‘Encrypting the rest of the world’: Sovereign Labs raises $7.4M in round led by Haun Ventures

On Monday, it announced its first $7.4 million funding round for Sovereign Labs, a startup hoping to make blockchain applications run faster and more efficiently.

Cem Özer, CEO and co-founder of Sovereign Labs, said in a statement, “Our mission is to bring people all over the world into cryptocurrency.

He and another co-founder and CTO, Preston Evans, are building a developer interface that enables programmers to more quickly create blockchain applications that run on zero-knowledge proofs.

Their project may not seem as high-profile as a new NFT drop or new crypto exchange announcement, but in the wake of FTX’s demise, blockchain infrastructure has been overhyped and grabbing headlines. It is attracting renewed attention from investors wary of start-ups. Chris Ahn, partner at Haun Ventures, said: luck.

Haun’s investment in Sovereign Labs follows a recently announced injection of capital into the company focused on underlying Web3 technology. Blockstream, a cryptocurrency mining and infrastructure company, announced last week that he has raised $125 million to expand his business. Also, another crypto infrastructure company, QuickNode, announced his $60 million injection on the same day, raising his estimated valuation to $800 million.

Sovereign Labs’ round may pale in comparison, but the cash inflow told Evans. luckwill allow the company to expand beyond three employees, including co-founders, and complete a developer kit prototype in the coming months.

“Zero-knowledge proofs allow mobile phones to easily verify the work of an entire data center. Evans added. “At Sovereign Labs, we build tools that regular developers can access.”

Ahn of Haun Ventures agrees. “Building a scalable network without sacrificing decentralization is one of the biggest opportunities in cryptocurrency,” he said. “Zero-knowledge could very well be the technology that helps us achieve this goal.”