A16z leads $15 million seed round for an AI-focused decentralized data layer built on the Story Protocol

Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto wing is backing a full-stack decentralized data layer being built on the intellectual property-focused Story protocol. The startup, called Poseidon, has brought in $15 million in seed funding as it looks to unlock high-quality training data for "the next generation of physical AI."

According to an announcement on Tuesday, Poseidon was incubated by the Story team to tackle "one of the most urgent and overlooked problems in artificial intelligence: access to high-quality, usable, and legally licensed training data."

"AI foundation models have already exhausted the most easily accessible training data,” a16z Crypto founder Chris Dixon said in a statement. “Poseidon's decentralized data layer seeks to establish a new economic foundation for the internet, rewarding creators and suppliers for providing the diverse inputs that next-gen intelligent systems need.”

Poseidon will enable AI developers to access IP-safe, legally cleared training data using Story’s programmable IP layer and immutable IP registry.

Story is a Layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenized IP for the AI era. The protocol uses a proof-of-creativity system to turn static IP into programmable IP, allowing for automatic licensing and royalty payments and other revenue streams for creators.

PIP Labs, the developer of Story Protocol, raised $80 million in a Series B funding round led by a16z crypto last August.