Thirdweb, a London-based startup that develops toolkit for Web3 products, has raised a Serie A funding of $24 million after reaching valuation of $160M by Shopify, Coinbase and Haun Ventures.
Web3 products include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organization (DAOs) and blockchain games. The new Web3 toolkit planned by Thirdweb will provide features like decentralised logins, smart contracts and publishing options. It will not only support blockchains but also attract new users by bringing the Web3 products to mainstream.
The recent investment will help Thirdweb increase hiring and acquire business prospects to achieve its objective.
Our hypothesis has been that although there are fluctuations people who are building projects in the long term will continue regardless of the crypto or macro outlook.
Steven Bartlett, CEO, Thirdweb
Quick Success
TechCrunch quoted Thirdweb CEO Steven Bartlett as saying that his startup has developed NFTs, DAOs and games with the help of over 80,000 developers in its nine months of existence. Some of these developers come from companies like Afterpay and New York Fashion Week, while others are independent creators. The company has also deployed some 150,000 smart contracts across six blockchains.
“Cheaper fees is the straightforward answer,” he said, explaining what makes Polygon the most popular.
“We saw what hard work it was to build the application from the ground up. We realized we could release as a product what we’d built to work on our own app. We wanted to provide blockchain developers with the same kind of easy-to-use infrastructure, and tools, that they have in Web2,” Bartlett said.
What’s in Future?
Speculation around the future of Web3 is rising around the globe, though Thirdweb believes it won’t affect its business.
“The surprising thing is that the builders have continued building. Our weekly growth activity hasn’t slowed down and has continued to increase. Our hypothesis has been that although there are fluctuations people who are building projects in the long term will continue regardless of the crypto or macro outlook,” Bartlett said.
Our mission is to accelerate the next generation of the internet and we believe thirdweb will play a critical role in realizing that.
Katie Haun, CEO, Haun Ventures
Shopify’s Strategy
Shopify and Coinbase Ventures strategically partnered with Haun Ventures, which led the Serie A funding round for Thirdweb. Coinbase is already working with Thirdbase, which allows users to build NFTs using Coinbase NFT.
According to Bartlett, Shopify is seeing Thridweb not only “as an investment but also a partner”. For the e-commerce platform, Thirdweb is developing an integration that will help Shopify merchants to showcase web3 products along with other products displayed on their online stores.
Introducing @HaunVentures, a firm built for the next generation of the internet. We’ve raised $1.5 billion across two funds to invest in web3. An exciting first step, but the real work begins now. https://t.co/tBeE4OEJkD
— Kathryn Haun (@katie_haun) March 22, 2022
“Our mission is to accelerate the next generation of the internet and we believe thirdweb will play a critical role in realizing that,” Katie Haun, founder and CEO of Haun Ventures, stated.
“As complexity to develop in web3 continues to increase, the experienced team at thirdweb led by Furqan and Steven have built an elegant solution that allows developers to build fast while avoiding costly mistakes. I’m pleased to see proven founders of this caliber dedicating their next chapter to crypto and look forward to supporting their efforts,” she added.
