Self-custody solution Safeheron raises $7 million, partners with MetaMask

Safeheron, a self-custody solution for small-to-medium enterprises in the web3 space, announced it has closed a $7 million pre-Series A round. 

Co-leading the round is early-stage VC firm Yunqi Partners and hybrid venture and hedge fund Web3Vision, according to a news release on Friday. Other investors include M77 Ventures, PrimeBlock Ventures and Waterdrip Capital. 

Singapore-based Safeheron was founded in 2019 by Wade Wang, Max He and Bruce Wang. The founding team is a collective of technology industry heavyweights with Bruce having spent years working in the technical teams at Tencent and Alibaba and Wade played a founding role in the creation of Damai.com, China’s largest concert ticketing e-commerce platform.  

This technical know-how helped Safeheron create a solution that makes it easier for crypto native small-to-medium businesses to adopt institutional grade self-custody security.  

Self-custody means enabling users to have complete control of their digital assets. This is typically managed through crypto wallets which store the addresses of crypto assets on the blockchain and manage the sending and receiving of assets.

Safeheron leverages multi-party computation (MPC) and a trusted execution environment (TEE) to provide increased custody security, per the release. 

MPC enables multiple devices to validate a transaction removing the potential for a single point of failure, while TEE enables a safe area within the processor to execute code related to the transactions. 

Partnering with MetaMask

In addition to the new fundraise, software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask is partnering with Safeheron to use its MPC technology to provide multi-factor authentication, according to the release.

MPC will first be integrated into the MetaMask Snaps system, which enables developers to expand the capabilities of MetaMask for their decentralized apps.

This means MetaMask users will now be able to use two or three verification devices to sign transactions, according to the release. In the near future, the MPC solution can support the Keystone hardware wallet, MetaMask desktop extension and MetaMask mobile, per the release.

Raising a pre-Series A

Safeheron’s pre-Series A is an add-on to the existing seed funding, according to a spokesperson. To date, Safeheron’s total funding is $9 million. 

The funds will be used to continue enhancing the technology and infrastructure as well as expanding Safeheron’s presence internationally, said Bruce Wang, co-founder and CTO of Safeheron, in an interview with The Block. 

“Custody security providers often compete for enterprise clients, shunning SMEs with unaffordable solutions,” said Yu Chen, partner at Yunqi Partners, in the release. “So, we’re excited to back Safeheron, who’s making the safeguarding of crypto assets with enterprise-grade custody security solutions more accessible.” 

This fundraising round and partnership announcement comes as the crypto industry grapples with several security breaches related to wallets and private keys, such as the Harmony blockchain losing $100 million when a hacker took control of the multi-signature wallet linked to its Ethereum bridge. 

This article has been updated to reflect that the Keystone hardware wallet, MetaMask desktop extension and MetaMask mobile will be supported in the near future.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.