Decentralized Web Protocol Arweave Secures $5M In a16z-Led Round

• Blockchain project announces the completion of $5 million funding round
• Big names contribute to the round
• Arweave and permaweb

Arweave, a blockchain project designed to combat link rot and build a permanently accessible web, has announced the completion of a $5 million funding round. The funding, led by leading blockchain investment firm a16z, will support Arweave’s goal of building the permaweb: an always accessible internet that does not degrade through linkrot, censorship, or sunsetting.

The project, founded in 2017 by a Berlin-based team of TechStars graduates, has made significant inroads towards its goal of building a distributed web that ensures information is always accessible. Since launching its mainnet in mid-2018, Arweave has spawned a thriving ecosystem of publications, journalists, scholars, researchers, archivists and activists committed to utilizing its storage capabilities. More than 100 Arweave-based apps have been created and more than 45,000 items committed to the permaweb being woven.

Andreessen Horowitz Leads an All-Star Round

The investors in Arweave’s $5M round read like a who’s who of blockchain VC, including contributions from some of the best-known names in the space. Andreessen Horowitz, aka a16z, led the funding round, which also included Kyle Samani’s Multicoin Capital and Fred Wilson’s Union Square Ventures. Previous Arweave investors include 1kx and Techstars.

“Arweave’s mission is to become the new Library of Alexandria, but invulnerable to the pitfalls of centralised points of failure, ensuring that humanity’s shared knowledge and history is available to all future generations,” said Arweave founder Sam Williams. “We have achieved exceptional growth in a small period of time. With Multicoin, USV and a16z joining 1kx and Techstars, we now have the support of the very best backers in the space. Combining their wealth of experience and skills with the power of our amazing community, we’ll be able to grow the core team and push adoption even faster.”

a16z has invested in many of the hottest crypto startups, including seed rounds for Dfinity, Chia, Oasis Labs, and Filecoin. Multicoin Capital, meanwhile, is known for its thesis-driven investment strategy that has seen it invest in projects such as Bakkt, Dfinity, and Nervos.

Building a Better Web One Page at a Time

Arweave’s permaweb enables anyone to permanently host web apps and pages, making it suitable for centralized and decentralized applications alike. Its smart blockchain connects users with miners that have disk space to spare. Because data exists on multiple nodes, redundancy is ensured, while storage providers receive financial incentives for their efforts.

The more blocks that Arweave miners store, the greater their likelihood of receiving a reward while mining, creating direct incentives for miners to store and replicate as much data as possible. Through a series of hackathons and other events, Arweave has built a small but passionate community of developers. Having now attracted the attention and investment of some of the industry’s leading VCs, Arweave will be seeking to capitalize on this momentum and drive broad adoption of its permaweb.