Telecommunication and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led a $155m series B round for US-based blockchain infrastructure platform developer Blockdaemon yesterday at a $1.26bn valuation.
The round was also backed by Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital and Lerer Hippeau.
Blockdaemon provides the blockchain node infrastructure for more than 40 blockchain networks including Ethereum 2.0, Bitcoin and Solana.
The series B proceeds will finance international expansion and recruitment activities across the UK, Singapore, Japan and Germany. The company also plans to make strategic acquisitions.
Nagraj Kashyap, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which manages Vision Fund 2, said: “We believe Blockdaemon is a foundational layer to the blockchain industry, providing a suite of easy-to-use infrastructure products and services to help power the world’s top crypto exchanges, custodians and funds.”
Blockdaemon closed a $28m series A round in June this year that was led by Greenspring Associates and which included cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital, crypto trading platform Uphold and Blockchain.com Ventures, a venture capital firm backed by crypto exchange operator Blockchain.com.
The series A also drew in capital from investment bank Goldman Sachs, crypto-based lender BlockFi, Warburg Serres, Illuminate Financial, Hard Yaka, Boldstart Ventures, Coinfund, Kenetic, CoinShares, Borderless Capital, Lerer Hippeau and Heavybit.
The company had received $5.5m from Blockchain.com, HashKey, CoinShares and Fenbushi Capital in May 2020, after Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of mass media group Comcast, had invested an undisclosed amount in April 2019.