Web3 infrastructure provider Alchemy snaps up Chainshot, its first acquisition

Alchemy, a web3 infrastructure platform backed by the likes of a16z, Coatue and Lightspeed Ventures, has announced its first acquisition, acquiring Ethereum developer education platform ChainShot.

ChainShot offers live and instructor-led Ethereum developer boot camps, according to a statement shared with The Block Thursday. The deal will allow Alchemy to build upon its education offerings which include its Web3 University.

“As for next steps, our goal is to make the integration of ChainShot’s programs and ours as smooth and seamless for students as possible,” said the statement. “We’re still ironing out how the pieces will come together, but one thing is certain: all of ChainShot’s course content that previously cost upwards of $3,000 will be 100% free.”

Founded in 2017 by Nikil Viswanathan and Joe Lau, Alchemy’s business model relies on offering application programming interfaces, or APIs, to companies looking to build out their blockchain services. These include APIs for node infrastructure, transaction history and NFT functionality among other use cases.

APIs allow businesses to more simply access each others’ systems and Alchemy’s have been used historically by crypto-native firms such as OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Axie Infinity. Recently it has onboarded newcomers to the crypto space such as Meta, Shopify and Adobe as interest in web3 swelled. In the last few months, it’s added Solana and Polkadot integration, amplifying its plethora of compatible blockchains.

The company most recently raised $200 million in a round led by Lightspeed and Silverlake at a $10.2 billion valuation in February of this year, only four months after it closed a Series C funding round. At the time, the company told The Block that it had yet to tap into reserves it built from previous raises.

The announcement comes amid a period of turbulence for crypto companies looking to pursue M&A opportunities. Last week, crypto and stocks investment company Robinhood more than halved its acquisition offer for UK fintech Ziglu.

Blockchain M&A transactions and dollar volume by year. Image: The Block Research

Despite the recent gyrations, crypto M&A deals continue to be on pace for a record year, according to a Q2 report from The Block Research.

© 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.

About Author

Tom is fintech reporter at The Block. Before joining the team, he was an editorial intern at the FT-backed platform Sifted where he reported on neobanks, payment firms and blockchain startups. Tom has a bachelors degree in International Relations and Japanese from SOAS, University of London.

Source: https://www.theblock.co/post/165681/web3-infrastructure-provider-alchemy-snaps-up-chainshot-its-first-acquisition?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss