Crypto-focused Brave Browser seeks over $30M in funding round: Report

Brave, a free and open-source web browser developed by Brave Software Inc., is looking to pull in between $30 million and $50 million at a valuation of around $133 million in a Series A equity round, CoinDesk reported.

The Series A comes after the privacy-centric internet browser announced the launch of its advertising platform Brave Ads, which is built on privacy. It rewards users for viewing advertisements. Users will get 70% of the revenue share coming from the ads, and they will be paid in BAT (Basic Attention Tokens). As of writing, 1 BAT is equivalent to $0.347.

“With Brave Ads, we are launching a digital ad platform that is the first to protect users’ data rights and to reward them for their attention,” Brave CEO and co-founder Brendan Eich said.

Vice, HomeChef, Ternio BlockCard, MyCrypto, and eToro are the latest ad networks and brands to join Brave.

However, this is not the first time for the upstart web browser founded by the former Mozilla co-founder Eich to seek funding. In 2016, it raised $4.5 million seed rounds from investors such as Pantera Capital, Founders Fund, and Digital Currency Group.

In 2017, Brave made a distinguishable initial coin offering (ICO) as the sale of its ethereum-based BAT garnered nearly $35 million and was sold out in blocks in less than 30 seconds, as reported by CoinDesk. There were only about 130 people who bought the tickets, and five of them scooped nearly half of the supply.