ConsenSys raises $450 million Series D funding at $7 billion valuation

NEW DELHI: ConsenSys, a US-headquartered ethereum and decentralized protocols software company, has closed a $450 million financing round, taking its valuation to $7 billion. 

ParaFi Capital led the round, having participated in ConsenSys’s Series C round in November last year and was joined by new investors, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures. 

Series C investors — Third Point, Marshall Wace, True Capital Management, and UTA VC, United Talent Agency’s venture fund — also participated in this round.

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as ConsenSys’ legal advisor in this transaction.

ConsenSys is creating the foundational software for the next wave of the Internet, Web3.

Proceeds from the round will be converted to ethereum (ETH) to build on ConsenSys’s “ultra sound money” position as a rebalance to its ETH to fiat ratio in line with the company's treasury strategy. ConsenSys has long maintained a significant treasury of ETH, stablecoins and other crypto tokens, and actively uses own financial infrastructure, such as MetaMask Institutional and Codefi Staking, to put these assets to work in DeFi protocols and via staking in anticipation of ethereum’s upcoming merge to Proof of Stake.

Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of ConsenSys, said, “I think of ConsenSys as a broad and deep capabilities machine for the decentralized protocols ecosystem, able to rapidly capitalize at scale on fundamental new constructs that emerge, such as developer tooling, wallets, security audits, DeFi, NFTs, Layer-2 scaling, DAOs, and more. This view has resonated with our crypto native and growth investors in a Series D that will enable us to execute exciting growth strategies.”

Funding will also support the rapid expansion of MetaMask with a major redesign scheduled for release later in 2022, as well as the roll out of a plug-in extensibility system that will allow integration with a wide variety of blockchain protocols and account security schemes. This roadmap expansion also builds on ConsenSys’s recent acquisition of MyCrypto, which will enable MetaMask to bolster its industry-leading security infrastructure and create a cohesive user experience across desktop, mobile, extension, and browser wallets.

The funds will also be used to accelerate global adoption of Infura’s development toolsuite as well as ConsenSys’s efforts to drive NFT adoption for artists, content creators, brands, intellectual property owners, game publishers, and sport leagues.

Neil Cunha-Gomes, investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, “We’re delighted to partner with Joe and the team in their mission to power access to the decentralized web. We believe ConsenSys’ ecosystem of simple, neutral, and secure Web3 products continues to foster unprecedented levels of engagement and we’re excited to help them take Web3 adoption to the next level.”