a16z Unveils New Cohort of Crypto Startups

Venture capital giant a16z has released the list of startups approved for its crypto startup accelerator for the final quarter of 2024.

“Over the next 8 weeks, they’ll get firsthand lessons from top crypto founders, receive guidance and support from a16z crypto’s investing and operating teams, and build connections with each other and the broader a16z network,” wrote Jason Rosenthal, head of the crypto startup accelerator at a16z.

21 startups from 11 countries will receive a minimum of $500,000 from the venture firm.

Projects include Anera Labs, which is building liquidity infrastructure to bridge all on-chain liquidity; Kuzco, a marketplace for Large Language Model (LLM) inference; zkSpin, an on-chain game engine; Term Labs, a DeFi lending platform that matches borrowers and lenders at fixed rates; t1 protocol, a real-time generation proof to unify Ethereum; and Dot, which transforms user-created pixel art into game pieces for onchain games, among others.

Others span from mapping with augmented reality (AR) to an AI-powered protocol allowing agents to pay each other – something Coinbase recently touted it had achieved.

In December 2023, a16z highlighted the crypto sectors it would increasingly favour in 2024. Dominated by AI (which has four startups in this cohort), the firm’s focus also leans towards gaming, UX, NFTs, and SNARKS.