StarkWare nets $100M as investors bank on layer-2 success

Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 developer StarkWare has raised a further $100 cardinal successful its latest fundraising circular contempt the prevailing downturn successful cryptocurrency markets.

StarkWare’s bid D fundraising circular sees the firm’s valuation up to $8 billion, marking a four-fold summation successful worth conscionable six months aft its Series C circular successful November 2021. Tech concern steadfast Greenoaks Capital led the latest fundraising circular successful summation to backstage equity steadfast Coatue, Tiger Global and different investors.

StarkWare has established itself arsenic a large subordinate successful the Ethereum layer-2 scaling space, boasting much transaction throughput than the Bitcoin web and collectively much than each different layer-2 platforms successful 2022.

The steadfast makes usage of rollup exertion for its Ethereum layer-2 scaling platforms. By generating validity proofs, much commonly known arsenic zero-knowledge proofs successful the industry, StarWare says it is capable to adhd monolithic batches of transactions to Ethereum’s mainnet.

Co-founder and president Eli Ben-Sasson pioneered ZK-STARK cryptography alongside different machine scientists. Zero-Knowledge Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge is simply a impervious strategy that makes usage of new-age cryptography to encrypt and verify transaction information — ensuring security, scalability and absorption to quantum computing.

The exertion underpinning StarkWare’s 2 platforms, StarkEx and StarkNet, has proven popular. StarkEx is the scaling motor utilized by fashionable nonfungible marketplaces Sorare, ImmutableX and dYdX, portion StarkNet is simply a decentralized exertion improvement network.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ben-Sasson and StarkWare co-founder and CEO Uri Kolodny unpacked the latest fundraising round, which has been driven by outsider capitalist request successful the agelong word imaginable of the layer-2 technology.

“We judge we’re connected a long, challenging and demanding ngo to invent and make exertion that hasn’t existed antecedently and bring it to marketplace arsenic a bundle merchandise offering with an ecosystem astir it. All that requires important resources to let america to absorption connected the long-term,” Kolodyny told Cointelegraph.

StarkWare volition usage its latest $100 cardinal fundraising circular crossed the committee to make its ecosystem astir the bundle tools it is building. Ben-Sasson besides noted that StarkEx’s capabilities were a large drawcard for investors, which would spot the level proceed to beryllium a focal constituent for the firm:

“Investors valuation has to beryllium based connected proven, tested metrics and the existent metrics are each coming from StarkEx. We minted much NFTs than immoderate different platform, we’re settling much transactions contiguous than Bitcoin and determination person been weeks wherever we’ve settled much than Ethereum.”

The StarkWare president said these metrics are reflected successful the company’s $8 cardinal valuation and its extremity would beryllium to physique connected the occurrence of StarkEx truthful far, portion hoping that StarkNet continues to pull developers.

Related: MakerDAO deploys connected layer-2 web StarkNet to heighten functions of DAI stablecoin

Ben-Sasson admitted that the quality of the underlying exertion to execute its existent scalability and greater was not astonishing fixed the mathematical mentation down it. However, recognition was fixed to the ecosystem that has adopted StarkEx:

“What is pleasantly surprising, and a batch of recognition goes to the ecosystem and our archetypal partners Diversify, dYdX, Sorare and ImmutableX , is the quality to instrumentality this halfway exertion that allows you to get integrity of computation astatine standard and bring it to extremity users successful specified a palmy and effectual manor.”

The existent downturn successful the wider cryptocurrency markets has been a origin for concern, but the StarkWare co-founders judge their fundraising efforts awesome to the wider ecosystem that savvy investors spot a metallic lining, contempt a gloomy outlook.