NEAR raises $150m to drive Web3 adoption
The round was led by Three Arrows Capital, and backed by a string of crypto-native investors
NEAR Protocol has raised $150m (£110m) in a new funding round, and plans to use the new capital to develop its regional hubs and foster the adoption of Web3.
Several high-profile crypto investors participated in the round, which was led by Three Arrows Capital and backed by Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, A16z, Jump, Alameda, Amber Group, Circle Ventures and MetaWeb.vc.
According to the team, the funding will be used to accelerate the adoption of Web3 technologies, develop NEAR’s regional hubs and raise awareness for its global community.
$800m DeFi fund
In October 2021, NEAR launched an $800m global fund to help fund development initiatives through its ecosystem. $350m of the total capital is set to be put towards building its decentralised finance (DeFi) teams, with $100m allocated directly to its start-up Grant Pools, which will see 20 different start-ups receive $5m in funding to accelerate their growth.
The NEAR ecosystem will ultimately decide who gets the funding, the start-up confirmed in the announcement. Prior to this announcement, NEAR had already spent $45m across more than 120 projects.
“We are delighted to have such a fantastic list of backers supporting NEAR’s mission,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation. “We are looking forward to leveraging the funding to improve access to blockchain technology in an ever-growing list of countries across the world.”
“With [the] multichain interoperability of Rainbow Bridge, Aurora (EVM), Octopus (Substrate), and NEAR native’s Nightshade sharding technology, NEAR is best suited for empowering blockchain applications for mainstream adoption,” added Amos Zhang, founder of MetaWeb.vc.
Following the announcement, NEAR briefly traded at an all-time high of $20.19, but has since slipped back down to around $19, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
