Aligned Secures $34M Funding To Grow DeFi and Web3 Infrastructure

Key Insights

• Web3 infrastructure startup, founded by former Chief Strategy Officer of ConsenSys, emerged from stealth with $34 million in funding
• Aligned aims use the funding to grow its core products for Ethereum-compatible blockchains like layer-2 networks
• Web 3 infrastructure provider aims to the Amazon Web Services of web3

Web 3 infrastructure provider, Aligned Capital, has secured $34 million in a funding round, the company announced on Thursday.

Aligned Banking on DeFi Growth

Founded by the former Chief Strategy Officer of ConsenSys, Sam Cassatt, the Web 3 infrastructure provider has emerged from stealth with a $34 million funding round at an undisclosed valuation.

Several investors have backed the funding, including GSR, Altium Capital, Cavalry Fund, and Ninja4.

As per reports, there was no lead investor. Angel investors included ConsenSys alum and Darma Capital founder Andrew Keys, Gryphon Digital Mining executive Chris Ensey, entrepreneur Steve Wiggins, former ConsenSys, and PayPal employee Ron Patiro. The funding round was primarily used to expand Aligned Capital’s high-performance computing footprint.

This equity funding round was aimed to help Aligned expand its web3 infrastructure. Aligned currently offers computing hardware for mining cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH) and other activities. Interestingly, Aligned eventually hopes to become the Amazon Web Services for web3.

Shedding light on the recent funding, Cassatt said:

“We are buying silicon, manufacturing and installing the custom hardware that we produce with that silicon, as well as expanding our HPC (high-performance computing) team. Most of this hardware will go into our primary data center and will be expanding to more soon.”

Furthermore, Cassatt noted that the startup’s hardware and infrastructure allow it to build services similar to cloud services business; its benefits are designed for the needs of web3 projects.

Crypto and DeFi Growth Attracting VCs

Aligned’s founder believes that the growth in DeFi would continue as demand continues to grow. Data from Defilama highlighted that demand for DeFi has skyrocketed over the last year, with total value locked in DeFi protocols rising by over 230% from $55.36 billion to $186.55 billion.

Furthermore, the growth of proof-of-stake blockchains has increased the demand for staking and validators. Notably, some of the top PoS blockchains include Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, and VeChain.