Goldfinch raises $25M from a16z to power its DeFi lending protocol for borrowers in developing countries

For all of the excitement pulsing through the so-called web3 space in the past year, most of the heartiest sums of investor dollars have seemed to find their way towards products touching users in the United States, but an increasing number of startups are looking to tap opportunities in developing nations where existing centralized financial […]

Katie Haun is splitting off from a16z to launch her own crypto fund

Katie Haun, who co-led Andreessen Horowitz’s $2.2 billion crypto fund, is splitting off from the firm and taking a number of colleagues with her — including operating partner Rachael Horwitz — to start a new crypto-centric fund, Axios reports. Haun joined the firm in 2018 after a career as a federal prosecutor for the Justice […]

Glorify, an ambitious app for Christians, just landed $40 million in Series A funding led by a16z

Religion-based apps, tools and communities aren’t brand new, including to investors. Pray.com, for example, an LA-based app for daily prayer and bedtime Bible stories that was founded in 2016, has raised at least $34 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins. Ministry Brands, a nine-year-old, Knoxville, Tennessee-based outfit that now includes dozens of software and payments […]

NFT music rights startup Royal banks $55M investment led by a16z Crypto

Less than three months after announcing a $16 million seed round led by Founders Fund and Paradigm, NFT music rights startup Royal has raised another major bout of funding, banking a $55 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto investment arm. The startup partners with musicians and allows users to buy NFTs which represent collective […]

In-game creation platform Overwolf raises $75M Series D led by Andreessen Horowitz

Overwolf, a platform that enables creators to build, share, and monetize items inside games, has raised a $75 million Series D funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Previous investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Insight Partners, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital, and Marker also participated. The funding will be pumped into Overwolf’s CurseForge Core, […]

Sequoia backs blockchain scaling startup StarkWare at $2 billion valuation

As the crypto world continues to heat up, developers are clinging to the Ethereum network despite its general struggle to meet the stresses of a global network’s transaction load. To speed and cheapen transactions on Ethereum, developers are looking toward so-called Layer-2 (L2) blockchains, which build on the Ethereum network, offloading the computational stresses while […]

Crypto VC firm Paradigm debuts monster $2.5 billion fund

As the crypto market continues to push toward new heights, investors are finding heightened LP appetite for exposure to the space, leading to new venture funds that are huge — even by 2021 standards. Paradigm, a crypto VC firm founded in 2018 by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang, has […]

Will Smith, Kevin Durant and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs invest in electric boat startup Arc

Arc, a startup that launched 10 months ago with ambitions to electrify everything on the water, starting with a limited-edition $300,000 boat, has captured the attention and capital of some of the entertainment industry’s biggest stars. The startup, which closed a seed round in February led by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, has brought on several […]