Key Points
- Ethereum Layer 2 development project Taiko has secured $15 million in a Series A funding round.
- Taiko is preparing for its mainnet launch following the successful testing of its sixth testnet.
Taiko, a project dedicated to scaling Ethereum, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, and GSR. The completion of the round is still subject to regulatory approval.
This announcement comes nine months after Taiko disclosed two previous funding rounds worth $22 million. The timeline, structure, and valuation of the current round have not been disclosed. Taiko is preparing to launch its mainnet in the coming months, following the launch of its sixth testnet.
Understanding Taiko
Taiko is a Layer 2 scaling startup that aims to make Ethereum cheaper while preserving its core properties, including censorship resistance, permissionless access, and security. The project is developing a “Type 1” ZK-EVM, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible ZK-rollup that supports zero-knowledge proof computation.
The ZK-EVMs aim to be fully and uncompromisingly Ethereum-equivalent, not altering any part of the Ethereum system to facilitate proof generation. Taiko’s sixth testnet, Katla, launched in January, has seen more than 1.1 million wallet addresses and over 13 million total transactions.
Taiko’s Future Plans
Taiko plans to develop a “based booster rollup” in the future, designed to address the issue of liquidity fragmentation by enabling developers to deploy on Ethereum and scale across all Layer 2s natively.
The mainnet was initially planned to launch in the first quarter of this year. However, further upgrades and security audits have pushed the projected completion to the end of Q2. The team, currently comprised of around 40 individuals, is planning to expand across various functions, including engineering, community, and ecosystem growth.
In addition to team expansion, Taiko also plans to establish an ecosystem investment fund with its investors. The amount for this fund is yet to be finalized. In December, Taiko announced an allocation of approximately $30 million for its second round of the grants program.
