Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced in June of 2021 that it is allocating $2.2B to its third cryptocurrency fund to be put towards investing in companies as well as pressing for changes to cryptocurrency regulations. A16z has already invested around $815M in venture capital over its previous two cryptocurrency rounds. One of its most notable investments was Coinbase, which was valued at $85B after its IPO in April 2021. Patent Forecast® is equipped to look at the patent portfolios of a16z’s other investments to understand where these companies stand in terms of intellectual property.

Coinbase, as previously highlighted, has over 40 patent assets for payment architectures. Here are some other companies in a16z’s portfolio: Dapper Labs, which is well-known for its NBA TopShot platform and which has one patent application for its backend architecture; Dfinity, which specializes in blockchain-based cloud computing; Chia Networks, which raised $61M in May 2021; Anchorage; Protocol Labs; and Axoni. Many of these companies focus on networking and distributed computing in their patents, which could provide opportunities for licensing or for the creation of platforms that other developers build off of. As a venture capital firm, a16z likely wants a diverse portfolio. However, if it continues to invest in companies developing computing/networking technologies, Swirlds, which has 17 patent assets, may be a target for its hashgraph technology. You can follow the intersection of patents and business as Andreessen Horowitz’s investment portfolio grows with Patent Forecast®.