TL;DR
- Story Protocol has raised $80 million in a Series B round led by A16z Crypto, bringing the total raised to $140 million.
- The platform aims to tokenize intellectual property and protect creators from exploitation by major tech companies and large language models.
- Over 200 teams and 20 million IPs are building on Story Protocol, which offers the Proof-of-Creativity protocol for obtaining licensing and automatic royalties.
The Story Protocol Foundation, known for its innovative blockchain platform focused on intellectual property (IP), has announced raising $80 million in a Series B funding round led by A16z Crypto, the digital asset investment arm of Andreessen Horowitz.
This new capital brings the total raised by the company to $140 million, following a previous $54 million round also led by A16z Crypto. In addition to A16z, the round attracted investments from Polychain Capital and notable investors such as Scott Trowbridge, VP of Stability AI, Adrian Cheng, founder of K11, and digital art collector Cozomo de’ Medici.
1/ Announcing $140M in total fundraising to build Story, the World’s IP Blockchain. pic.twitter.com/9M3tqqYcvO
— Story (꧁IP꧂) (@StoryProtocol) August 21, 2024
Story Protocol positions itself as “the world’s IP blockchain” and aims to tokenize the intellectual property sector, a market worth trillions of dollars. The company seeks to address the challenges associated with the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and protect content creators from exploitation by major tech companies and large language models. Its blockchain is key to ensuring IP rights are managed fairly and efficiently.
Story Protocol: A Crucial Player in the AI Era
The platform offers a protocol called Proof-of-Creativity, which enables permissionless licensing and automatic royalty payments, facilitating IP rights exchange and generating new revenue streams for creators.
More than 200 teams, managing over 20 million IPs, are already building on this platform across various sectors such as IPFi, AI, and consumer markets. Among them are ‘Ablo’ by ‘Space Runners’ and Sekai, an AI storytelling platform that allows creators to collaborate in content creation.
At the same time, the platform is continuously facing IP theft, a problem that intensifies with the expansion of AI. S.Y. Lee, co-founder and CEO of PIP Labs, warned that big tech companies are appropriating IP without compensation, which harms the creation of original IP.
Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of A16z Crypto, emphasized that Story Protocol’s infrastructure is crucial to ensuring creators are fairly compensated in the AI era. This market is expected to grow exponentially, valued at over $800 billion by 2030.
