Nebra, a cryptocurrency startup from England, has successfully raised $4.5 million in funding during their latest funding round. The round was led by Pre-Seed and Seed investments from Nascent and Bankless, with additional support from notable angel investors such as Tim Beiko, Kartik Talwar, Nick White, Sandy Peng, and Haichen Shen.
Nebra’s focus is on research and development of strategies to enhance privacy and scale blockchain technology using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). The company has been selected to participate in the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator as part of the CSX Spring 2024 cohort in London. The funds raised will be used for further research on the Shared Settlement Layer (SSL) of the internet, with the aim of reducing the high cost of proof settlement on Ethereum and other blockchains by advancing ZKP technology.
Zero-knowledge proofs offer a promising solution for on-chain privacy, but they can be expensive. In fact, during a stress test in 2023, UPA, a tool developed by Nebra processed an impressive 1,000,000 proofs within 36 hours. This demonstrates the potential for ZKP technology to be cost-effective and efficient for users across the blockchain ecosystem.
Dan Elitzer, co-founder of Nebra compares their mission to that of Google and Uber in their respective sectors. He envisions Nebra as a pioneering platform that brings economy of scale to blockchain ZKP settlements, offering cost-effective and efficient solutions for users across the entire blockchain ecosystem.
Overall, Nebra’s successful funding round highlights the growing demand for innovative solutions to enhance privacy and scalability in blockchain technology using zero-knowledge proofs.