a16z leads $40 million raise for crypto protocol Golden

Quick Take

  • Golden has raised $40 million in a series led by a16z crypto.
  • The Series B round included high-profile investors such as Solana co-founder Raj Gokal and Matt Bellamy, the lead-singer of Muse.

Golden, a crypto firm building a data protocol with web3 tools, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by a16z crypto, bringing the total amount raised to date to $60 million.

Other participants in the round include Solana co-founder Raj Gokal, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi and Postmates founder Bastian Lehmann, the company announced Monday. Also among the investors was Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of rock band Muse and a partner at Helium-3 Ventures. 

Ali Yahya, a general partner at a16z, will also be joining the board and sitting alongside current board member and a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen, the company said.

The funding will help the company's efforts to build a platform that it says centralizes data using technologies and mechanics from Web3. The protocol financially rewards correct data and disincentives incorrect data, with the use of tokens.

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It's now in a testnet phase, with 35,000 individuals submitting facts and validating information, via the Discord community, a live decentralized app, APIs and early governance in action. The protocol is expected to go live on the mainnet in the second quarter of 2023.

"This is not simply a ‘web3 Wikipedia,’" the company said. "Having accurate data in a deeply-linked knowledge graph allows for the creation of new applications and insights that are not currently possible."


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About Author

Catarina is a reporter for The Block based in New York City. Before joining the team, she covered local news at Patch.com and at the New York Daily News. She started her career in Lisbon, Portugal, where she worked for publications such as Público and Sábado. She graduated from NYU with a MA in Journalism. Feel free to email any comments or tips to [email protected] or to reach out on Twitter (@catarinalsm).