Alchemy manifests $250m in funding

Alchemy, a US-based blockchain development platform backed by Stanford University, raised $250m in series C funding last month.

Venture Capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round and was joined by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Coatue Management, DFJ, Addition and Pantera Capital in the round. It valued the company at $3.5bn.

Founded in 2017, Alchemy provides development tools and infrastructure to create blockchain applications across a number of functions such as cryptocurrency and non-fungible token transactions. It claims its revenue has grown 15-fold over the past six months.

The company will use the proceeds from the round to continue supporting its global expansion, increase developer access to its tools and build out more educational resources.

Coatue and Addition co-led an $80m series B round for Alchemy in April this year featuring Stanford as well as electronics manufacturer Samsung, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and avatar development technology provider Genies.

DFJ Growth, K5 Global, the Chainsmokers, Pantera Capital, SignalFire, Communitas Capital and private investors Charles Schwab, Reid Hoffman, John Hennessy and Jerry Yang also backed the series B round.

Stanford and its StartX accelerator took part in a Pantera Capital-led $15m series A round, disclosed when it emerged from stealth in 2019. Coinbase, Samsung, SignalFire, Kenetic, Dreamers VC, Mayfield Fund and several angel investors also invested at the time.

According to a regulatory filing, the company had previously raised $18.9m in funding in May 2019.

Joe Lau, Alchemy’s chief technology officer, said: “Blockchain is still at the very beginning, and we are thrilled to have partners like a16z who share our commitment to unlocking the potential of blockchain for developers and users everywhere.”

– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.