Startup profile for NEAR: what they do, why they are interesting, stage (growth), industries, and links to our funding articles. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.

Startup profile · funding coverage

NEAR

Layer-1 blockchain for scalable decentralized applications with sharded proof-of-stake.

Stage

growth

Status

private

Coverage

full

Why NEAR is interesting

Ethereum-alternative L1 with sub-second finality — a16z led a $21.6M token sale at mainnet launch (2020); Multicoin and Blockchange were early backers.

Key facts

  • Token sale (May 2020): $21.6M led by a16z at mainnet launch (BusinessWire, TechCrunch)
  • Prior round (Jul 2019): $12.1M with Multicoin, Pantera, Coinbase Ventures (CoinDesk)
  • Co-investors not in VCT directory: Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, Libertus Capital

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from NEAR's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

Industries

Crypto & Web3

Industry hub pages are rolling out from our fund-derived baseline taxonomy.

FAQs about NEAR

Funding context and why this company shows up in venture coverage.

NEAR is listed among Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) investments on a16z’s public investment list.
We track a16z-backed companies that are strategically relevant for founders and investors following AI, American Dynamism, crypto, bio, and enterprise software.

Last updated: 2026-07-24