Story is building an "IP blockchain" that lets creators assert ownership, set usage parameters, and enable permissioned licensing and remixing of content. The startup positions its platform as a way to capture value for IP owners amid generative AI and other uses of content. Story has run a free, closed beta and says more than 200 teams and “more than 20 million addressable IPs” are registered through partnerships with Ablo, Sekai and Magma. The company plans to use the new funding to continue building the product and is aiming for a commercial launch later this year. Financially, Story has raised a total of $143 million alongside its parent PIP Labs and is now valued at $2.25 billion post-money. The founding team includes CEO and co-founder S.Y. Lee and CPO Jason Zhao; Lee previously founded Radish, which sold to Kakao for $440 million. Story Protocol is building an open infrastructure layer and IP protocol to power collaborative creation and ownership of creative intellectual property on the internet. The platform provides provenance tracking, frictionless licensing, and revenue‑sharing primitives that let creators across prose, images, gaming, audio and other media track provenance and enable contributors to remix while capturing value. It aims to democratize IP creation via a global, extensible IP repository and to attract third‑party developers offering services such as crowdfunding, capital formation, IP discovery, licensing modules, AI content authentication and community growth. The project emphasizes a modular, open architecture and a decentralized design intended to remove platform risk for ecosystem builders. Story Protocol launched with advisory support from filmmaker David S. Goyer and has raised over $54 million in funding led by a16z crypto. Its founding team combines entrepreneurs and operators with backgrounds at Radish, Episode, Google DeepMind, Dapper Labs, Harmony Protocol and other consumer tech, AI and web3 ventures.

Total raised

$134M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Aug 2024