Inventory of a16z’s Q1 Investment Layout

Q1 Investment Overview of a16z

Author: Surf

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Observing venture capital funds can help you spot new trends early on, and among all crypto VCs, a16z is one you must pay attention to. This article is about a16z’s investment situation from the first quarter of 2023 to date.

Their biggest investment portfolio positions are:

• Hourglass: What is a time-bound token?
• Nike Embraces NFT Marketing: What Lessons Can Other Companies Entering Web3 Learn?
• What is “Onion Routing” in the Lightning Network and how does it work?

• UNI – $74.4 million
• COMP – $8.82 million
• MKR – $2.59 million

a16z’s top 5 cryptocurrency investments in Q1 2023

1. Story Protocol

Funds raised: $29.3 million seed round;

Lead investor: a16z;

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

Introduction to Story Protocol:

• Story Protocol is a Web3 technology that aims to fundamentally change the way the narrative world is created.

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

• It has the potential to change the way we create and consume stories.

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

2. LayerZero Labs

Funds raised: $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.

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

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

3. Capsule Wallets

Funds raised: Not disclosed

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Spice Capital, Celo, Sommelier Finance.

Capsule introduction:

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

• Provides SDKs that make it easy for developers to create wallets that can interact with multiple blockchains.

4. Town (HNT Labs)

Funding: RMB 25 million Series A round;

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Benchmark, Framework Ventures.

Town & HNT Labs introduction:

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

• They are the developers of Towns, a protocol and network-based chat application designed to foster self-owned and self-governing online communities.

5. Stelo Labs

Funding: $6 million seed round;

Lead investor: a16z;

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

Stelo Labs introduction:

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

• 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-cryptocurrency investments by Q1 2023

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

1. OpenAI – $300 million

OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT, developing generative AI solutions, and has support from Microsoft, Tiger Global, Seia, and others.

This is AI-generated text.

2. Orbital Therapeutics – $270 million

Orbital Ther is a biotech company developing new ways to treat eye diseases. They use gene therapy to deliver drugs directly to the eye, which could 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 platform that helps businesses collect and analyze customer feedback. They make it easy for businesses to create surveys, collect feedback, and analyze results.

5. Replit – $97.4 million

Replit is an integrated development environment (IDE).

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

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