July 25, 2024
aPriori, a liquid staking platform that operates on the Monad blockchain, has secured $8 million in a seed funding round spearheaded by Pantera Capital. The funding round also saw participation from other investors such as Consensys, OKX Ventures, CMS Holdings, ABCDE, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Flow Traders, Laser Digital, Chorus One, Everstake Capital, and Staking Facilities, as announced by aPriori.
Project | Latest Raise | Latest Raise Date | Stage | Lead Investor | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
aPriori | $8M | July 25, 2024 | Seed Round | Pantera Capital | Staking |
Additionally, angel investors like Spencer Noon of OurNetwork, Marc Tillement of Pyth Network, Robinson Burkey of Wormhole Foundation, TN Lee of Pendle Finance, and Zano Sherwani of Jito Labs contributed to the round.
The fundraising for the seed round was initiated in March and concluded in April, as shared by Ray S, the co-founder and CEO of aPriori. This round led to aPriori's fully diluted token reaching a valuation of at least $100 million, referred to as a "9-figure" valuation by Ray, who chose not to disclose details about the round's structure.
This seed round has increased aPriori's total funding to $10 million. The project had previously raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round last year, jointly led by Hashed and Arrington Capital. Initially, the project was developing a maximal extractable value (MEV) project associated with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain ecosystem, but later decided to concentrate solely on the Monad blockchain ecosystem, according to Ray.
About aPriori
aPriori, a company established a year ago by Ray, who has experience with Jump Crypto and Pyth Data Association, and Olivia Z, a former Coinbase employee, is developing a liquid staking platform powered by MEV on the Monad blockchain. This platform merges both staking and MEV benefits. MEV, or Miner Extractable Value, is the additional value that can be gained from producing blocks by optimizing transaction order, over and above the usual block reward and gas fees. According to Ray, aPriori aims to create an effective MEV marketplace on Monad that minimizes spam and enhances incentives for validators.
Website: https://www.apr.io/
About Investor
Investor: Pantera Capital
Pantera Capital is the first U.S. institutional asset manager that focuses exclusively on blockchain technology. Since its inception in 2013, Pantera has invested in digital assets and blockchain companies, providing investors with comprehensive exposure to the space.
The firm has a history of pioneering initiatives in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector. It launched the first cryptocurrency fund in the U.S. when bitcoin was valued at $65/BTC in 2013. Following this, Pantera launched the first blockchain-focused venture fund and was the first to offer an early-stage token fund in 2017.
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Website: https://panteracapital.com/
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