ConsenSys, a New York-based Ethereum software web3 company, announced that it has closed a $450M in a Series D funding round, taking its valuation to $7B, nearly double the valuation since its $200M Series C raise, in November 2021.
ParaFi Capital led this raise alongside other existing investors, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures.
Existing investors such as Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management, and UTA VC, United Talent Agency’s venture fund, also participated in this round.
How will the funding be used?
All proceeds from the round will be converted to Ethereum (ETH) to build ConsenSys’ “ultrasound money” position as a rebalance to its Ethereum to fiat ratio, in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy.
The funding will also support the rapid extension of MetaMask, with a major redesign scheduled for release later in 2022, as well as the rollout of a plug-in extensibility system that will allow integration with a wide variety of blockchain protocols and account security schemes.
ConsenSys will also accelerate the global adoption of its Infura’s development tool suite as well as efforts to drive NFT adoption for artists, content creators, brands, intellectual property owners, game publishers, and sports leagues.
The company is also planning to hire over 600 employees globally in addition to the 700 full-time employees at present.
Joseph Lubin, Founder, and CEO of ConsenSys says, “I think of ConsenSys as a broad and deep capabilities machine for the decentralised protocols ecosystem, able to rapidly capitalise at scale on fundamental new constructs that emerge, such as developer tooling, tokenization, token launches, wallets, security audits, DeFi (1.0, 2.0 and beyond), NFTs, bridges, Layer-2 scaling, DAOs, and more.”
He adds, “This view has resonated with our crypto native and growth investors in a Series D that will enable us to execute powerful growth strategies. 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 as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift.”
Creating the foundation for Web3
Ethereum is the largest programmable blockchain in the world, leading in business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. Joseph Lubin founded ConsenSys in 2014 to create the foundational software for the next wave of the internet, Web3.
ConsenSys enable developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web.
Currently, the company’s product suite includes Infura, Quorum, Codefi, MetaMask, Truffle, and Diligence.
Notably, global users rely on MetaMask to mint and collect NFTs, join DAOs, and participate in DeFi protocols. In January, MetaMask exceeded 30M monthly active users accessing Web3 applications, a 42% increase in 4 months.
Since September 2020 ConsenSys has increased gender balance in the workforce from 19% to 25% as of December 2021. Its belonging scores also continue to trend up, reaching 91% in the latest survey.
Investor
Based out of Connecticut, ParaFi Capital is an alternative investment firm focused on blockchain and decentralised finance markets.
“ConsenSys has emerged as one of the most important companies in the blockchain space,” said ParaFi Capital Founder and Managing Partner, Ben Forman. “In particular, MetaMask is the gateway for over 30 million users to access web3 and DeFi applications every month, making it one of the most widely used blockchain products in the world for consumers and businesses. As a long-time power user of ConsenSys’ products and services, ParaFi is thrilled to be an investor and thought partner as the company continues to operate at the forefront of decentralized infrastructure.”
Neil Cunha-Gomes, investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers says, “We’re delighted to partner with Joe and the team in their mission to power access to the decentralized web. We believe ConsenSys’ ecosystem of simple to use, neutral, and secure Web3 products continue to foster unprecedented levels of engagement and we’re excited to help them take Web3 adoption to the next level.”
