Layerzero Labs Secures $135 Million to Bolster Cross-Chain Interoperability

Layerzero Labs Secures $135 Million to Bolster Cross-Chain Interoperability

 

Layerzero Labs, the firm behind the interoperability protocol Layerzero, has revealed that it has raised $135 million in a Series A+ financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX Ventures, and Sequoia Capital. The new financing brings Layerzero Labs’ overall valuation to $1 billion, and the funds will be leveraged to develop cross-chain decentralised applications (dapps) powered by Layerzero.

The company, Layerzero Labs, announced it has secured $135 million in a Series A+ funding round. The funding round was led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures, and a16z, and the funding also saw participation from Uniswap Labs, Paypal Ventures, Tiger Global, and Coinbase Ventures. The financing also pushes Layerzero Labs to unicorn status, as the latest capital injection brings the company’s overall valuation to $1 billion.

"This round is a massive step forward for Layerzero Labs and the unfolding interoperability landscape," the CEO and co-founder of Layerzero Labs, Bryan Pellegrino, said in a statement.

"We’ve brought some of the best and most well-respected entities in the world together to accomplish the same goal: to create the generic messaging layer that underpins all interoperability between blockchains," Pellegrino added during the announcement.

Just recently, the startup launched Stargate Finance, a cross-chain liquidity transfer protocol that utilises Layerzero’s generic messaging technology. Layerzero Labs says that after the launch, Stargate "surpassed $3.4 billion in assets secured, and Stargate has sent over $264 million in transfers over Layerzero."

Stargate is interoperable with seven blockchains. This includes Arbitrum, Optimism, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Ethereum, Avalanche, Fantom, and Polygon.

"Composability is a defining characteristic in blockchain technology, which Layerzero enables," Ramnik Arora, an investor from FTX Ventures, explained.

Layerzero allows smart contracts on one chain to seamlessly and securely leverage the network of another chain, increasing the value of the entire blockchain ecosystem. The team is a rare combination of vision and technical execution, and we at FTX are honoured to have supported them this past year. 

Cross-chain technology has blossomed quite a bit during the last 12 months. Some of the largest decentralised finance (defi) applications like Curve Finance, Lido, Uniswap, Sushiswap, and Anchor leverage several blockchains. An estimated $21.63 billion in total value is locked across various cross-chain bridges to Ethereum.