Web3 unicorn Alchemy is raising for a new venture fund

Web3 development platform Alchemy is looking to raise $12 million for a venture capital fund, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

Alchemy’s co-founder and chief technology officer Joseph Lau is listed as the executive officer for the Alchemy SPV III fund, according to the filing. 

The startup hit the milestone of becoming a unicorn in October with a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz. A unicorn is a privately held company with a value over $1 billion.

Then, in December, Alchemy announced the launch of its ventures arm to invest in “teams building revolutionary products for the web3 ecosystem.” Partners for the venture arm are a16z, Lightspeed, Coatue and Altimeter. 

Alchemy declined to the comment on the raise. 

A web3 unicorn

The new fund raise comes hot on the heels of Alchemy’s first acquisition, which took place at the end of August. The firm acquired Ethereum developer and education platform Chainshot. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.   

Founded in 2017 by Nikil Viswanathan and Joseph Lau, Alchemy provides APIs to companies looking to build out their blockchain services. The APIs provide access to data, such as information on blockchain node functionality and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Adobe, Meta, Dapper and Aave are among some of the companies that use Alchemy’s services, according to its website. 

The company raised $200 million in a round led by Lightspeed and Silverlake in February, bringing its valuation to $10.2 billion. 

At the time of the raise, Alchemy told the Block that it had yet to tap the reserves it built up through previous raises. 

Alchemy’s venture arm

For Alchemy’s new fund, no funds have been raised and no investors are on board yet, according to the filing. 

Alchemy’s venture arm has previously invested in companies like crypto exchange FTX, scaling solution Arbitrum, and token management tool Alta. 

Broadly, venture funding in the blockchain sector has fallen over the last five months, according to data from The Block Research. Infrastructure investments are bucking the trend, however, with the highest concentration of seed deals since January 2021, per the data. 

The Block Research

Blockchain seed & pre-Series A deals from The Block Research

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