Story-based IP tokenization platform Aria raises $15 million at $50 million valuation

Aria Protocol Labs and Aria Foundation, the teams behind the Story-based intellectual property (IP) tokenization platform Aria, have raised $15 million in combined seed and strategic funding rounds.

Both rounds were finalized last month, following fundraising conversations that began in March, Aria co-founder and chief IP officer David Kostiner told The Block. The seed round was co-led by Polychain Capital and Neoclassic Capital, with additional strategic funding from Story Protocol Foundation and other unnamed backers across the crypto, IP, and entertainment sectors, Kostiner said, declining to disclose the specific breakdown between the rounds as this was part of a private transaction.

The rounds were structured as a combination of equity and token warrants, Kostiner said, adding that they bring Aria’s equity valuation to $50 million. The project also plans to issue a native token in the future.

"We view this approach as a reflection of Aria’s dual identity; both as an IP and licensing-focused tech company, and as a tokenized infrastructure layer for real-world assets," Kostiner said.

What is Aria?

Aria, built on Story, a layer 1 blockchain tailored to help tokenize IP, is currently focused on tokenizing music IP or turning music royalties into tradable tokens, aiming to make an illiquid asset class more accessible to users.

"Historically, music royalties and IP ownership have been notoriously illiquid, difficult to access, and restricted to private equity investors and insiders with the legal and financial firepower to access and navigate exclusive relationships," Kostiner said.

"As a music and entertainment lawyer specializing in IP for 20 years, I understand the value of seamless access for investors and fans, as well as for co-creators. We founded Aria to establish a transparent, decentralized ecosystem allowing investors, fans, and co-creators access to some of their favorite artists and IP," he added.

Aria's first IP token, APL (Aria Premiere Launch), debuted in February and is backed by "partial rights" to royalty-generating songs performed by global icons including Justin Bieber, BTS, and Miley Cyrus. Those rights were acquired via $10.95 million raised on StakeStone’s LiquidityPad platform.

"APL holders who stake their tokens gain exposure to real-world music royalties, which unlocks a yield-bearing instrument from what was once an inaccessible and highly gated asset class," Kostiner said. "Beyond access, APL is designed to evolve: stakers will soon unlock new functionality around on-chain licensing, legal remixing, and other programmable IP modules, transforming IP into something dynamic, composable, and creator-aligned."

APL is currently trading at about $0.91, up 1.9% in the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s APL price page.

Aria's revenue comes from origination fees on new IP tokenization launches, transaction and platform fees on secondary trading and staking, and management fees on curated IP vaults and structured products, including future institutional offerings like Aria Prime, Kostiner said. He added that the project is currently prioritizing ecosystem growth over immediate monetization, waiving origination fees in early launches to showcase the model.

Kostiner compared Aria to web2 platforms like Masterworks, which fractionalize art ownership, but said Aria is more ambitious.

"Where others tokenize individual assets behind closed doors, Aria is building a composable, onchain IP economy from the ground up." he added. "Rather than issuing static representations of value, we’re creating dynamic, programmable tokens tied to real-world revenue streams which we’ve already proven with the IP we’ve brought onchain."

Aria currently employs 10 people and plans to remain lean, Kostiner said, adding that the raised funding will be used to expand into more IP categories beyond music to art and film/TV and growing the ecosystem.

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