Solana-based social graph protocol Tapestry raises $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, the project said Thursday. Additional participants in the round included Stellation Capital, Slow Ventures and Foresight Ventures. 

The funding round, which began last May and concluded in August, was structured as priced equity with token warrants, Tapestry CEO David Gabeau told The Block. He added that the round values Tapestry's equity at $35 million and its token network at $70 million.

As part of the deal, 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 brings Tapestry's total funding to $12.5 million. Previously, the project raised $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. A $2 million seed extension round followed in August 2022 but was not publicly disclosed at the time, Gabeau said. Both prior rounds were also structured as priced equity with token warrants, he added.

What is Tapestry protocol?

Tapestry is a social graph protocol on Solana that enables developers to integrate social features into blockchain applications easily.

"Unlike Farcaster and Lens, which operate on hubs or Layer 2 networks, Tapestry leverages Solana's state compression on the Layer 1," Gabeau explained. "We found this possible after using state compression technology to mint NFTs on Primitives, our first app. Compressed NFTs, only possible on Solana, made mint costs basically zero and our engineers foresaw that it could do the same for the transactions that represent social graph data on blockchains."

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

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

The protocol aims to build an ecosystem of applications beyond gaming by providing social features. "We are on the verge of an app renaissance with the advent of AI tools that make creation easier," said Gabeau.

Revenue model

Tapestry operates on a freemium model, offering developers free access while charging for higher API usage. Gabeau added that in the future, a small protocol fee for reading and writing data could be shared with the network.

"Imagine the experiences that could be built on top of TikTok, Instagram or Twitter if their APIs were open," Gabeau said. "Independent developers could build some awesome apps. Incumbents will never open their social graphs because it's antithetical to their advertising business model. We are building software that enables independent developers to quickly connect their generated apps to Tapestry's social infrastructure."

Tapestry currently has 13 employees and Gabeau said he is open to hiring additional protocol engineers to support the project's growth.

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