Analog, a blockchain interoperability project building cross-chain communications infrastructure, has raised $16 million in seed and strategic funding rounds.
Tribe Capital led the round, with participation from NGC Ventures, Wintermute, GSR, NEAR, Orange DAO, Mike Novogratz’s Samara Asset Group, Balaji Srinivasan and others, Analog said on Monday. Analog co-founder Victor Young told The Block that the company began raising funding in October and closed in December. Young said the funding was realized through a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT), adding that the round brings Analog’s fully diluted valuation to $120 million.
Young, a blockchain developer and investor, founded Analog in 2021 with Sanchal Ranjan, a Y Combinator-backed entrepreneur and current “Genesis Member” of Orange DAO. Young said Analog’s core team is based in Bangkok and Zurich.
Analog, a blockchain interoperability project
Analog is building cross-chain communication tools for interoperability across multiple blockchain networks. Core products include Timechain, a blockchain network based on the Rust language; Generic message passing protocol; A suite of Timegraph SDKs and APIs that enable the Analog Watch application builder, a product for developers, to construct applications across multiple chains.
Analog can be compared to Axelar or LayerZero, but Young said Analog is more developer-focused.
“Instead of relying on a third party like Oracle to achieve the desired functionality, we are building all the functionality needed for cross-chain development in a single toolkit,” he said.
Young added that because Analog is built on a substrate, new proof mechanisms will make Analog more upgradable than its competitors.
Analog testnet and mainnet launch
Analog’s public “incentivized” testnet is expected to launch late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter, Young said. The mainnet is expected to launch in the second half of the second quarter, he added.
Analog currently has 30 employees, and Young plans to use the new capital to hire more across a variety of functions, including engineering and business development.
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