Blockchain startup LightLink raises $6.2m as cryptocurrency VC activity shifts
Ethereum layer-2 blockchain LightLink secured $6.2 million in funding during an extended seed round.
Institutional and individual investors participated in the effort.
“No further rounds planned [at the moment],” the company stated in a social media post on Saturday, April 6.
LightLink extended the seed round due to high demand from investors. The startup ended up receiving an additional $1.7 million in the process. ‘
The company plans to use this influx of capital to support its vision of a web3 ecosystem accessible to millions while advancing proprietary technologies for gasless transactions.
Roy Hui, LightLink’s co-founder and CEO, expressed enthusiasm about the investment, highlighting the company’s commitment to practical blockchain solutions.
Our mission at LightLink is to make blockchain practical and accessible. This investment will help us continue building a Web3 ecosystem for millions of users from our enterprise partners and enhance our proprietary technology for gasless transactions.
Roy Hui, LightLink CEO and co-founder
The extended seed round saw participation from prominent venture capital (VC) firms such as MH Ventures and NxGen, alongside contributions from individual crypto investors like Eric Cryptoman and Satoshi Stacker.
LightLink reportedly records about 115,000 daily transactions and enjoys a strategic alliance with Animoca Brands.
Additionally, one of its upcoming initiatives is the launch of its LL token, backed by a liquidity bootstrapping pool. The move is designed to ensure equitable distribution and efficient price discovery within the LightLink ecosystem, which facilitates instant, gasless transactions for dapps and enterprises.
The company’s successful seed round comes against a backdrop of renewed VC interest in the crypto space.
According to data gathered by Crypto Koryo, venture capital funding in crypto projects has surged by 38% since Q4 2023.
Crypto Koryo’s data indicated that the number of crypto projects receiving VC funding also increased by 49%.
Venture firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, OKX Ventures, and Paradigm led major investment rounds in the first quarter of 2024.
In March alone, crypto VC funds invested over $1.1 billion across 180 crypto startups, with a focus on infrastructure and decentralized finance projects.
This upward momentum in VC funding mirrors the trend seen in the fourth quarter of 2023, which observers say indicates a positive outlook for continued growth and innovation in the crypto space.