NFT – ConsenSys, the NYC-based company behind the MetaMask wallet, closed $200m in USD financing round, bringing its valuation to $3.2 billion USD.
Backers included Marshall Wace, Third Point, ParaFi Capital, Think Investments, Dragonfly Capital, Electric Capital, Spartan Group, DeFiance Capital, Animoca Brands, Coinbase Ventures, and HSBC. Led by Joseph Lubin, Founder & CEO of ConsenSys and Co-creator of Ethereum, ConsenSys provides MetaMask wallet and other tools for consumers, enterprises, and developers to engage, build, and create on the decentralized web and make Web3 universally easy to use, access, and build on. MetaMask is the primary way a global user base of approximately 21 million monthly active users interacts with a universe of approximately 3,700 unique Web3 applications, which include NFT marketplaces, play-to-earn games, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and metaverse worlds.As a self-custodial wallet, MetaMask acts as a digital authority manager for Web3 — only permitting websites and apps to access data that a user consents to. Its in-app swap feature has enabled more than $10 billion USD in peer-to-peer token swapping. Additionally, MetaMask now supports Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 networks such as Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, zkSync, BSC, Celo, Avalanche, and NEAR/Aurora, which represents more than 90% of global smart contract network volume. An institution-compliant version of Metamask, MetaMask Institutional integrates custody and compliance solutions that enable organizations to access and engage in DeFi. ConsenSys is also ramping up its efforts to drive NFT adoption for artists, content creators, brands, rights owners, game publishers, and leagues.ConsenSys’ developer tools and infrastructure are anchored by Infura, which is used by 350k developers, including MetaMask and DeFi and NFT platforms. The company is integrating its other products with Infura to support the entire development lifecycle, such as Truffle (4.7 million developers) for writing and testing smart contracts, Diligence for securing smart contracts with hands-on code audits and automated testing tools, and Customer Success for tech support. ConsenSys Quorum Blockchain Service offers a fully managed Ethereum blockchain service to enterprises. It is already in use by 10 different Central Bank Digital Currency projects around the world. The company intends to use the funds for the expansion of MetaMask and Infura’s products as well as for the addition of 400 new roles across its products and services.18/11/2021
