Ava Labs Aims to Raise $350M; Valuation Set At $5 Billion

Avalanche Blockchain’s lead developer and crypto startup, Ava Labs revealed that it is in the process of securing $350 million in funding, according to Bloomberg News.

The prospective funding round, according to an anonymous source close to the deal, would give the company a $5.25 billion valuation and make it one of the world’s most highly valued crypto startups. Adoption of the blockchain has been gaining momentum since the Avalanche Summit was hosted in Barcelona last month.

Avalanche apps

Launched at Cornell University in 2018, Avalanche subsequently launched its blockchain in September 2020. As more mainstream blockchains like Ethereum saw usership soar over the past few years, this came with increasing inefficiency, as networks became overloaded and gas fees mounted.

Avalanche continues to hold itself out as an alternative smart contract blockchain offering high speeds and low transaction costs.

The blockchain currently has almost 250 apps operating on it, according to DappRadar, ranging from decentralized finance to gaming. Avalanche’s corresponding token AVAX is up 10% over the past month, trading around $75 with a market capitalization of $20 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Recently, Terraform Labs expanded its reserve assets to include AVAX, swapping $100 million worth of LUNA tokens for AVAX tokens on April 7.

Previous funding rounds

Last month, The Avalanche Foundation revealed an incentive program that would designate up to four million AVAX tokens, currently worth $312 million as of press time, towards its Avalanche Multiverse.

Back in September, Avalanche closed a $230 million token sale led by Three Arrows Capital and Polychain. The company currently has 170 employees, according to private capital database PitchBook.

A year following its 2018 launch, Ava Labs raised $6 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain. In 2020, the company raised another $12 million through a private token sale, which included Bitmain and Galaxy Digital.

What do you think about this subject? Write to us and tell us!