Initia Secures $14 Million in Series A Funding

Initia, a blockchain project focused on developing a Layer 1 network and a system for "interwoven optimistic rollups," has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.

Tomasz Tunguz's Theory Ventures led the round, with participation from Delphi Ventures and Hack VC. Notable angel investors included Keone Hon (Monad Labs), Bryan Pellegrino (LayerZero Labs), Zaki Manion (Sommelier Finance), Jordi Alexander (Selini Capital), and Michael Egorov (Curve Finance).

Initia began raising funds for the Series A round earlier this year, officially closing it in June, as co-founder Ezaan Mangalji (known as "Zon") revealed to The Block. The funding round was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, setting Initia's fully diluted token valuation at $350 million. This marks Theory Ventures' first equity and token investment in Web3 and follows its backing of projects like Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs and Sui developer Mysten Labs.

With this recent funding, Initia's total raised capital now stands at $22.5 million, which includes a $7.5 million seed round and a pre-seed investment from Binance Labs in October.

What is Initia?

Initia is focused on developing two primary products: a Layer 1 blockchain and a platform for interwoven optimistic rollups.

"We are holistically building a new multi-chain world across the architecture, product, and economic stacks using the Initia L1 and an interwoven system of L2s," Zon stated. "By designing an L1 alongside a network of interconnected L2s, Initia aims to create a system well-suited for a rollup-centric future."

The rollups in Initia's interwoven stack, called Minitias, are Cosmos SDK chains compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Move Virtual Machine (MoveVM), and CosmWasm's WebAssembly Virtual Machine (WasmVM). This versatility allows teams to customize transaction processing and ordering within the Cosmos SDK.

Currently, 12 projects are leveraging Initia's interwoven stack to develop their Layer 2 networks, having collectively secured over $13 million in funding, with notable projects including MilkyWay, Blackwing, and Civitia.

Initia's Mainnet and Token Launch Schedule

According to the project, Initia's public testnet, named The Initiation, concluded last month, achieving over 125 million transactions and nearly 3 million unique wallets. The mainnet and token launch are anticipated within the next two months.

Currently, about 40 individuals are part of the Initia team, with plans for expanding teams in marketing, business development, and developer relations.

Recently, Initia also acquired blockchain explorer Celatone and its team, Alles Labs, which supports various blockchains, including Sei, Osmosis, and Neutron, and will soon support Initia and all Layer 2 networks within its interwoven stack.

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