Polymer Labs Raises $23 Million to Develop IBC

Polymer Labs raises $23 million in Series A funding round

Polymer Labs announces a $23 million Series A funding round to support the development of its layer-2 solution.

In line with the core values of blockchain tech, global decentralization is core to our ethos @Polymer_Labs. We continue to diversify the intellectual depth, geographic breadth, and number of investors.

With this raise, we now have 69 total investors across 15 countries.
🧵1/2 https://t.co/Na27HfnY8r

— Peter (@0xPeterK) January 23, 2024

Leading the funding round are Blockchain Capital, Maven 11, and Distributed Global, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Placeholder, Digital Currency Group, North Island Ventures, and Figment Capital. The latest funding round brings Polymer’s total investor count to 69.

Polymer previously successfully raised $3.6 million in a Seed round two years ago. The project plans to launch the testnet for its layer-2 solution in March 2024.

Continuing Development

With the new financial resources, Polymer Labs intends to expand its team (currently around 30 members) and aims to launch its mainnet later this year. The Polymer team comprises individuals with backgrounds in major corporations such as Google, Citadel, McKinsey, Amazon, Verizon, EY, and Uber.

Polymer is characterized as a modular layer-2 network utilizing Cosmos SDK’s IBC protocol, OP stack’s settlement functionality, and Eigenlayer’s data availability layer. It was founded by Bo Du and Peter Kim.

Having worked in the blockchain industry for several years, the Polymer founders recognized the challenges of building interchain products. In the summer of 2021, they decided to shift their focus to addressing blockchain interoperability, abandoning their side projects.

Related: What is Cosmos the Internet of Blockchains ?

Initially considering designing their own interoperability protocol, they eventually chose to adopt the Cosmos SDK’s Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, as it had already undergone years of design and architecture. IBC facilitates secure communication between different blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem, ensuring the secure transfer of information among separate operating chains.