[TL; DR]
Pip Labs’ valuation has reached $2.25 billion after raising $80 million through the recent funding round.
Story Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain for managing intellectual properties.
Managing intellectual property using the blockchain will help content creators to get full compensation for their work.
Introduction
The best blockchains are the ones that solve compelling problems which people encounter in their lives. Those that create great financial benefits to their communities will stand out within the crypto ecosystem. A new such blockchain, Story Protocol, is on its way. It aims to solve the challenges which content creators often face, such as intellectual property theft. Today, we discuss the path which Pip Labs is taking to achieve its vision.
Pip Labs Secures $80 Million Funding Towards Establishing Story Protocol
Pip Labs, the Palo Alto-based startup, recently announced a successful $80 million Series B Funding round, to raise capital for the development of the Story Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain for managing intellectual property (IP). Many leading firms participated in the Funding series which was led by a16z Crypto and Polychain Capital. Examples of some investors that participated in the round include Hashed, Foresight Ventures, SparkLabs Global, Angel investors, Samsung Next and Mirana Ventures. Stability AI's SVP Scott Trowbridge and Cozomo de' Medici, a digital art collector were also part of the funding initiative. Pip Labs raised $80 million on 21 August, bringing its total funding amount to $140 million. Last year, in a Series A funding round, also led by a16z crypto, the company raised $54 million. Pip Labs Raises $140 Million – x.com/StoryIP
As you note on the image, Pip Labs announced on 21 August that it had already raised $140 million for its ambitious project. After that funding round the startup valuation reached $2.25 billion it will use as part of its growth strategy.
Pip Labs and Story Protocol: Overview
Pip Labs is a startup venture capital behind the Story Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain which aims at intellectual property (IP) protection against theft and misuse. The company has explained that during the current era of artificial intelligence intellectual property should be protected from language model crawls that gather content for training purposes. According to the company this is a “multi-trillion-dollar” project since its product is very valuable in the blockchain technology era.
Story Protocol, a blockchain for managing intellectual property, was founded in 2022 by Seung Yoon Lee following the sale of his company, Radish Fiction to Kakao. In fact, Lee and Jason Zhao, a Stanford graduate and a former executive at DeepMind, founded Story Protocol after realizing the problems that content creators face. Thus, Story Protocol is a blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation that will help content creators to benefit more from their innovation than ever before.
With Story Protocol, content creators register their intellectual properties on the blockchain so that they can track and monitor the use of their work. This will ensure that they get appropriate compensation for their content. The system will track how the content has been used and distributed. Apart from registering their intellectual properties on the blockchain, the creators will be able to set rules on how their content should be used. The rules may include how the content can be modified or shared.
Posting on X Story Protocol explained how part of the system works. It stated, “IP serves as the foundational input that large models train on. Put simply, without IP, AI is likely to hit a ceiling.” Due to the use of artificial intelligence the IPs can be used as input data for training models.
Read also: What is Digital Ownership?
How Funding Round Help in Tech and Blockchain
Currently, there are many startups operating in the tech and blockchain sector that have raised funds using different crowdfunding mechanisms. Usually, financial asset management companies lead in the funding rounds. Venture capital firms are some of the organizations that take part in the fundraising process. In most cases, the startups achieve their set targets, especially if they have great investment proposals backed by good products such as in the case of Pip Labs and Story Protocol. This funding model has helped the tech and blockchain sector to grow.
Basically, the funding rounds show the high interest that investors have in the sector. They want to see the industry growing and contributing to the global economy. For example, tech investments are essential for the growth of different sectors of the economy. Apart from Pip Labs several other startups such as Space and Time, IO Research and Finality recently raised millions of dollars through funding rounds.
Pip Labs’ $140 Million to take Story Protocol to another Level
The aim of the fund is to further develop the Story Protocol infrastructure so that it can serve many parties, including organizations and individuals. Also, the team wants to ensure that a frictionless system of registering intellectual property is in existence within a short period. To achieve that many elements should be integrated with the system to make it flawless. Many features are going to be part of the system as well. For example, creators need to tokenize their IPs. On the other hand, the system should be able to facilitate some payments.
At the moment, Story is working to ensure that the key structures are in place. Primarily, the Story Protocol architecture is based on two key components namely data structures and modules. The data structures store IP metadata while the modules promote the functionalities of the protocol. It is important to note that Story Protocol will be compatible with various decentralized applications and blockchains. For example, it will be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). At the moment more than 200 teams are already using Story. However, Pip Labs aims to expand the infrastructure to enable more organizations and individuals to benefit which will enhance its market impact.
Conclusion
Pip Labs has managed to raise $140 million through funding rounds. The funds will be used to further develop the Story Protocol, a blockchain for managing intellectual properties. After its recent funding round Pip Labs’ valuation has reached $2.25 billion. The tech and blockchain sectors have witnessed growth as a result of capital raised through funding rounds.