Blockchain startup SKALE Labs secures $9.65M in funding led by Multicoin

Blockchain startup SKALE Labs has announced that it has raised $9.65 million in funding to develop blockchain scalability infrastructure.

The amount raised comprises of an $8.86 million Simple Agreement For Future Tokens (SAFT) led by Multicoin Capital and a $785,000 seed SAFT raised earlier this year. Other investors include Aspect Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, Boost.VC, Canaan Venture Partners, Galaxy Digital, FLOODGATE Fund, Hack.VC, Neo Global Capital, Signia Venture Partners, among others.

In its official release, SKALE Labs said that the funds will be dedicated towards launching the SKALE Network – a fully permissionless, opensource, peer-2-peer (P2P) network, and the SKALE Foundation – a nonprofit organization dedicated to the SKALE Network.

“SKALE will be the first implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) on a Plasma chain. Following launch, the SKALE Network plans to release a fully-functional, Ethereum-integrated TestNet in Q4 of 2018, followed by a MainNet in subsequent months,” SKALE said.

The company said that it has created a new infrastructure that accelerates decentralized applications (dApps) built on smart contract platforms by enabling smart contracts to execute in a Layer 2 environment. It will enable developers to instantly scale dApps to millions of transactions per second at significantly lower costs. The combination of SKALE and Ethereum gives dApp developers security, decentralization, and scale never before realized on decentralized networks, it added.

Kyle Samani, Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital, expressed his optimism for the startup saying:

"SKALE is Ethereum's best shot at fending off competition from other smart contract platforms. This is the first implementation of Ethereum Virtual Machine that will run on a Plasma chain. SKALE is uniquely positioned to dominate Layer 2 on Ethereum on other smart contract platforms facing similar scaling issues. We fully expect it to be a vital component of the Web3 stack."