Consensys raises $450m at $7bn valuation
Consensys, the company behind the Metamask wallet, has doubled its valuation in a matter of months with its latest bumper funding round.
Consensys today announced it has raised $450m (£344) in a series D round taking its valuation to $7bn, more than double its valuation at a $200m fundraise in November 2021. The funding round, which was led by Parafi Capital and included participation from Microsoft and the Softbank vision fund, comes after Metamask grew active monthly users to 30m in January – a 42 per cent increase in just four months.
Chief executive Joseph Lubin said the company, which launched in 2014, had capabilities to support the decentralised finance ecosystem from developer tooling, tokenization and wallets to DeFi , 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,” said Lubin.
“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.”
The company said its latest capital raise will support the expansion of Metamask with a major redesign scheduled for later this year as well as wallet integration with a wide variety of blockchain protocols and account security schemes.
With nearly 700 full time employees at present, ConsenSys’ hiring will surge this year as it is on track to scale to over 1,000 employees by the end of 2022.
“We believe ConsenSys’ ecosystem of simple to use, 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,” commented Neil Cunha-Gomes, investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers.
Read more: ConsenSys and Mastercard team up to deliver scalability to financial institutions