Tapestry Secures $5.75 Million in Series A Funding

Tapestry, a Solana-based social graph protocol, has raised $5.75 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Union Square Ventures and Fabric Ventures, as announced on Thursday. Additional participants in the round included Stellation Capital, Slow Ventures, and Foresight Ventures.

The funding round, which commenced last May and concluded in August, was structured as priced equity with token warrants, according to Tapestry CEO David Gabeau. He revealed that the round values Tapestry’s equity at $35 million and its token network at $70 million.

As part of the agreement, Nick Grossman from Union Square Ventures, Anil Hansjee from Fabric Ventures, and Peter Boyce from Stellation Capital have all joined Tapestry’s board, Gabeau noted.

The Series A round elevates Tapestry’s total funding to $12.5 million. Previously, the project secured $4 million in a seed round in January 2022 under its earlier project, Primitives, a digital art marketplace built on Solana using Tapestry’s infrastructure. An additional $2 million seed extension round took place in August 2022 but was not publicly disclosed at that time, as Gabeau mentioned. Both prior rounds were also structured as priced equity with token warrants.

What is Tapestry protocol?

Tapestry is a social graph protocol on Solana that simplifies the integration of social features into blockchain applications for developers.

“Unlike Farcaster and Lens, which operate on hubs or Layer 2 networks, Tapestry takes advantage of Solana’s state compression on Layer 1,” Gabeau explained. “We discovered this capability after utilizing state compression technology to mint NFTs on Primitives, our initial application. Compressed NFTs, made feasible exclusively on Solana, drastically reduced mint costs, and our engineers predicted the same savings could apply to transactions representing social graph data on blockchains.”

Acknowledging competition in the Ethereum ecosystem from players like Farcaster, Gabeau remarked, “We will never serve the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem better than they do, and we don’t plan to try.”

Instead, Tapestry intends to expand into blockchain ecosystems such as Aptos, Monad, and Berachain, Gabeau stated.

The protocol seeks to create an ecosystem of applications extending beyond gaming by providing social features. “We are on the brink of an application renaissance with the emergence of AI tools that make creation easier,” Gabeau added.

Revenue Model

Tapestry functions on a freemium model, granting developers free access while imposing charges for increased API usage. Gabeau noted that in the future, a minor protocol fee for reading and writing data could be distributed within the network.

“Imagine the possibilities for experiences built on top of TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter if their APIs were open,” Gabeau said. “Independent developers could create incredible apps. Existing incumbents will never open their social graphs because it contradicts their advertising business model. We are developing software that allows independent developers to swiftly connect their applications to Tapestry’s social infrastructure.”

Tapestry currently employs 13 individuals, and Gabeau expressed openness to hiring more protocol engineers to facilitate the project’s growth.

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