A16z Leads $3.1M Funding Round for Mem’s Social Media Protocol

Mem Protocol, a startup building Web 3 tools for social networking, has closed a $3.1 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The company’s valuation was not disclosed.

“On existing social networks, user identity and content are platform commodities. Data moats and targeted advertising services lead to misaligned incentives between platforms and the people using them. No one owns the information they share, yet users’ data is remixed by algorithms on centralized platforms that farm and profit from their attention,” Mem co-founder and CEO Abhi Vyas wrote in the announcement blog post.

Founded earlier this year, Mem aims to solve that problem by building a decentralized social media protocol centered around what the company calls “data sovereignty.” The protocol creates a standardized data specification and common set of operators to give individuals control over the collection of their personal information. Developers can embed Mem into their applications to provide a more personalized experience across the web, essentially operating as a user-driven, transparent alternative to web tracking.

Mem was created on Substrate, the custom blockchain builder, with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility. The company is currently in limited testing with plans to launch its protocol in early 2022.

“Some of the core attributes of Web 3 – such as openness, decentralization and user control – are perfectly suited for a new type of social networking platform that’s optimized around the user. That’s the promise we see in Mem, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to help build the Web 3 social graph,” said Arianna Simpson, general partner with Andreessen Horowitz.