Microsoft Backs Web3 Firm ConsenSys In $450M Raise

March 15, 2022

ConsenSys closed a $450 million USD financing round, bringing its valuation to over $7 billion USD. ParaFi Capital led this raise after participating in ConsenSys’ Series C round in November 2021. They were joined by new investors, including Temasek, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Microsoft, Anthos Capital, Sound Ventures, and C Ventures. Series C investors — Third Point, Marshall Wace, TRUE Capital Management, and UTA VC, United Talent Agency’s venture fund — also participated in this round. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as ConsenSys’ legal advisor in this transaction.

ConsenSys has been a pioneer in creating the foundational software for the next wave of the internet, Web3. Our mission is to unlock the collaborative power of communities by making DAOs, NFTs, and DeFi universally easy to use, access, and build on.

The acceleration of Web3 adoption globally is also illustrated by the rise of leading self-custodial wallet, MetaMask, which now supports more than 30 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs), growing by 42% in only four months. A global user base relies on MetaMask to mint and collect NFTs, join DAOs, and participate in DeFi protocols. The United States, the Philippines, Brazil, Germany and Nigeria represent some of MetaMask’s most active markets.

The proceeds from the round will be converted to ETH to rebalance the ratio of ETH to USD-equivalents in line with ConsenSys’ treasury strategy. This further builds ConsenSys’ “ultra sound money” position in advance of Ethereum’s upcoming merge to Proof of Stake. ConsenSys has long maintained a significant treasury of ETH, stablecoins and other crypto tokens, and is actively using its own financial infrastructure, such as MetaMask Institutional and Codefi Staking, to put these assets to work in DeFi protocols and via staking.

Joseph Lubin, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys said, “I think of ConsenSys as a broad and deep capabilities machine for the decentralized protocols ecosystem, able to rapidly capitalize at scale on fundamental new constructs that emerge, such as developer tooling, tokenization, token launches, wallets, security audits, DeFi (1.0, 2.0 and beyond), NFTs, bridges, Layer-2 scaling, DAOs, and more. This view has resonated with our crypto native and growth investors in a Series D that will enable us to execute powerful growth strategies. This round takes in digital assets as well as fiat and converts immediately to ETH. Next round will be our ‘Series ETH’ where we will assist investors in getting fully crypto native to contribute ETH as a symbol of and commitment to the ongoing paradigm shift.”

Funding will also support the rapid expansion of MetaMask with a major redesign scheduled for release later in 2022, as well as the roll out of a plug-in extensibility system that will allow integration with a wide variety of blockchain protocols and account security schemes. This roadmap expansion also builds on ConsenSys’s recent acquisition of MyCrypto, which will enable MetaMask to bolster its industry-leading security infrastructure and create a cohesive user experience across desktop, mobile, extension, and browser wallets.

ConsenSys will also accelerate the global adoption of Infura’s development tool suite as well as ConsenSys’s efforts to drive NFT adoption for artists, content creators, brands, intellectual property owners, game publishers, and sports leagues. Infura now counts 430,000 developers and in excess of $1 trillion in annualized on-chain ETH transaction volume supported through Infura’s Ethereum API.

With nearly 700 full time employees at present, ConsenSys’ hiring will surge this year as it is on track to scale to over 1,000 employees by the end of 2022. ConsenSys maintains a core objective to be an industry leader when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, partnering with organizations like Work180, CryptoChicks and the Black Women Blockchain Council. Since September 2020 ConsenSys has increased gender balance in the workforce from 19% to 25% as of December 2021. Its belonging scores also continue to trend up, reaching 91% in the latest survey. ConsenSys is proud to be a major driver of the transformation to the “age of community.”

“ConsenSys has emerged as one of the most important companies in the blockchain space,” said ParaFi Capital Founder and Managing Partner, Ben Forman. “In particular, MetaMask is the gateway for over 30 million users to access web3 and DeFi applications every month, making it one of the most widely used blockchain products in the world for consumers and businesses. As a long-time power user of ConsenSys’ products and services, ParaFi is thrilled to be an investor and thought partner as the company continues to operate at the forefront of decentralized infrastructure.”

Neil Cunha-Gomes, investor for SoftBank Investment Advisers said, “We’re delighted to partner with Joe and the team in their mission to power access to the decentralized web. We believe ConsenSys’ ecosystem of simple to use, neutral, and secure Web3 products continues to foster unprecedented levels of engagement and we’re excited to help them take Web3 adoption to the next level.”