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Crypto VC Lightspeed Ventures Raises Millions in Startup Stability.AI as Crypto Hype Dies Down – DL News
- Cryptocurrency investors Coatue and Lightspeed Ventures have invested more than $7.3 million in Stability.
- Company documents show that the new CEO will earn $500,000 a year for four years.
A further sign that venture capitalists in the cryptocurrency sector are jumping at the chance to explore the artificial intelligence trend is that the list of financiers who pushed Stability.AI to its investment of 80 million dollars includes big names in the cryptocurrency industry.
According to company documents seen by DL NewsLightspeed Ventures and Coatue participated in a fundraising round, investing $2.4 million and $4.9 million, respectively.
Light speed has invested in some of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, including Ripple, Solana, and Yuga Labs.
Coat has backed Chainalysis, CertiK, Dapper Labs and other cryptocurrency companies. Both investment firms have contributed funds to blockchain infrastructure startup Alchemy.
The investor list is a sign that as AI hype grabs headlines and rakes in money from Silicon Valley, growth-stage opportunities in the cryptocurrency space are fewer and far between.
Based in Los Angeles, Stability.AI is best known for Stable diffusiona technological model capable of transforming text instructions into images.
Cryptocurrencies have no role in its design or operation.
Expanding focus on VC
“Many ‘crypto-only’ funds that have raised large sums of money find it difficult to deploy the funds exclusively in the cryptocurrency market,” said Eylon Aviv, partner at cryptocurrency investment firm Collider. DL News. “As a result, they are expanding their focus to adjacent fields, of which artificial intelligence is a prime example.”
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Stability.AI has not only attracted cryptocurrency-focused funds.
According to the document, Greycroft Partners has invested approximately $20 million.
And Retspan, a fund backed by Silicon Valley investor and early Facebook executive Sean Parker, has invested nearly $12 million. A representative for Parker declined to comment.
Eric Schmidt is also among the investors in Stability.AI, as confirmed by a source close to the former Google CEO DL News. The AI company touted Schmidt’s support for X this week.
In 2022, Stability.AI raised $101 million a reported $1 billion valuation.
The document dated June 25 shows that Stability.AI issued nearly 2 million shares for about $51 million.
The company could sell another 3 million shares for about $29 million.
As part of the financing, Prem Akkaraju has been appointed as CEO for a four-year term.
According to the documents, he will earn a base salary of $500,000 a year.
VCs Cool Off on Cryptocurrencies
This round marks a shift in VC focus towards AI strategies, away from blockchain-based startups.
Stability.AI has 270,000 users on its Discord server and has created over 400 million images. It can also create audio and video based on user requests.
The arrival of applications like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s ChatGPT app has captured the imagination of investors. OpenAI’s rating is reportedly more than $80 billionaided by a $10 billion investment from Microsoft in 2023.
Lemniscap, a Cayman Islands-based firm that specializes in crypto startups, has invested $2.3 million across three entities in Stability.AI, according to separate filings. It has also backed Avalanche and Algorand, both layer-1 blockchain networks.
Lemniscap has invested more than $66,000 in Stability.AI. through its Lemniscap Blockchain Fund.
Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Do you have any advice on elections? Please contact liam@dlnews.com.