Blockchain Startup Dfinity Raises $102M USD To Build Internet Computer

Blockchain, Investing, News | August 30, 2018 By:

Blockchain startup Dfinity has raised $102 million in an investment round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s new a16z Crypto branch and Polychain Capital. Other investors in round include SV Angel, Aspect Ventures, Village Global, Multicoin Capital, Scalar Capital, and Amino Capital, KR1, as well as Dfinity community members.

The latest funding brings Dfinity’s total capital intake to nearly $200 million, including a $61 million investment round in February which also saw Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain invest.

Dfinity aims to create a scalable decentralized cloud where smart contract software can run and is conceived as a sister network for ethereum. Dfinity claims to allow transactions on its network to be finalized in 3-5 seconds, far faster than bitcoin or ethereum. The ultimate goal of the company is to reinvent computing by replacing large platforms like Amazon Web Services and Salesforce with a cheaper, decentralized alternative.

“The Internet Computer is a public infrastructure that aims to host the world’s next generation of software and services,” said Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of Dfinity. “The platform provides a novel means to develop and host new software systems where R&D costs can be 90% lower, yet hosted systems are far more secure since the Internet Computer is unhackable, and are always available, highly interoperable and better able to preserve the privacy of confidential data.”

Dfinity said the additional funding will help support development of the Dfinity network and related technologies. It added that it will continue public demonstrations of its technology through 2018, with the launch of initial public network towards the end of the year.

“We are excited to back Dfinity’s Internet Computer and their vision to host the world’s next generation of software and services on a public network.” said Chris Dixon, Partner at a16z Crypto. “The Internet Computer is on track to become a critical piece of the future technology stack. This is groundbreaking and a real testament to Dominic and the incredible team at Dfinity.”