CertiK Raises $60m In New Funding in Two Weeks
Nicholas Otieno Apr 25, 2022 09:45
The new fund comes just two weeks after CertiK mopped up $88 million Series B3 round as the blockchain company continues to beef up its business offerings.
CertiK, a web3 and blockchain security company based in New York, announced on Friday that it raised an additional $60 million just two weeks after it raised $88 million in a Series B3 funding round. The latest funding gives CertiK a valuation of $2 billion.
The new round is an extension of the Series B3 seed funding as there was demand from investors. Ronghui Gu, the CertiK co-founder, talked about the development and said: “Series B3 is oversubscribed. Considering the enthusiasm of investors, we managed to facilitate this extension."
SoftBank Vision Fund and CertiK's existing investor Tiger Global are the only two backers who participated in the extension round. The extension was SoftBank’s first investment in CertiK.
CertiK mentioned that it intends to use the latest funding to expand its team and product offerings. The company’s current headcount is about 200, and it has various open positions, including in its engineering and business development roles.
CertiK's valuation has doubled in just three months because of an increase in cryptocurrency hacks that have led to increased demand for security infrastructure by blockchain firms and other financial institutions.
Just within this year, over $1 billion in cryptocurrency has been lost as a result of major DeFi hacks, including the Ronin Network and Wormhole. The attacks have happened even after projects have been audited by companies such as CertiK.
Gu defended the auditing review exercise by stating: “An audit by CertiK is not a ‘certificate’ or an ‘endorsement’ that a project is safe from hacks. It is just a report of vulnerability findings with recommendations.
The executive further elaborated: "CertiK or any other auditor provides audit scope around a particular contract, meaning the audit relates to a particular contract or version of code of a project. Projects can fork their code, update their code or decline to remediate issues in their code after an audit is complete. This results in a persistent or new risk, which in some cases results in a hack."
Detecting And Preventing Crypto Attacks
CertiK raised $88 million in its Series B3 funding round early this month. The firm planned to use the funds to develop new products and “a one-stop security platform for the entire web3 world.”
The move by the firm comes as the demand for blockchain security has risen as the cryptocurrency industry faces extensive losses of funds due to exploits and fraud.
Founded in 2018 and based in New York, CertiK’s mission is to secure the web3 world. The firm is a major provider of blockchain security services. It leverages best-in-class AI technology to protect and monitor blockchain protocols and smart contracts.
To date, CertiK has protected more than $300 billion worth of crypto assets for 2,500 enterprise clients through its fraud investigation and auditing services, including other offerings. The company’s revenue increased 12x, and profits rose 3,000 times in 2021.
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