Axelar, a platform that connects the blockchain ecosystem, closed a $35M Series B funding round, reaching a $1 billion valuation. The blockchain platform was launched in 2020 by cofounders Georgios Vlachos, a founding team member of the Algorand blockchain, and Sergey Gorbunov, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
The latest round included investments from crypto asset investment firm Dragonfly Capital, US investment company Polychain Capital and blockchain VC fund Rockaway Blockchain among others. According to the company, the funding will be used to support its expansion, following on a previous $25m Series A last year.
“Our primary focus is to provide universal interoperability with minimal risk. The funds will be used to continue building the core network functionalities, and scaling integrations with more blockchains and applications”, Sergey Gorbunov, CEO and co-founder of Axelar, told The Recursive.
Canada-based Axelar also plans to launch Satellite (Beta), a decentralized app built on top of the Axelar network, which enables users to transfer assets between a range of blockchain networks including Ethereum, Terra, Avalanche, and Moonbeam. Axelar’s network also consists of a protocol suite, tools, and APIs that can ease cross-chain communication.
“Axelar developers are also working to make the network easy to use so that developers on any blockchain can reach the deepest liquidity and broadest user base. With this in mind, we are dedicating resources to improving our APIs, SDKs and associated documentation,” Gorbunov tells The Recursive.
For Axelar’s investors, the main advantage that Axelar offers is its interoperability stack which is positioned to connect blockchain and decentralized applications in the ecosystem.
“It empowers developers to make the best decisions on where to host their applications while unlocking access to distribution and liquidity with the entire space. The team is making amazing progress on this journey, and we’re glad to continue supporting them”, Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, said in a statement.
“Axelar serves as a highway between blockchains and ultimately will be a one-stop platform abstracting the complexity of inter-blockchain communication into a simple SDK”, The CIO of Rockaway Blockchain Fund’s CIO Dusan Kovavic emphasized.
