Aligned Layer, a startup touted as a “common authentication layer for Ethereum,” confirmed on Sunday, April 14, that it has raised $2.6 million in seed funding.
Lemniscap, a seven-year-old firm that has backed a number of corporations within the crypto-blockchain area, led the hassle. The corporate led the $2.4 million funding spherical for web3 startup Safary earlier in January.
Bankless Ventures and Paper Ventures are additionally backing Aligned Layer, together with StarkWare, O(1)Labs and Ingonyama CEO Omer Shlomovits.
Aligned Layer introduced the capital enhance by way of social media. See under.
Aligned Layer is touted as the primary decentralized ZK Proof authentication layer for Ethereum. Additionally it is powered by Eigen Layer – a redraw mechanism that permits ETH stakers to reallocate their staked ETH and Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) to enhance safety for different protocols.
Aligned layer targets
The corporate will use the proceeds from the capital enhance to increase its operations and speed up the launch of Aligned Layer’s mainnet, scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.
As an infrastructure supplier, Aligned Layer strives to scale back prices and enhance velocity for builders constructing functions resembling L2s or Layer-2 networks.
“In the present day’s announcement is a testomony to our group’s shared dedication to creating Ethereum probably the most cost-effective and environment friendly platform for ZK authentication utilizing Eigen Layer,” mentioned Roberto José Catalán, co-founder of Aligned Layer in an announcement ready assertion.
The seed spherical additionally included participation from a number of angel buyers, together with Sreeram Kannan, Brandon Kase, Daniel Lubarov, DCbuilder, Chainyoda, Weikeng Chen, Sam Benyakoub, Lucas Kozinski and Peter Fittin (SizeChad). See under.
“At Aligned Layer, we strongly imagine that builders ought to have the ability to use the pilot system that most accurately fits their wants, with out being restricted by the settlement layer,” Catalán added.
The funds are anticipated to supply the corporate with enough scope to attain short-term objectives.
The Aligned Layer funding follows a busy week for crypto enterprise capitalists. For instance, New York-based Monad Labs scored $225 million in funding as a part of a spherical led by Paradigm. Monad is a layer 1 blockchain that’s suitable with the Ethereum Digital Machine, however can course of transactions quicker utilizing the identical algorithm.
There was additionally Bitcoin Layer-2 community Mezo. The startup raised $21 million in a funding spherical led by Pantera.
In line with PitchBook, world buyers poured $2.5 billion into crypto-related startups within the first three months of 2024.
Nevertheless, buyers are not warming as much as blockchain-related gaming corporations. In line with information from DappRadar, the trade has secured $288 million in financing for the primary quarter of 2024. That is a 57% decline in comparison with the earlier three-month interval.
