Investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced Monday that it invested in Mysten Labs, a blockchain and Web3 development company co-founded by four ex-Meta employees. CNBC first reported the investment figure to be $36 million.
The CEO of Mysten Labs is Evan Cheng, former director of research and development (R&D) at Novi — a digital wallet project formed out of the tech company Meta (previously known as Facebook). Joining Cheng at Mysten Labs is Sam Blackshear, former Novi engineer, as CTO; Adeniyi Abiodun, former Novi product lead, as COO; and George Danezis, former Novi engineer, as Chief Scientist.
All four Mysten Labs co-founders helped develop Diem, a stablecoin to be used in the Novi digital wallet, as well as other projects during their time there. Moving forward, the team intends to bolster partnerships with existing networks and launch additional protocols that Mysten helped design, according to a release from a16z.
The news of four ex-Meta employees starting their own company comes nearly a week after David Marcus, former Novi lead at Meta, announced his forthcoming departure from the firm by the end of the year.
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