ChainSafe Systems, one of the world’s top blockchain infrastructure firms, announced that it has secured $18.75 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round. The investment was led by Round13 with participation from new investors NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Sfermion, Jsquare, and returning investors Digital Finance Group, and Fenbushi Capital.
Concurrent with the funding round, Khaled Verjee, Managing Partner of Round13’s Digital Asset Fund, is joining ChainSafe’s board of directors alongside founding members and board member Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys Mesh – a long time investor and supporter of ChainSafe. Headquartered in Toronto with offices in Berlin and Zagreb, ChainSafe operates globally and has more than 120 employees across 33 countries.
What is the market offering of ChainSafe?
The company was launched in 2017 after its founding team came together at an Ethereum meetup in Toronto. They turned a passion for open-source and decentralized tech into a sustainable web3 business. Five years later, ChainSafe has evolved to become the leading multi-chain R&D company with a focus on infrastructure development and web3 gaming.
As ChainSafe looks ahead to the future, it will use this investment to enhance its support for the adoption and sustainable growth of the web3 ecosystem. One of the firm’s products is web3.unity, a software development kit (SDK) for connecting Unity games with blockchain tech. It is designed to reduce complexity and introduce a new level of ownership to gaming.
Currently in production with more than 100 teams, the SDK is a catalyst for the rapidly growing blockchain gaming space, which is anticipated to reach US$2.8 billion by 2028.
ChainSafe’s cross-chain bridging solutions have connected major blockchains together including Ethereum, Polygon, and Avalanche, and in turn secured over $600 million in cross-chain token transfers. Designed and released by ChainSafe, these bridges are being used in a new cross-chain interoperability project for which ChainSafe is the leading contributor.
ChainSafe has built a reputation as a core protocol developer for Ethereum, Polkadot, Filecoin, and other ecosystems. Given its mission to “onboard the next million web3 developers,” the firm’s ambition is clear. ChainSafe is creating open-source infrastructure and tooling that empowers developers to build the decentralized web. ChainSafe will accelerate product development, continue building its team, and fuel the adoption of web3 technology.
What were the executives’ thoughts on ChainSafe?
“We have been close to ChainSafe since the early days when decentralized protocols were defining themselves and coming into their own. No firm has done a better job of establishing beachheads in important ecosystems and making fundamental contributions,” said Lubin.
“The people of ChainSafe combine integrity and excellence as any firm in our ecosystem, and no firm has earned trust more broadly among peers. This raise enables ChainSafe to continue on its growth path of strategic and synergistic protocol and product development,” Lubin said.
“Since 2017, ChainSafe’s work has been instrumental in developing the web3 ecosystem. Their research, development work, and products touch all aspects of today’s blockchain infrastructure. We look forward to having a front row seat to ChainSafe’s journey as the company brings its architecture to the forefront and makes it accessible to all,” said Verjee.
“ChainSafe was started with a vision that decentralized tech could change the world. Today, the importance of our contributions has become increasingly clear. I am proud of its impact and, with partners joining our team, we are looking forward to accelerating the growth of the web3 ecosystem,” said Aidan Hyman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of ChainSafe.
