Original title: A16z Crypto leads $80 million Series B for Story Protocol, a Layer 1 IP blockchain
Original source: theblock
Original article by Yogita Khatri
Compiled by: Mars Finance, Eason
Quick Facts:
PIP Labs, the developer of Story Protocol, has raised $80 million in a Series B round led by a16z crypto.
Story is a layer 1 blockchain designed to tokenize intellectual property and ensure original content creators are rewarded in the age of AI.
PIP Labs, developer of the layer 1 intellectual property blockchain Story Protocol, has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round led by a16z crypto.
PIP Labs said Wednesday that other investors in the round include Polychain Capital, Stability AI senior vice president and board member Scott Trowbridge, K11 founder and billionaire Adrian Cheng, and digital art collector Cozomo de' Medici.
PIP Labs co-founder and CEO Seung Yoon (SY) Lee told The Block that the company began raising funds for its Series B round in early summer and closed this month. PIP Labs CFO Ben Sternberg added that the round was structured as a combination of equity and token warrants.
The Series B round brings PIP Labs’ total funding to $140 million. Last year, the company raised $54 million in a Series A round, also led by a16z crypto. PIP Labs co-founder and chief product officer Jason Zhao told The Block that “there were some smaller angel investments between Series A and Series B,” bringing the total funding to $140 million — he declined to comment on valuation.
What is Story Protocol?
Story Protocol is a layer 1 blockchain that aims to tokenize intellectual property, making it programmable in the AI age. IP allows people to own and control their original ideas and creations, such as inventions or art. PIP Labs says AI makes creation easier, but it also leads to IP theft, with large tech companies profiting without permission. This could prevent people from creating new content, which could harm AI in the future if there are no original works to draw on.
The Story blockchain is designed to allow creators to register their IP in order to track its usage and protect their rights, ensuring they are rewarded when their content is used or shared.
Lee said: “Story will ensure the sustainable development of creativity on the internet, benefiting both creators and AI, without the need for any intermediaries. Creators can programmatically declare sovereignty and licenses over their intellectual property,” while AI models “can now license creators’ data and easily compensate them without lawyers and legal documents, making Story a win-win for both IP and AI.”
PIP Labs said Story will use the Proof of Creativity Protocol to turn static IP into programmable IP. It added that this will allow for easy licensing and automated royalty payments, opening up new ways for creators to make money.
PIP Labs said that more than 200 teams have developed based on Story in areas such as artificial intelligence and consumer markets, involving more than 20 million IPs. Ablo, an AI fashion design tool supported by Accel, Polychain and Pantera, uses Story to allow people to customize and remix fashion through AI. At the same time, AI storytelling platform Sekai uses Story to help creators and fans co-create content related to their IPs to make the stories more attractive.
“PIP Labs is building the necessary infrastructure for a new contract in the age of AI,” said Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, in a statement. “Blockchain is ideally suited for large-scale economic coordination, and Story’s platform ensures that creators are compensated for providing their intellectual property to AI systems.”
Story Protocol Mainnet Launch
Story’s mainnet is expected to launch later this year. The layer 1 blockchain is being developed via the Cosmos SDK and will be fully compatible with Ethereum’s Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Zhao told The Block. “We have made a lot of improvements and optimizations for IP, such as cheap graph traversal, proof-of-creativity protocol, and programmable IP licenses,” Zhao added.
When asked if Story would launch its own token at the same time as the mainnet launch, he declined to comment.
San Francisco-based PIP Labs currently has about 40 employees, Zhao said, adding that the company is looking to hire about 20 more employees in functional areas such as engineering, marketing, Asia Pacific functions, product and design.
“Bitcoin is doing to money and finance what Story did to content and IP,” said Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, in a statement. “Big tech companies are multiplying their monopoly power exponentially, and the world needs a decentralized intellectual property system that returns ownership of data and IP to the people, just as Bitcoin brought sovereignty to money and finance after the global financial crisis.”
