Sei, a commerce-focused layer-1 blockchain, has raised $30 million, Sei Labs co-founder Jayendra Jog revealed. He told TechCrunch that the round is worth $800 million.
Trading-Focused Blockchain Sei Raises $30M
While many layer 1 blockchains offer general-purpose networks for developers to build, Sei focuses on crypto trading networks through its chain. The team is made up of former Goldman Sachs, Databricks, Robinhood, Google, and Nvidia employees.
“Our mission is to build the best infrastructure for exchanges. It’s not just DeFi, but other [applications] that derive demand from trading.” – Jog said, adding that the blockchain also has projects building games, NFT marketplaces and rollups.
The capital will be used to gain the right strategic partners and to expand the firm’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Jog also added that the blockchain is still in the public testnet stage and plans to launch the mainnet later this year, preferably in the second quarter. Blockchain uses a testnet period to run and test a project on the network before fully launching.
“From our side, we had ample runway,” Jog said. Sei raised a $5 million seed round in August 2022, but said the primary goal for this round wasn’t “just focused on capital, but to get the right set of partners.”
Among other investors in the new round are Jump Crypto, Distributed Global, Multicoin Capital, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Flow Traders, Hypersphere Ventures and Bixin Ventures. In September, Sei launched a $50 million liquidity and ecosystem fund to support new DeFi applications on its platform.
“The blockchain has over 120 projects building on its blockchain. Its latest public testnet attracted about 3.6 million unique users and processed over 35 million transactions in less than a month in mid-March,” the company said.
“There will be a lot of crypto-native adoption, but there need to be applications that are more general and super inclusive for there to be greater adoption,” Jog explained.
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