Solana Labs has raised $314 million in a private token sale round. The development team intends to use the funds to start an incubation studio to develop a faster blockchain.
Solana raises $314 million from a16z, others
Cryptocurrency startup Solana announced earlier today that it had raised $314 million in a private token sale round. The Solana blockchain is one of the leading decentralised application networks in the world.
Solana raised funds via a private token sale. The token sale round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Polychain Capital. Solana revealed that the other participants are Alameda Research, CMS Holdings, Multicoin Capital, CoinShares, Jump Trading, Sino Global Capital, and more.
The startup has expected to raise anywhere from $300 million to $450 million from the token sale. With the funds obtained, the team would launch an incubation studio that would make it easier and faster to develop projects on the Solana blockchain. The team would also launch a venture investing division for the Solana ecosystem.
The Solana network is growing
The Solana network is one of the fastest-growing in the cryptocurrency space. The ecosystem already houses over 90 projects, including Raydium, Serum, and Pyth Network. Although it is becoming popular in the DeFi space, it is still small compared to Ethereum. Current, the total value locked (TVL) by Ethereum projects is nearly $60 billion, while Solana projects have a TVL of less than $1 billion.
The fund could allow Solana to boost its DeFi ecosystem. Polychain Capital’s managing partner Olaf Carlson-Wee stated that “In our view, Solana is a compliment to Ethereum,” he said. “We’re thrilled to see strong developer activity and a continually expanding community grow around the project.”
The $314 million raised by Solana is its highest to date. The startup raised $20 million in a Series A funding round two years ago and another $1.8 million last year.
