Quick take:
- Here Not There has raised $25 million in a funding round led by A16z.
- The Series A round was also backed by Benchmark and Framework Ventures.
- The web3 startup is building Towns, a web3 solution that allows users to build decentralised online communities.
Here Not There has announced a $25 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z). The Series A round was also backed by Benchmark and Framework Ventures.
The web3 startup is developing Towns, a decentralised group chat protocol and app, that allows users to build online communities on the blockchain. Communities can use Towns to create programmable, self-governed “town squares”.
Towns allow communities to build decentralised town squares where people can meet for a chat without worrying about interferences from the app owner.
According to press material shared with CoinDesk, “users can assemble and chat without worrying about whether the app owner will decide to prevent access, profit from the activities or change user rights.”
Communities can also control certain aspects of the town squares, including administration, privacy and roles, as well as, create customised experiences that reward members and allow them to sell NFTs to each other.
Here Not There Labs was founded by Ben Rubin — the former CEO and co-founder of Houseparty and Meerkat and Brian Meek — former CTO of STRIVR Labs and former General Manager of Engineering at Skype.
Writing in a blog post about his company’s investment in Towns on Thursday, A16z General Partner, Sriram Krishnan said: “The team’s vision for creating a digital town square where members can define the borders, set the rules, and build the world they want is an ambitious goal that is uniquely achievable through the promise of decentralization and web3.”
Towns’ vision is based on the view that the centralised economic model does not reward users for the content they create.
Here Not There wants to use its fully decentralised product to liberate users and give them the freedom to express themselves in “an eternal town square with collective moderation, self-governing communities, and equitable business models where all sides win or lose together,” a statement on the Towns.com website reads.
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