Based in Canada, LayerZero Labs, a developer of an omnichain interoperability protocol, raised USD 120 million in a Series B funding round that saw participation from 33 investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto fund), Circle Ventures, Sequoia Capital, OpenSea, Samsung Next, Christie’s, and BOND. 

The funds were raised at a valuation of USD 3 billion; triple its valuation achieved in its Series A round in March 2022. To date, the company has raised ~USD 294 million in funding.

It aims to use the fresh funds toward its growth initiatives, including hiring and expanding the company’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as in the Web3 gaming space.

Since its emergence from stealth in September 2021, LayerZero has processed over USD 6 billion in transactional volume. It currently connects to over 30 mainnet blockchains and has USD 7 billion in total value locked (TVL). It is used by many on-chain applications including popular decentralized exchanges such as PancakeSwap, Sushiswap, and Uniswap.

Analyst QuickTake: This fundraise is a positive sign for the Web3 infrastructure segment, as funding has been fairly sparse to it, owing to the “crypto winter.” The majority of recent funding has gone to startups in the blockchain gaming segment, which is viewed as the next area with strong user adoption.