As evidence that web3 is not a passing fad, blockchain infrastructure startup Alchemy announced today that it has closed a $200 million Series C1 equity round, valued at $10.2 billion.
Lightspeed, an existing investor, led the latest round, and Silver Lake joined as a new investor. Previous investors such as a16z, Coatue, Addition, Pantera Capital, and DFJ also took part.
According to Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy, the company’s goal is to make blockchain development more accessible by providing developers with tools and infrastructure. Alchemy has powered over $105 billion in annualized on-chain transactions to date.
“We believe we’re just in the first inning of Web3 and blockchain, and we’ll be using this new round of financing to double down and continue to invest in the ecosystem that we all share,” he wrote in the announcement.
What is remarkable about this increase is the speed with which Alchemy has managed to increase its valuation in such a short period of time. After a $250 million Series C round in October, the startup was valued at $3.5 billion (a 191% jump). After an $80 million Series B investment, the startup was valued at $505 million in late April 2021.
Alchemy has reinvested in the ecosystem by launching a number of new products and sectors, including Web3 University, Alchemy Ventures, and NFT API.
Alchemy’s clients have included crypto-native firms such as OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Axie Infinity, but the company’s future growth — and current valuation — is dependent on newcomers to the crypto space.
According to Viswanathan, the launch of NFT APIs, which effectively make it easier for companies to bridge their existing apps to the NFT space, resulted in an influx of thousands of new clients.
The growing fundraising stream of blockchain infrastructure demonstrates that web3 and DeFi are not a passing fad as another previously reported blockchain platform, Aleo raised $200 million from SoftBank.
