Initia, a blockchain project that announced a $14 million Series A funding round on Wednesday, raised $2.5 million in less than two hours on Thursday through Echo, an angel investor platform founded by well-known cryptocurrency trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie. Additional dollars were raised. Two sources with direct knowledge of the matter spoke to The Block.
Eco’s fundraising was conducted through a token purchase agreement, unlike Initia’s Series A, which consisted of a simple contract for future assets (SAFE) along with token warrants, the sources said. Notably, Initia’s Echo round was conducted at a $250 million valuation, 28.57% lower than the Series A’s $350 million valuation, the sources added.
Initia’s co-founders Ezaan Mangalji (“Zon”) and Cobie both confirmed Initia’s fundraising efforts to the Echo to The Block, but declined to comment on specific details about the fundraising.
Initia’s fundraising efforts through Echo
Launched in beta last April, the Echo platform allows cryptocurrency projects focused on decentralization to raise funding from a broader audience from the start, avoiding concentrated venture capital ownership.
Zon said cryptocurrencies have always been about public ownership, but in the past year there have been many projects with high insider supply, high fully diluted value, and low liquidity to the detriment of community users. He added that community participation is important for a sustainable ecosystem and that inclusivity must be a priority. That’s why Initia raised money through Echo.
He added that Initia has continued to make a “very conscious” effort to keep its internal supply low, raising only as much as needed for launch and “only selling 15% cumulatively to early contributors.”
As The Block reported earlier this week, Initia is developing two main products: a platform for optimistic rollups combined with a layer-1 blockchain. At the time, Zon said the product was designed for a “rollup-centric future.”
Initia: Echo’s largest single group allocation
It’s notable that Initia raised $2.5 million from Echo in less than two hours. Especially considering that the maximum investment per person is $5,000, this means that at least 500 people participated, the source said, adding that about 800 people participated in the round.
Initia’s fundraising was the first opportunity available to thousands on Echo, which is part of the platform’s largest group, The Echonomist, and one source said previous fundraising efforts had been through smaller groups.
Initia’s Echo fundraising is also the largest single group allocation to date, according to sources. They noted that Layer 1 blockchain developer Monad Labs raised the highest sum on Echo ($3 million), but that this was split across multiple groups and rounds.
“Echo has raised ~$20 million for various startups and new token projects,” Cobie told The Block. “I’m very happy with how it’s going, and with the founders (e.g. Zonny!) and group leaders who see the value of a fairer fundraising structure and reducing centralization as early as possible in the lifecycle. Echo still sucks ( To be honest, everything is still broken (because it’s been a few months since we just launched), but it’s slowly getting better and I’m grateful to the founders and users for being patient while we try to build things. . But don’t email us. Cheers Yogi, take care.” He made it a point to include his quote in its entirety, along with cheers.
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