Web3 messaging protocol company LayerZero Labs has recently reported a $120 million Series B investment at a valuation of $3 billion, reaching almost 3 times its valuation from the $135 million raised in 2022. With the funding, LayerZero seeks to expand its growth operation, consisting of hiring new employees, and establishing further presence within the Asia-Pacific region.

This investment constitutes a large scale deal in terms of crypto investments, due to the crypto bear market which has since caused a decrease in crypto-related investments. LayerZero, however, is an infrastructure-focused company, which gives it greater resilience in comparison to other crypto-enabled projects.

LayerZero provides a level of interoperability and cross-chain messaging infrastructure that enables decentralized application (dApp) developers to operate across multiple blockchains without the need of a middleman to facilitate these interactions. This means that their applications are able to be more complex and interactive in nature, since users can now easily implement values and assets between different blockchains.

Following their emergence in 2021 with a $6 million funding, LayerZero has handled over two million messages across 30+ blockchains, and has secured a total of $7 billion of Total Value Locked (TVL). As of now, LayerZero is being used by several on-chain platforms, such as Sushiswap, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and TraderJoe.

The co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, Bryan Pellegrino, expressed his satisfaction with the funding round and how it had corresponded to the goals that their team had set initially. "More than the money," said Pellegrino, "it was aligning ourselves with amazing partners that achieved our goals." The investors backing this round comprised of the crypto wing of Andreessen Horowitz, Christie’s auction house, Sequoia Capital, Samsung Next, BOND, Circle Ventures, and Open Sea Ventures.

LayerZero Labs provides a crucial connectivity between different blockchains that allows dApp developers to create complex applications, with a seamless experience between blockchains. Notably, it provides a utility that creates similarities between the type of connectivity the internet provides with that of connecting different blockchains. With a successful investment round of $120 million at a valuation of $3 billion, this project is looking to take a clear lead in the industry.



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