Quick look at a16z’s investment landscape for Q1 2023

a16z's Q1 2023 investment landscape overview

Original author: Surf Original translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Observing venture capital funds can help you discover new trends early, and among all crypto VCs, a16z is a venture capital firm you must pay attention to.

Here are a16z’s investment activities from the first quarter of 2023 to date:

• Exploring the truth behind PulseChain’s 13.7 billion fundraising: ultimate innovation or Ponzi scheme, risk or opportunity?
• Interpreting Injective (INJ): A comprehensive evaluation of DeFi project based on SWOT
• zkML: zk+Machine Learning Emerging Project and Infrastructure

Cryptocurrencies

Their largest investment portfolio positions are:

• $UNI – $74.4 million;

• $COMP – $8.82 million;

• $MKR – $2.59 million.

a16z’s Top 5 cryptocurrency investments in the first quarter of 2023

1. Story Protocol

Fundraising: $29.3 million seed round;

Lead investor: a16z;

Other investors: Hashed, Mirana Corp, DAO 5, Samsung Next, etc.

Introduction to Story Protocol:

• Story Protocol is a Web3 technology designed to completely change the way the narrative world is created.

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

• It may change the way we create and consume stories.

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

2. LayerZero Labs

Fundraising: $120 million Series B;

Lead investor: a16z;

Other investors: Circle Ventures, Sequoia, OpenSea, Christie’s.

Introduction to LayerZero Labs:

• It is a blockchain messaging protocol developer that allows dApps to perform cross-chain operations

• By providing a way for dApps to communicate with each other without worrying about the underlying blockchain, it solves the problem of cross-chain communication.

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

3. Capsule Wallets

Fundraising: undisclosed

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Spice Capital, Celo, Sommelier Finance.

Introduction to Capsule:

• Capsule Wallets is a cryptocurrency wallet infrastructure provider committed to helping developers create wallets with interoperable transactions.

• Provides an SDK to enable developers to easily create wallets that can interact with multiple blockchains.

4. Town (HNT Labs)

Funding raised: 25 million yuan Series A;

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Benchmark, Framework Ventures.

Introduction to Town & HNT Labs:

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

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

5. Stelo Labs

Funding raised: 6 million USD seed round;

Lead investor: a16z;

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

Introduction to Stelo Labs:

• Stelo Labs is a software company that protects users from online phishing, fraud, and scams.

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

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

Top 5 Non-Cryptocurrency Investments by Q1 2023

As you can see, AI is still their top priority.

1. OpenAI – 300 million USD

OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT, which is developing generative AI solutions and is backed by companies such as Microsoft, Tiger Global, and Seia.

This is narrative based on artificial intelligence.

2. Orbital Therapeutics – 270 million USD

Orbital Therapeutics is a biotech company that is developing new approaches to treating eye diseases. They use gene therapy to deliver drugs directly to the eye, which may cure or slow the progression of many eye diseases.

3. Character AI – $150 million

Character AI creates realistic and engaging characters for video games and other applications using artificial intelligence. They use machine learning to generate visually appealing and emotionally resonant characters.

4. Pinecone – $100 million

Pinecone is a development platform that helps businesses collect and analyze customer feedback. They make it easy for businesses to create surveys, collect feedback, and analyze the results.

5. Replit – $97.4 million

Replit is an integrated development environment (IDE).

This is also part of the investment trend in generative artificial intelligence technology. For example, Replit has a code generation AI tool called Ghostwriter for its IDE (integrated development environment).

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