A16z crypto is a $300M venture fund that will invest in crypto companies and protocols. The company's fund is designed to include features of traditional venture capital, updated to the modern crypto world.

a16z crypto

Berggruen Holdings is an investment firm takes a long-term, value-oriented, often contrarian view. It prefers to build organically and through acquisitions, partnering with management, as opposed to quick, opportunistic exits. Depending on the opportunity and asset class, Berggruen Holdings is prepared to make relatively small investments as well as equity commitments of up to $100 million in any one transaction.

Berggruen Holdings

Two Small Fish started as a way to recycle the experience, knowledge, and capital from our days as successful entrepreneurs to help the next generation of founders. What separates us from other venture firms is that each Two Small Fish partner is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur or operator by experience. We are proven serial entrepreneurs with multiple exits under our belt.

Two Small Fish Ventures

An experimental cryptocurrency investment fund that will convert into a decentralized autonomous organization.

dao5

# Hashed: To empower networks and innovators in building the decentralized future. Hashed, based in San Francisco and Seoul, is the largest crypto assets fund and community builder in South Korea. The team was founded by serial entrepreneurs, company operators, and systems engineers, who are passionate about enabling the global adoption of blockchain through education, acceleration and impact investments. Hashed operates Hashed Lounge--a premier blockchain meetup group; Hashed Post--a cryptocurrency blog interviewing founders and thought leaders; and Hashed Night--a world-class conference, events, and networking brand.  The team is actively working towards a definition of what it means to be a fundamental technology and founder-focused investment startup in the blockchain ecosystem.

Hashed

Samsung NEXT’s Q Fund is invest in early stage AI startups taking on Grand Challenges.

Samsung NEXT’s Q Fund

SLVC is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in exceptional founders and big ideas.

SLVC

Mirana

About Endeavor Endeavor is the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. Today, Endeavor’s network spans nearly 40 countries and supports more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate combined revenues of over $28 billion US, have created more than 3.9 million jobs, and, in 2020, raised over $4 billion US in capital. Endeavor’s unique entrepreneur-first model and network of trust provide a platform for founders to dream big, scale up, and pay it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs.  About Endeavor Catalyst Endeavor Catalyst is the rules-based, co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies and to sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way. Launched in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has ~$250M+ AUM across three funds and has made 200+ investments to date in 32+ different markets. Today The Endeavor Catalyst portfolio has 37 companies valued at $1B+, including 29 unicorns. Investments include Globant (NYSE:GLOB), Rappi, and Creditas  in Latin America; Yemeksepeti.com and Careem in MENA; and Bukalapak and Carro in Indonesia.

Endeavor

11:11 Media is a global media platform founded by Paris Hilton and Bruce Gersh. 11:11 Media has launched divisions across TV (Slivington Manor Entertainment), audio (London Audio), digital (11:11 Digital), licensing, impact, and more. 11:11 Media is stacked with an experienced management team with experience across Disney, Time Inc., ITV, Viacom, NBCU and more. Mission: To elevate creator brands and IP. Vision: To elevate with purpose and contribute to society by creating thought provoking, impactful, premium entertainment experiences and products. Key Advantage: Our understanding of creator-led brands with scale, authenticity and purpose.

11:11 Media

Samsung NEXT Ventures is an investment arm of Samsung NEXT, a multifaceted innovation group within Samsung Electronics dedicated to identifying new growth opportunities that will define the next decade. The firm prefers to invest in artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, health technology, infrastructure, and media technology sectors.

Samsung NEXT

Insignia Ventures Partners is a venture capital firm that specializes in startup investment. Insignia Ventures Partners is an investment firm managed by a former Sequoia Asia partner, Yinglan Tan.

Insignia Ventures Partners

Alliance is the leading Web3 accelerator and founder community.

Alliance DAO

Foresight Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on blockchain technology and the cryptocurrency industry. They invest early and make quick judgments, and their ecosystem, which includes the crypto-exchange Bitget and the crypto-wallet BitKeep, provides extensive assistance. They are committed to identifying disruptive innovation prospects for the future decades in the Web3.0 space, while maintaining transparency, multidisciplinary collaboration, internationalization, and long-termism, and offering a complete spectrum of assistance for initiatives from zero to one till success. Foresight Ventures was founded in 2021 and is based in Singapore.

Foresight Ventures

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late-stage. It prefers to invest in the social media business and technology sector with a focus on software, back-end infrastructure, the infrastructure of the Internet, cloud computing, enterprise software and services, consumer, business Internet, mobile-Internet, consumer Internet, cloud computing, data storage, social network browsers data-storage, consumer electronics, networking functions, software related biology, biotech, and medicine companies at the intersection of computer science and life sciences with a focus on digital therapeutics, cloud technology in biology, and computational medicine.

Andreessen Horowitz

Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP is an investment manager authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.

Brevan Howard Asset Management

The emergence of bitcoin and subsequent blockchain technologies has generated a new digital asset class in which scarcity is based on mathematical properties. Through cryptographic verification and game-theoretic equilibrium, blockchain-based digital assets can be created, issued, and transmitted using the software. Polychain Capital is committed to exceptional returns for investors through actively managed portfolios of these blockchain assets.

Polychain

Story Protocol

A decentralized version of the web powered by the blockchain

Web3 Ecosystem

Tomo is a Web3 social app that lets users engage with creators. It allows users to log in effortlessly with their social accounts and manage assets, send crypto to each other, chat, post content, make friends, and participate in token-based interest groups. The app operates on Linea and Base rollups, integrating fiat on-ramps and cross-chain bridging.Tomo operates through a "Keys" system that allows users to purchase access to creators' content and direct messaging, with a 10% royalty fee split between Tomo and creators. It also offers an ERC-404 meme launchpad enabling fractional NFT ownership, minting, gifting, trading, and exchange listing called “Tomoji.” Key customers and partnershipsAs of October 2023, Tomo had facilitated over 121,000 transactions from approximately 3,760 independent addresses, with protocol fees and creators' income surpassing USD 353,000.

Tomo is an all-in-one Web3 social wallet that transforms users' online presence into a universal hub, fostering genuine, spam-free interactions and financial incentives. Tomo lets users connect directly with creators, participate in private discussions, and explore the new generation of digital art with Tomoji. Active participation earns users Tomo Points, enhancing your social capital.

Story Protocol is a web3 technology developer whose goal is to change the way narrative universes are formed. The company's technology enables creators to develop a narrative plot with ownership and motivation by allowing them to create, control, and license intellectual property on-chain.

<div>Story Protocol offers an open-source, decentralized platform that enables users to manage provenance tracking, revenue sharing, and licensing of their intellectual property. Users can connect their applications and ​​track how their IP is used and changed across different mediums (such as literature, images, games, and audio) while also controlling how associated parties share in revenues. The company also aims to provide crowdfunding, capital formation, IP discovery, licensing modules, authentication for AI content, and community growth.</div>

Bringing the benefits of blockchain to the enterprise

Enterprise Blockchain Solutions

SY Lee: A Korean startup creator who fetched $80 mn for Story Protocol

Tomo

ConsenSys

Symbolic Capital

OKX Ventures

KuCoin Ventures

Nomad Capital

HTX Ventures

A decentralized alternative to traditional social networks that operate on independently run servers on the blockchain. These are community-owned and reward user participation.

<div>
 
 Story Protocol offers an open-source, decentralized platform that enables users to manage provenance tracking, revenue sharing, and licensing of their intellectual property. Users can connect their applications and ​​track how their IP is used and changed across different mediums (such as literature, images, games, and audio) while also controlling how associated parties share in revenues. The company also aims to provide crowdfunding, capital formation, IP discovery, licensing modules, authentication for AI content, and community growth.
 
 
 
 
 Story Protocol aims to create a global IP repository by enabling a large network of third-party developers and services to build their applications on its platform
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 In September 2023, Story Protocol 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21604">
 raised over USD 54 million
 </a>
 in funding led by a16z crypto.
 
</div>

BlockCypher is an enterprise company specializing in blockchain technology. The company’s cloud-based platform helps enterprises build blockchain applications with web APIs and callbacks. BlockCypher's APIs enable users to interact with multiple blockchains and retrieve data from blocks, receive notifications about unconfirmed transactions, and request multiple signature transactions​.In terms of product offerings, BlockCypher's primary service is its cloud-based platform. The platform's design is blockchain-universal, enabling its compatibility with any blockchain. This versatility permits BlockCypher to support numerous enterprise scenarios, including supply chain oversight, financial transactions, and record maintenance.Key customers and partnershipsBlockCypher and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered in June 2018 to showcase secure peer-to-peer energy transactions using the blockchain, forming the foundation for a distributed energy marketplace. This collaboration opens up new value streams for customers and utilities by reducing the need for a central arbitrator.

BlockCypher

Bloq's products are designed to accelerate blockchain development and deployment, catering to individual developers, startups, and enterprises. Focusing on enterprises, the company’s solutions are offered through the Bloq platform, which includes tools for exchanges, wallets, data and analytics, and custody providers.The company provides managed blockchain cloud services that consist of three primary services: Connect, Nodes, and Stake. Connect is a blockchain API service that accelerates the development of real-time connectivity to popular blockchain networks and access to additional blockchain data services. Nodes offers private, fully managed clusters of nodes to access popular public blockchain networks. Stake provides infrastructure and API endpoints to allow users to create validators and start staking, with support for Ethereum and Avalanche networks​​.Key customers and partnershipsThe company's timeline of innovation includes major milestones such as delivering Fidelity’s first bitcoin wallet in 2016, launching BloqLabs in 2017, and working with Citibank on a Universal Node for digital assets in 2018. In recent years, Bloq has launched BloqCloud, a managed node and API service. It also partnered with Lumerin project to tokenize hashpower and founded Atmos Labs to develop metaverse-native sports​​.Bloq’s key enterprise customers include Discover, Citigroup, Foxconn, Barclays, Fidelity, and Circle.

Bloq

Dragonchain offers a blockchain-based, language-agnostic enterprise solutions that includes a Learning Management System. Some of the solutions include 1) Lyceum, which provides traceable proof-of-course progress, completion, scoring, continuing education units, and certification, along with a GDPR- and CCPA-capable identity management platform; 2) Factor, which enables secure PII storage and streamlined authentication; and 3) A FinTech suite that supports regulatory compliance. Dragonchain’s products are quantum-safe and the proof of every transaction is secured to bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchain networks.In January 2020, Dragonchain was able to execute over 260 million transactions on a business system in just 24 hours. The test was run on 520 active nodes with a utilization rate of below 2%; it was estimated that at full capacity, the platform could execute approximately 13 billion transactions.The company’s solutions can be used across a range of industries, including healthcare, FinTech, government, and supply chain management. Most use cases focus on using the platform for information gathering and management, with a priority on accurate and real-time information availability.Key customers and partnershipsThe company has worked with a range of customers including Snohomish County in the US, Beaxy, Knowledge Perk, and SafePass.

Dragonchain

BlockApps is a leading provider of blockchain solutions that helps businesses enhance transparency and trust in their transactions. BlockApps' key product, STRATO, is a BaaS platform compatible with Ethereum, which is designed for business network transactions and activities, adhering to the standards of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). It can be deployed on multiple cloud providers, integrated with various systems, and is configurable for a range of business activities. It is primarily used for building business networks with a focus on enhancing security, performance, trust, and transparency. STRATO's capabilities include tokenizing real-world assets, incorporating transparency data, and creating value chain incentives. It offers a suite of features including data privacy controls, network governance, scalability, APIs for third-party integration, audit and reporting tools, data migration facilities, identity management using existing enterprise sign-on systems, consensus mechanisms, developer tools, application portability, and the ability to use existing enterprise data models.Key customers and partnershipsIn 2016, BlockApps collaborated with ConsenSys and BHP Billiton to deploy its first production application. In the same year, it built enterprise Proof of Concepts (POCs) with John Hancock and Upgraded (now Ticketmaster).BlockApps announced an initiative with ARC, United Airlines, and Blockskye in 2018 and also launched the STRATO platform on all major cloud providers by partnering with Google and Amazon Web Services.In September 2021, it launched TraceCarbon, a CO2 ecosystem management application, supporting sustainability traceability.Funding and financialsIn April 2022, BlockApps raised USD 41 million in funding through a round led by Liberty City Ventures. The company intended to use the funding to enhance its go-to-market strategy, expand its team, help businesses expand in its blockchain ecosystem, and bring more real assets to the STRATO platform.

BlockApps

Cryptowerk is an enterprise blockchain company that offers blockchain-as-a-service, allowing organizations to create a tamper-proof chain of custody for their digital assets and enabling them to prove authenticity at scale​​. Cryptowerk's solutions are used in multiple industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, pharmaceuticals, software, and utilities​​.The company's primary product is Cryptowerk HORIZON. This software creates tamper-proof records of digital assets that can be sealed in public or private blockchains up to one million times per second. These digital "fingerprints" can then be compared to the original data to verify authenticity. Cryptowerk HORIZON is offered as a REST API. The product is available for cloud-based deployment and supports various organizations including midsize businesses, small businesses, enterprises, freelancers, nonprofits, and government entities​​.

Cryptowerk

Companies that offer blockchain-based solutions that enable users and companies to track price, date, location, quality, and other relevant information for supply chain management

Companies and protocols that leverage blockchain technology to act as content delivery networks (CDNs) or provide content sharing solutions

Companies that leverage blockchain technology to offer databases, query services and data sharing

Companies that offer blockchain-enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) development platforms for building networks and transferring IoT device data

Companies that leverage blockchain to protect and manage digital intellectual property (IP) rights

Companies that leverage blockchain technology to provide cybersecurity and identity management solutions for enterprises

Companies and protocols that offer industry and context specific blockchain-based solutions for enterprise applications

The blockchain-as-a-service segment operates under a B2B SaaS model

Companies offering blockchain-enabled tools to build IoT networks/supply chain traceability solutions for smart factories

Includes companies that offer blockchain-enabled tools to build IoT networks and transfer IoT device data

All companies within this industry are either blockchain-based platforms or offer blockchain-centric services

<div>
 
 Blockchain-based IP management platform, Story Protocol, has successfully raised USD 80 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and saw involvement from several other investors including Polychain Capital Hashed, Foresight Ventures, Samsung Next, Mirana Ventures, and SparkLabs Global. This round of funding takes the total raised by Story Protocol to USD 143 million and provides a company valuation of USD 2.25 billion.
 Story Protocol’s strategy for the funding revolves around development and expansion. It intends to use the funds for strengthening its network infrastructure and bringing in more developer partners. A commercial launch of the platform is scheduled for later this year.
 
</div>

Story Protocol

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