ConsenSys To Convert $450 Million Recently Raised To Ether

Crypto companies have kept attracting venture capital investment in gargantuan sums. ConsenSys has announced the completion of a $450 million Series D funding round at a $7 billion valuation. This comes after the network’s NFT based platform recently secured $200 million in funding.

Ethereum builder ConsenSys will convert funds to ETH

In a press release today, the blockchain technology firm revealed the stellar lineup of participants in the fundraising. Led by ParaFi Capital, the round was backed by Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures – all new investors in ConsenSys.

Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management, and United Talent Agency’s venture fund (UTA VC) were among returnee investors from the last funding round held in November 2021. The raise has brought the valuation of ConsenSys to more than double its previous worth of $3.2.

ConsenSys’ plans for the funds are for three key aspects of its business. Noting that MetaMask had now reached a userbase of around 30 million monthly active users (MAUs), ConsenSys said the popular non-custodial wallet would see rapid expansion and a major redesign within 2022.

The funds will also be deployed to the development of Infura, ConsenSys’ developer tools service. Infura has also been getting more attention as it now boasts hosting more than 430,000 developers and has channeled more than $1 trillion in annualized on-chain ETH transactions.

Finally, ConsenSys plans to scale its workforce for global expansion. The firm plans to hire around 600 more employees to bring its workforce to 1000 strong.

Speaking about the funding round, the founder of ConsenSys, Joe Lubin reiterated the firm’s commitment to building on and supporting the Ethereum blockchain. To emphasize this resolve, he stated that the funds would be converted to ETH in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy.

Lubin added that future funding rounds would push to convince investors to become crypto natives.

 This round takes in digital assets as well as fiat and converts immediately to ETH. Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native to contribute ETH, Lubin said.

Web 3 firms have held VC investors spellbound

ConsenSys has not been the only web 3 focused firm to complete a multi-million dollar funding round recently. Recently Australian NFT startup Immutable announced a $200 million round that saw its valuation reach unicorn status.

Crypto exchange FTX as well had a highly successful funding round, raising $400 million at an $8 billion valuation. The massive investments point to more faith being put into the growth of the next iteration of the web through the global adoption of digital assets.