There Labs developed a fully decentralized online community chat protocol.

• They are the developers behind Towns, a protocol and web-based chat application designed to foster self-owned and self-governed online communities.

5. Stelo Labs

Funding Raised: $6 million seed round;

Lead Investor: a16z;

Other Investors: First Round Capital, Opensea Ventures, Chainforest.

About Stelo Labs:

• Stelo Labs is a software company focused on protecting users from phishing, fraud, and scams.

• They offer a solution that allows users to avoid phishing attacks and understand transactions before signing them.

Project Twitter: https://twitter.com/stelolabs

Top 5 Non-Crypto Investments in Q1 2023

As seen here, AI remains their top focus area.

1. OpenAI - $300 million

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is developing generative AI solutions and is backed by Microsoft, Tiger Global, Sequoia, and others.

This is part of the broader AI narrative.

2. Orbital Therapeutics - $270 million

Orbital Therapeutics is a biotech company developing novel treatments for eye diseases. They use gene therapy to deliver drugs directly to the eye, which may cure or slow the progression of many ocular conditions.

3. Character AI - $150 million

Character AI uses artificial intelligence to create realistic and engaging characters for video games and other applications. They leverage machine learning to generate visually appealing and emotionally resonant avatars.

4. Pinecone - $100 million

Pinecone is a development platform that helps businesses collect and analyze customer feedback. They enable companies to easily create surveys, gather responses, and analyze results.

5. Replit - $97.4 million

Replit is an integrated development environment (IDE).

This also aligns with the trend in generative AI investment. For example, Replit features Ghostwriter, an AI-powered code generation tool built into its IDE.