Polyhedra Network, the team behind zero-knowledge interoperability protocol zkBridge, today announced the closing of a $20 million strategic funding round, valuing the company at $1 billion USD. The round is led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands, Emirates Consortium, Mapleblock Capital, Hashkey Capital, UoB Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Longhash Ventures, MH Ventures, Arkstream Capital, and Web3Port Foundation, among others. This is the fifth round of financing conducted by Polyhedra Network over the past two years.
Polyhedra Network is an infrastructure company that utilizes zero-knowledge proofs as the foundation of its products, providing users with improved security, scalability, and trust-minimization. In the case of zkBridge, unforgeable zero-knowledge proofs are used to validate the state and consensus of the sender chain, which is then verified on the destination. To date, zkBridge has secured over 20 million cross-chain transactions between the 25+ blockchains it connects, which includes millions of messages sent using the LayerZero protocol.
The funds from this round will play an integral role in escalating Polyhedra Network’s continued growth by increasing the network’s employee base and exploring further global expansion. This expansion will allow Polyhedra Network to further cement its presence as the premier zero-knowledge institution and globally promote the adoption of trust-minimized interoperability.
Eric Vreeland, Chief Strategy Officer of Polyhedra Network, commented: “Blockchains were not architected in a way to efficiently process large amounts of computation and information. With the advancements we’ve made in the zero-knowledge proof space, we are no longer beholden to the speed and cost constraints that are slowing adoption. We continue to push the envelope in terms of what is possible, for example, proving the entire Ethereum consensus in under 8 seconds. With our ZK technology, developers no longer have to choose between performance and ease-of-use.”
The founding team, who met while studying cryptography and finishing their respective Ph.D. programs, quickly realized that zero-knowledge proofs offer a way to share information between networks that align with blockchain’s core ethos of decentralization. Since its founding, members of the Polyhedra Network team have authored over a dozen academic papers with findings that improve the performance of zero-knowledge proofs and open up applications previously thought impossible. Recently, the team announced its intention to create an interoperability protocol between the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems, an arduous task not yet conquered by the industry given Bitcoin’s lack of smart-contract functionality.
Vreeland concluded: “Blockchain technology is revolutionary because it allows for individuals and institutions to transact without a trusted intermediary. As blockchain usage continues to grow, technology that enables secure and highly scalable computation across multiple networks will be a necessity. Unlocking this without introducing additional trust assumptions is critical if we are to stay true to the values this industry was founded on. Zero-knowledge technology is the key to unlocking blockchain’s full potential.”
Investor Quotes:Â
Polychain Capital
“Polyhedra Network stands at the forefront of Web3 innovation. Their focus on trust-minimized interoperability and scalability using Zero-knowledge proof technology sets them apart and we believe they are not just creating infrastructure but architecting a more efficient and unified Web3. We are thrilled to support Polyhedra in their new round as they continue to shape the crypto landscape.” Luke Pearson, General Partner at Polychain Capital.
