Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Taiko has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round ahead of its mainnet launch.
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Taiko seeks to make Ethereum transactions cheaper while maintaining its core properties.
Taiko Raises $15M Ahead of its Mainnet Launch
Taiko, a blockchain project focused on scaling Ethereum announced during the weekend that it has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round.
According to the firm, this funding round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures and Token Bay Capital. Other investors in the round included Wintermute Ventures, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures and GSR.
Taiko didn’t reveal when the round was concluded. However, it pointed out that certain investments remain subject to regulatory approval.
This latest funding round comes less than a year after the project disclosed two funding rounds worth $22 million. It also comes as the project prepares for its mainnet launch. Taiko launched its sixth testnet last month and is set to launch its mainnet in the coming months.
Taiko is a Layer 2 scaling startup that seeks to make Ethereum cheaper while maintaining its core properties, such as being censorship-resistant, permissionless and secure.
The project is building a "Type 1" ZK-EVM — an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible ZK-rollup that supports zero-knowledge proof computation.
Taiko had previously planned to launch its mainnet in the first quarter of the year. However, co-founder and chief operating officer Terence Lam recently clarified that the launch will now take place before the end of Q2. He said,
“We definitely need to upgrade our Katla testnet to enable support for EIP-4844 and perform one more cycle of stress tests and security audits for the mainnet. The current outlook for completion of that is before the end of Q2."
The co-founder also revealed that Taiko intends to set up an ecosystem investment fund with its investors.
