Sequoia and a16z Lead $135 Million Investment In Crypto Firm Breaking Down Barriers Between Blockchains

Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz co-led a $135 million Series A+ investment in LayerZero Labs. The company had previously raised $2 million in seed funding and $6 million in Series A financing from Binance Labs, Multicoin Capital, and Sino Global Capital, among others. "We had conviction in a cross-chain future, but the technology to enable it was insufficient until we met LayerZero," says Michelle Bailhe, partner at Sequoia.

Ryan Zarick, LayerZero Labs' CTO and cofounder, describes the firm's key offering, the LayerZero protocol, which currently operates in beta version, as a messaging layer enabling direct cross-chain communication. LayerZero still has a bridge, called Stargate, but unlike prior projects, it relies on a namesake token to handle asset transfers, currently trading at $3. In less than two weeks post-launch, the bridge has sent over $264 million in transfers and accrued over $3 billion in total value locked.LayerZero currently supports seven networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, and Fantom, but that number is bound to grow.