Solayer Labs Secures $12 Million Seed Funding

Solayer Labs, the developer behind the Solana SOL restaking protocol Solayer, successfully raised $12 million in a seed funding round led by Polychain Capital. Other notable investors included Big Brain Holdings, Hack VC, Nomad Capital, Race Capital, ABCDE, and Arthur Hayes’ family office Maelstrom, as reported on Tuesday.

The funding round, which closed in May, was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants. According to co-founder Rachel Chu, this investment round has boosted Solayer’s valuation to $80 million.

Earlier this month, Binance Labs confirmed its investment in Solayer as part of the same $12 million funding round. Additionally, last month, Solayer disclosed a pre-seed funding round from angel investors, which included Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

What is Solayer?

Solayer is a Solana restaking protocol inspired by Ethereum’s pioneering restaking protocol, EigenLayer. Restaking enables users to earn extra rewards by re-locking their staked assets in various protocols, referred to as actively validated services (AVSs), thereby maximizing earnings.

Recently, Jito, another Solana liquid staking protocol, entered the restaking space with the Jito Foundation releasing code for Jito restaking, compatible with various staked assets, including JitoSOL and other liquid staking tokens.

When asked about Solayer’s distinctions from other restaking platforms, Chu clarified: “Unlike EigenLayer and Jito, which initially focus on exogenous AVSs (like cross-chain bridges oracles), Solayer starts with native Solana on-chain dApps, assisting them in reserving block space and prioritizing transaction inclusion based on delegated stake amount.”

For native Solana (SOL) restaking, Solayer first converts SOL into an intermediary form named sSOL-raw, the liquid staking token issued by the stake pool manager. Following another interaction with the Solayer restaking pool manager, the sSOL-raw is then converted to sSOL.

Within weeks of its launch, Solayer claims to have restaked over $186 million from around 104,500 depositors, making it the 13th largest protocol on Solana, according to DeFiLlama.

Solayer Plans and Token Launch

With new funding secured, Solayer aims to expand its team, incorporate new protocols, and prepare for phase two of its platform. Currently, eight individuals are part of the San Francisco-based team, with plans to hire more across various functions, including growth, institutional partnerships, and engineering.

Solayer is also in the process of designing its native token, anticipated for a future launch.

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