Chia Network, a US-based blockchain technology developer backed by design consultancy IDEO, has raised $61m in a funding round co-led by Richmond Global Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, Bloomberg reported today.
Breyer Capital, Slow Ventures, True Ventures, Cygni Capital, Collab+Currency, DHVC and private investor Naval Ravikant also took part in the round, which valued Chia at approximately $500m, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Chia Network is developing a blockchain and smart transaction platform using a proprietary cryptocurrency called Chia Coin.
The company’s algorithm relies on proofs of space and time, whereby users allocate unused space on their hard drives to cryptographic numbers. New coins are released to the user when the blockchain broadcasts a challenge and finds the numbers on the user’s drive.
Chia claims its approach is more energy-efficient than proof of work, an approach popularised by Bitcoin that requires computers to solve increasingly complex mathematical equations to mine coins.
However, the constant writing to disk has led to reports that SSDs are burnt out within as little as six weeks, down from an expected lifetime of around a decade.
Chia previously secured some $16m altogether, according to VentureBeat.
IDEO backed a $5m funding round for Chia in August 2020. The round was led by Slow Ventures and also included Collab Crypto, Ravikant and unnamed others.
Ravikant had led a $3.4m seed round in March 2018, when Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Ventures, DHVC and DCM also contributed.
