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The latest funding round was led by SoftBank and saw Goldman Sachs increase its investment in the blockchain infrastructure start-up.
Blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon is to expand its presence in Galway over the next year after raising fresh funding.
On Tuesday (21 September), the company announced it had closed a $155m Series B funding round, making it “the world’s largest blockchain node infrastructure company”, it said. Blockdaemon reported a post-money valuation of $1.26bn, giving it unicorn status.
The round was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, joined by Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital. Existing investors including Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund and others returned.
Following the infusion of capital, the Irish Times has reported that company plans to hire 25 to 50 more people by the end of 2022 at its European HQ in Galway, where it currently has a staff of 10. The Galway office was opened in 2018 as a site to grow the the company’s engineering and R&D operations in Europe.
Founded in 2017 by Konstantin Richter, US-headquartered Blockdaemon provides a platform on which blockchains can be managed, with use cases ranging from cryptocurrency exchanges to banks. The company says more than $10bn worth of assets are staked via its infrastructure.
The latest funding comes just three months after the company closed a $28m Series A round.
Commenting on the news, Richter said: “This latest large infusion of capital is another major milestone for Blockdaemon and will ensure that we continue to revitalise existing financial infrastructure around the globe.
“We are committed to a future of decentralised financial infrastructure and accelerating the ease of integration to bridge traditional banking to the crypto ecosystem … We are deeply gratified to have the support and confidence of the financial, tech and VC titans who made this latest round possible.”
Oli Harris, head of digital assets in North America for Goldman Sachs, added: “Goldman Sachs is very pleased to continue our relationship with and investment in Blockdaemon as they continue to innovate for the financial services industry. We believe Blockdaemon has a key role to play in the future of blockchain and crypto adoption.”
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