Palo Alto-based startup PIP Labs has announced an $80-million Series B funding round co-led by a16z Crypto and Polychain Capital to support the development of Story Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for managing intellectual property (IP).
Several other investors participated in the round, including Hashed, Foresight Ventures, Samsung Next, Mirana Ventures, SparkLabs Global and angel investors. In total, PIP Labs has received $140 million in funding, with a16z Crypto participating in three funding stages, from seed to Series B.
According to Bloomberg, this latest round boosts the startup’s valuation to $2.25 billion, though PIP Labs has not confirmed or denied the figure.
Source: Story Protocol
Story Protocol’s blockchain allows creators to declare sovereignty over their IPs through tokenization. This means they can formally register their IPs on the blockchain, establishing ownership and setting specific rules for how their IPs can be used, shared or modified. It’s a way for creators to protect their work and maintain control over how it’s used by others.
“IP serves as the foundational input that large models train on. Put simply, without IP, AI is likely to hit a ceiling,” the protocol noted in an announcement on social media platform X.
With the rise of artificial intelligence solutions, intellectual property can serve as the input data for training models. By integrating blockchain, the protocol promises to help creators receive compensation when their work is used to train AI models while addressing issues such as dark data sets.
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According to PIP Labs, the technology is already seeing adoption, with over 200 teams and more than 20 million IP assets being built on the platform across different sectors, including IP finance (IPFi), AI and consumer markets.
The Web3 fundraising landscape saw a significant uptick in July, with deal volume increasing by 72.9% month-over-month to $1.44 billion, according to data from Messari. Venture firms Pantera Capital and Mirana Ventures led major early-stage investments during the period.
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