In a series B funding round led by SoftBank Vision II fund, Illinois-based scalability solutions provider BloXroute on Tuesday successfully raised $70 million as it reaches a $410 million valuation.
The equity financing session also had crypto investments companies DragonFly and ParaFi Capital, financial service provider Lightspeed and virtual asset trading platform GSR amongst others in participation.
According to its CEO Uri Klarman, BloXroute will with the new funds increase its workforce to about 100 staff from the 30 staff it currently has as it continues to push for global user adoption. He also added that the funds will help improve the service it offers, providing a quicker transaction rate while decreasing congestion on its network and other blockchain networks.
The financing round also saw SoftBank’s Investment Director, Robert Kaplan become a member of BloXroute’s board of directors as part of the agreement.
The new funding round sees BloXroute amass $95 million in total funding to date. Its previous financing rounds were through simple agreements for future tokens (SAFT) sales as security tokens were in vogue at the time. It has since turned all its investors to regular equity holders as the legality for token-centered securities was unattainable, hence scrapping its plans to launch a token.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has funded 14 web3-focused businesses since it started financing firms in the space last year. Six of those investments happened this year, BloXroute inclusive. ConsenSys, Polygon, Aleo, FTX, and Blockdaemon have all enjoyed funding from the Tokyo-based outfit since the beginning of 2022.
According to SoftBank’s managing partner, Munish Varma, it focuses on building infrastructure, therefore, making the firm’s offerings increase as the adoption of blockchain soars. A strategy he tagged “pick-and-shovel approach.”
Aaron Wong executive at SoftBank acknowledges that BloXroute is vital to developing transaction rates, scalable blockchain, and reduced congestion in the blockchain environment. SoftBank is delighted to partner BloXroute in building a blockchain highway.
BloXroute, established in 2018, is a blockchain distribution network that lets digital currencies and blockchain speed up transactions thereby overcoming congestion on the network. It also allows users to put together profitable and strategic decisions as well as transmit Decentralized Finance (DeFi) information practically at the speed of light.
cmb.com 