Follow the footsteps of a16z's investment and discover the next round of emerging narratives

This article presents a16z’s investments so far in Q1 2023.

**Written by:**Surf

Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Watching venture capital funds can help you spot new trends early, and among all crypto VCs, a16z is the one venture capital firm you must watch.

Here’s how a16z has invested so far in Q1 2023:

cryptocurrency

Their largest portfolio positions are:

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

a16z Top 5 Cryptocurrency Investments for Q1 2023

1、Story Protocol

Funding 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 designed to revolutionize the way storytelling worlds are created.

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

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

Project Twitter:

2、LayerZero Labs

Funding raised: $120 million Series B;

Lead investor: a16z;

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

Introducing LayerZero Labs:

• It is a blockchain messaging protocol developer that allows dApps to operate across chains

• Solve 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:

3、Capsule Wallets

Funding raised: Not yet disclosed

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Spice Capital, Celo, Sommelier Finance.

Capsule introduction:

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

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

4、Town( HNT Labs)

Funds raised: 25 million yuan in the A round;

Lead investor: a16z

Other investors: Benchmark, Framework Ventures.

Introduction of Town & HNT Labs:

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

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

5、Stelo Labs

Funding raised: $6 million seed round;

Lead investor: a16z;

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

Introducing Stelo Labs:

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

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

Project Twitter:

Top 5 Non-Cryptocurrency Investments for Q1 2023

It can be seen that AI is still the top priority of its attention.

1. OpenAI - $300 million

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is developing generative artificial intelligence solutions and is backed by Microsoft, Tiger Global, Seia, and others.

This is a narrative based on artificial intelligence.

2. Orbital Therapeutics - $270 million

Orbital Ther is a biotechnology company developing new treatments for eye diseases. They used gene therapy to deliver drugs directly to the eye, which could potentially cure or slow the progression of many eye diseases.

3. Character AI - $150 million

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

4. Pinecone - $100 million

Pinecone is a company that develops a platform to help businesses collect and analyze customer feedback. They make it easy for businesses to create surveys, collect feedback and share 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 is a code-generating AI tool called Ghostwriter for its IDE (Integrated Development Environment).