Former A16Z Boss Katie Haun Raises $24 Million In Series A Funding Round For Crypto Startup Thirdweb

Katie Haun, a former general partner of famed venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and current CEO of Haun Ventures, led a Series A funding round for a new startup called thirdweb, raising $24 million which values the company at $160 million.

What Happened: Haun led the round with participation from Coinbase Ventures (Haun sits on Coinbase board of directors), Shopify Inc SHOP, Protocol Labs, Polygon MATIC/USD, Shrug VC, Joseph Lacob and others.

Thirdweb, which has created a development toolkit to make it easier to build and launch Web3 products, plans to use the funding to continue enhancing its developer toolkit, expanding support for a wider array of blockchains, bringing on more users and growing its team.

Read more: Ethereum Pips Bitcoin, Dogecoin: Analyst Says Crypto 'More Eager' To Break Upwards Amid Jackson Hole Anxiety

Founded in 2021 by Furqan Rydhan and Steven Bartlett with a seed funding round of $5 million, Benzinga previously reported that the company received investments from more than 20 industry entrepreneurs such as Gary Vaynerchuck, Adam Foroughi and Mark Cuban.

The company aims to build the infrastructure layer for Web3, giving developers a full stack Web3 development kit to significantly reduce the time and cost required to build and launch applications. 

According to the press release, thirdweb facilitates the creation of Web3 apps across the most-popular blockchains, including blockchain games, NFT drops, DAOs, token gated membership clubs and more.

What Else Is Going On In Crypto: The largest asset manager in the world, BlackRock Inc BLK, recently announced a partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN to make cryptocurrency directly available to institutional investors. 

Photo: ArtemisDiana via Shutterstock