Blockchain startup Initia raises $7.5m to build 'network for interwoven rollups'

Blockchain infrastructure startup Initia has secured $7.5 million in a funding co-led by Delphi Ventures and Hack VC.

In an X thread on Feb. 27, Initia said it has raised $7.5 million in seed financing to work on its testnet, which is scheduled for launch in Q1 2024. In addition to Delphi Ventures and Hack VC, other investors like Nascent and Figment Capital have also joined the funding.

Although Initia has not publicly disclosed details of the round, reports indicate the funding was a SAFE agreement with a token warrant.

The startup says it has “carefully designed” the so-called Initia Vested Interest Program framework to distribute native INIT rewards and “align the interests of users, developers.” With the proceeds, Initia wants to eliminate barriers to entry “for both users and liquidity while providing a unified UX to seamlessly navigate thousands of interwoven rollups.”

Founded by ex-developers from Terra and Cosmos, Initia appears to be trying to build “the Apple App Store [but for crypto] so thousands of users should have really easy access to these applications,” Initia’s co-founder Stan Liu told TechCrunch in an interview.

The company, based in Singapore, currently employs 20 team members worldwide. With the funding, Initia plans to develop a platform that eliminates the need for multiple tokenized altcoins, which arise on Ethereum due to bridges and protocols, explained the other co-founder Ezaan Mangalji.