Over $20 million is raised by Nillion to create new web3 infrastructure

The web3 startup Nillion, which aims to create a decentralized network that is not based on a blockchain, closed an oversubscribed round of more than $20 million, the firm exclusively revealed to TechCrunch.

According to Andrew Yeoh, the company’s founding chief marketing officer, “Nillion is a deep technical infrastructure project.” Nillion intends to decentralize everything else and the rest of the data, whereas blockchains decentralize finance.

The business wants to deliver a brand-new internet infrastructure for protecting data computation and storage. Companies and rivals can work together without sharing sensitive information, according to Yeoh.

The team’s main scientist, Miguel de Vega, developed a mathematical technique called Nil Message Compute (NMC), which is used in its decentralized network. (The business refers to NMC as a “new cryptographic primitive” in its white paper, which roughly translates to “new technique of storing and safeguarding stuff.”)

Despite not being blockchain-based, Nillion’s platform does contain a decentralized component, therefore in TechCrunch’s opinion, it comes under the broader web3 umbrella. The group’s early papers suggest that it will eventually have a token; more generally, it can be considered as a mechanism to offer decentralized computer power.

When compared to the blockchain, Yeoh noted, “Nillion enables for very quick computations of secured data and storage of that data.” “We view it as opening up a completely new world of web3 use cases that dramatically widens the ecosystem.”

With almost 40 people and no prior finance, the firm was established in November 2021 and has operated solely on its own resources up to this moment. Along with former workers of Uber, Indiegogo, and Hedera Hashgraph, the founders also include Coinbase and Nike executives.

Distributed Global took the lead in the round. AU21, Big Brain Holdings, Chapter One, GSR, HashKey, OP Crypto, and SALT Fund are more investors. According to Nillion CEO Alex Page, over 150 investors took part in the financing, which was a “conscious effort” to avoid consolidated ownership.

We could have supported this ourselves for decades, but Yeoh said, “We wanted to bring in great strategic investors and a pool of people that could assist this thing expand to a very large size.” In the midst of a bear market, we were able to raise a sizable sum of money. We did it without a deck, which is also remarkable, because the majority of our checks and commitment came in after FTX.

Yeoh thinks that this capital raise illustrates the industry’s interest in web3 infrastructure and practical use cases in the wake of the crypto bear market and the FTX crash. “We are constructing infrastructure that is necessary. If web3 or anything else cannot manage private data, they will never become widely used.

According to Yeoh, the funds would be used to develop network technologies and hire skilled engineers. He noted that Nillion has so far authorized over 30 letters of intent.

In addition to a few layer 1 [blockchains] interested in managing private data on the blockchains, we’ve spoken to decentralized exchanges, applications, and exchanges. We’ve spoken with AI machine learning businesses, been invited to speak at Amazon, and curiously enough, we’ve received a lot of contact from legal and healthcare companies because they deal with a lot of sensitive data.

In the near future, Nillion intends to concentrate on constructing and supporting genuine use cases while simultaneously launching its network and its initial lineup of goods.

At the time, Yeoh observed, “It’s like owning an iPhone in 2007, which was wonderful but really only had the camera app, mail app, and messaging app.”

The startup will have an entire prototype in two weeks. It will become a public network in 2023 and go live by the end of the following year, Yeoh said. The long-term strategy is to “not lose sight” of its goal of creating use cases and resolving societal issues.