Andreessen Horowitz Invests In Blockchain-Based Online Data Startup

Blockchain startup Arweave raised $5 million over the last six months by selling its native cryptocurrency to various venture funds, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

What Happened

The investments are led by California-based Andreessen Horowitz. Other buyers include Texas-based Multicoin Capital and New York-based Union Square Ventures.

These investors will also work “directly in a partnership” with Arweave, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. This involves helping the startup “navigate the evolving legal environment.”

Andreessen Horowitz made this investment as part of the $300 million cryptocurrency fund, called a16z crypto, it originally announced in June 2018.

A ‘Truly’ Permanent Internet

Arweave is developing a permaweb protocol that allows users to store data on its decentralized ledger permanently using blockchain. In other words, it [data] can never be taken off the internet or modified.

"Arweave is generally available today and is suitable for use by journalists and publications, scholars and researchers, plus archivists and activists around the world,” the company said in the statement.

Arweave allows users to do this through web browser extensions available on Chrome, Firefox, and Brave. Users get to store one file for free but have to create a wallet later and purchase its native cryptocurrency to use the facilities further.

The Berlin-based startup graduated from Techstars’s startup accelerator program in 2018 and officially launched in Jan. 2019.

What's Next

Arweave said that it would utilize the funding to expand its developer relations team and aid its marketing and commercialization campaigns later this year.

Multicoin Capital, one of the investors, stated in a press release that Arweave’s permaweb could open the possibility of moving other things to a permanent ledger as well.

“The core concept of the permaweb is foreign to most people because it’s an entirely new market that has never existed before,” the venture firm’s managing partner Kyle Samani said. “We don’t expect Arweave to replace the Internet Archive; rather, we expect the market to expand exponentially as there are many verticals beyond internet archiving that want permanent storage but didn’t know it was possible before.”