Buying and selling-focused blockchain Sei raises $30M, bringing valuation as much as $800M

Sei, a layer-1 blockchain centered on buying and selling, has raised $30 million at a valuation of $800 million, Jayendra Jog, co-founder of Sei Labs, solely informed starcrypto.

Whereas many Layer-1 blockchains present general-purpose networks that builders can construct on high of, Sei focuses on the crypto buying and selling community by its chain. Its crew is made up of former staff from Goldman Sachs, Databricks, Robinhood, Google and Nvidia.

“Our mission is to construct the very best infrastructure for exchanges,” Jog mentioned, including that the blockchain additionally has tasks constructing video games, NFT marketplaces and rollups. “It’s not simply DeFi, however different [applications] that derive demand from buying and selling.”

The agency raised capital to achieve the “proper strategic companions, particularly going into mainnet,” Jog mentioned. The cash may also be used to develop its presence within the Asia-Pacific area, he added.

The blockchain remains to be in its public testnet section and plans on launching its mainnet later this yr, hopefully within the second quarter, he added. Blockchains use testnet durations to run and check tasks on their community previous to a full launch.

“From our aspect, we had ample runway,” Jog mentioned. Sei raised a $5 million seed spherical in August 2022, however mentioned the first purpose for this spherical wasn’t “simply centered on capital, however to get the fitting set of companions.”

Buyers within the new spherical embrace Soar Capital, Distributed International, Multicoin Capital, Uneven Capital Companions, Circulate Merchants, Hypersphere Ventures and Bixin Ventures.

In September, Sei launched a $50 million ecosystem and liquidity fund to help new DeFi functions on its platform.

The blockchain has over 120 tasks constructing on its blockchain. Its newest public testnet attracted about 3.6 million distinctive customers and processed over 35 million transactions in lower than a month in mid-March, the corporate mentioned.

“There will likely be numerous crypto-native adoption, however there have to be functions which can be extra basic and tremendous inclusive for there to be larger adoption,” Jog mentioned.