Former Meta Employees Raise $150M to Build New Faster Blockchain

Blockchain focussed company Aptos Labs announced Monday that it had secured $150 million in funding to build cutting-edge technologies to improve blockchain and web3 experience for developers, the company announced Monday. 

The California-based startup was founded last year by former Meta employees after the company shut down its crypto project due to tightened regulatory scrutiny. 

Aptos Labs Receives $150 Million

According to the official announcement, the new funding was led by Jump Crypto and FTX Ventures, the investment arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s derivatives crypto exchange FTX.  

The investment round also received support from notable venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Multicoin Capital, and Circle Ventures. 

Aptos stated that the new funding is an opportunity to build reliable blockchain and web3 innovations that would improve the usability and socialization of the web3 ecosystem. 

“We are working with our strategic partners to identify consumer needs and address them by shipping the most performant and upgradable blockchain technology,” the firm said. 

Not the First 

Meanwhile, the latest funding makes it the company’s second seed round this year. In March, Aptos raised $200 million from industry investors, including FTX Ventures, moving its valuation to more than $1 billion. 

The firm said it is currently building faster and cheaper blockchain technology using the same programming language dubbed “Move,” which powered the now defunct Meta crypto company Diem. 

“We’ve known for a while that, due to issues like outages and downtime, current blockchains are not fit for purpose when it comes to mass web3 adoption. That’s why we’re building a blockchain to be the reliable foundation for web3 that ushers in users from around the world to experience the benefits of decentralization,” said Mohammed Shaikh, co-founder of Aptos Labs.

Meanwhile, Aptos is not the first company to raise funds amid the bear market.  In May, Coinfomania reported that a South Korean crypto disclosure firm Xangle closed $17 million in series B funding from existing and new investors. The company noted that the funding would be used to improve its products and offerings to strengthen its position in the industry. 

Source: https://coinfomania.com/former-meta-employees-raise-150m-for-blockchain/#utm_source=rss&%23038;utm_medium=rss&%23038;utm_campaign=former-meta-employees-raise-150m-for-blockchain