Investing In Alchemy
Three technological revolutions have defined modern history: the computer, internet, and blockchain. Each revolution is driven by a developer platform. For the computer, this was Windows and Mac OS. For the internet, this was Amazon Web Services.
Developers platforms provide builders with the tools they need to create applications and bring the benefit of the technology to the world. These platforms are not only essential for mainstream adoption of technology, they accelerate the pace of innovation of the entire industry.
Developer platforms are some of the most impactful companies on the planet. AWS alone accounts for over ⅔ of Amazon’s profits and is estimated to be a trillion dollar business on its own. Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon built the developer platforms powering the computer and internet industries, and as a result, are three of the four most valuable companies in the world.
That is the role Alchemy plays in Web3. They are the developer platform for this emerging space. We’re thrilled to partner with the Alchemy team to lead their $200 million round alongside existing investors, and to welcome Silver Lake to the team.
In the same way that AWS enables developers to build internet companies faster and bigger than ever before, Alchemy provides developers with the infrastructure and tools that they need to build Web3 products on blockchain that scale to millions of users globally.
To do this, Alchemy invented a new blockchain infrastructure from the ground up that provides developers with an ultra reliable, scalable, and data correct system to power their applications. In addition, Alchemy’s platform provides teams with the comprehensive tool suite that accelerates their pace of development.
For these reasons, many of the largest companies in Web3 today built their products on Alchemy years ago and have relied on the platform to support their massive growth. In addition to being important to individual companies, Alchemy is also essential to the overall space. It enables the virtuous cycle adoption of blockchain by empowering builders: builders use Alchemy to build applications, which bring in users, which attract more builders, and so on.
Today, Alchemy is the default developer platform for Web3, and it’s growing fast with 140% growth in teams building on the platform in the last few months, and a 6000% increase in API calls in the last year. Like Windows and Mac OS, Alchemy empowers developers across industry verticals, powering virtually every NFT in the world, the majority of decentralized finance, and the majority of top apps. Worth noting is the team’s dedication to customer experience which has resulted in a bevy of happy developers — Alchemy’s customer obsession ranks it higher than Apple and Zoom in terms of NPS scores.
The Alchemy team, co-founded by CEO Nikil Viswanathan and CTO Joseph Lau, includes top product leaders, former founders, and engineers with expertise scaling massive infrastructure from leading technology companies. Nikil and Joseph met at Stanford as teaching assistants for the database class and have deep technical experience doing AI and computer vision research at Stanford. They have started multiple companies together and are building an all star team.
We’ve watched Alchemy for years, and have consistently been impressed by the team’s ability to overcome all odds. Combined with relentless execution and a laser focus on customer experience and product, Alchemy has built a powerful developer platform that powers the majority of the space today, unlocks the potential of blockchain for developers globally, and is essential for mainstream adoption.
Web3 is still in its early innings. In the same way that the internet looked like a small market in the 90s but has since exploded, the blockchain industry still has the vast majority of its growth ahead of it. And just as almost all companies eventually adopted the internet, the number of companies using blockchain may explode in the couple decades. In that world, Alchemy is well positioned to power those companies and benefit from the growth of the entire space.
