Andreessen Horowitz has led a funding round for the newly launched Web3 startup Bastion — a project co-founded by two former executives of a16z’s crypto division — amid the recent draught in venture capital funding.

On Sept. 18, Bastion, a startup that describes itself as an “enterprise-focused Web3 orchestrator,” announced raising $25 million in seed funding participated by Nomura Group’s Laser Digital Ventures, Robot Ventures, Aptos Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, and crypto influencer Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Capital, among others.

The firm also announced the launch of its product suite, intending to enable companies to integrate Web3 infrastructure into their existing enterprise technologies.

Bastion co-founders Riyaz Faizullabhoy and Nassim Eddequiouaq, the former chief technology officer and chief security officer of a16z’s crypto arm, respectively, left the firm in April. The executives previously served as Facebook’s senior crypto engineers before departing for a16z.

In a company statement, Bastion said it will use the latest funding to scale company operations, recruit top engineering talent, and secure additional licensing to further diversify its product offerings.

The a16z-backed startup looks to be bent on bringing its blockchain technology to the corporate world despite the bear market in digital assets.

Crypto venture funding has been lackluster in 2023 compared to the numbers in the last two years. Data from DeFiLlama shows there was just $283.45 million raised cash in August. This number is down 68% from the $877 million in February and approximately 95% from the $7 billion in November 2021.

“It was clear that even as crypto came back down into another bear market, this time crypto is very much here to stay,” Faizullabhoy said.

The Web3 startup’s offerings include custody services, digital asset transactions, and wallets.

Bastion co-founder Eddequiouaq commented, “We founded Bastion to enable businesses to onboard their products and end-users into a Web3 environment without the complicated, overwhelming experience we know today.”

“We’ve long held the view that for Web3 to reach its full potential, the space needs compliant, secure custodial wallet infrastructure for [non-fungible tokens], and tokens,” Arianna Simpson, general partner at a16z crypto, said in a statement. “Bastion is building exactly this.”

“We believe in Nass and Riyaz’s vision of making web3 safe and accessible for companies in every industry and are extremely excited to support them in making it a reality,” she said in a statement published on a16z’s website.

In early September, a16z led a $54 million funding round for blockchain-based intellectual property ownership platform Story Protocol.

The major crypto sector investor also announced expanding operations in London in June amid ongoing regulatory pressure in the United States.