a16z leads $20m raise for blockchain payment firm Halliday

Halliday, an artificial intelligence powered startup helping automate services for any workflow, has secured $20 million in a funding round led by venture capital behemoth Andreessen Horowitz.

In an announcement on March 18, Halliday said the funding will accelerate the development of its Workflow Protocol, a solution designed to enable developers to create financial applications without writing smart contracts by leveraging blockchain and AI technology.

Silicon Valley-based a16z’s crypto VC unit led the Series A funding round, which also attracted investments from SV Angel, Credibly Neutral, and Blizzard Fund.

Halliday’s collaboration with financial institutions, including charter banks and payment providers, gets traction from the company’s workflows. Removing the need to write smart contracts every time a developer wants to create or deploy a program is critical to this growth.

“Smart contracts have long been the default way the industry builds applications on-chain. However, smart contract development resembles hardware engineering more than software engineering: it is slow, expensive, and dangerous,” the startup posted on X.

AI integration on-chain is also a huge hurdle, thanks to compliance and safety issues. 

Halliday’s Workflow Protocol offers a solution to these challenges, making it possible for financial institutions and other companies to integrate web3.

According to the startup, the Workflow Protocol automates any flow. It includes on-ramping to new layer 1 and layer 2 chains, handling recurring payments and yield maximization. The protocol also automates any workflows in treasury management and business to business agents.

Halliday has tested its workflow system since 2023, with its payment flows already integrated by Avalanche, ApeCoin, DeFi Kingdoms, and Story Protocol. The startup partnered with SKALE Network in May 2024 and ApeChain in June 2024.

A16z also led Halliday’s $6 million seed round in August 2024. At the time, Halliday said the funds would support blockchain gaming and metaverse ecosystems.