ConsenSys Raises $450M At A $7B Valuation
In January MetaMask exceeded 30M monthly active users accessing Web3 applications, a 42% increase in 4 months
The latest raise values ConsenSys at over $7 billion USD, more than doubling its valuation since its $200 million Series C raise in November 2021. All proceeds from the round will be converted to ETH to rebalance the ETH to USD-equivalents ratio in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy.
Some notable highlights from the announcement:
In January MetaMask exceeded 30M monthly active users accessing Web3 applications, a 42% increase in 4 months.
Infura is the leading Ethereum development platform, with 430,000 developers and in excess of $1 trillion in annualized on-chain ETH transaction volume supported through Infura’s Ethereum API.
Funding will support the hiring of over 600 new employees globally, and continued reinvestment in development and tooling for the extended Ethereum ecosystem.
ParaFi Capital led this raise after participating in ConsenSys’ Series C round in November 2021. They were 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.
I find UTA’s involvement in the Series C and D rounds rather interesting as the social token and NFT space continues to gain momentum and will be leveraged significantly by UTA’s roster of tier-1 actors, musicians, and athletes.
The acceleration of Web3 adoption globally is also illustrated by the rise of leading self-custodial wallet, MetaMask, which now supports more than 30 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs), growing by 42% in only four months. A global user base relies on MetaMask to mint and collect NFTs, join DAOs, and participate in DeFi protocols. The United States, the Philippines, Brazil, Germany and Nigeria represent some of MetaMask’s most active markets.
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, tokenization, token launches, wallets, security audits, DeFi (1.0, 2.0 and beyond), NFTs, bridges, 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 powerful growth strategies. This round takes in digital assets as well as fiat and converts immediately to ETH. Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native and contributing ETH as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift.
– Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys
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.
ConsenSys will also accelerate the global adoption of Infura’s development tool suite as well as ConsenSys’s efforts to drive NFT adoption for artists, content creators, brands, intellectual property owners, game publishers, and sports leagues.
-ethan
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