Just four months after raising a $100 million Series C, cryptocurrency crimefighter Chainalysis announced Friday that it has secured an additional $100 million in funding, doubling its valuation to $2 billion.
The Series D was led by crypto-focused VC fund Paradigm, while existing backers Addition and Ribbit doubled down on their previous investment. Billionaire entrepreneur Marc Benioff’s investment fund TIME Ventures also participated in this latest round, which brings the startup’s total funding raised to $265 million.
Founded in 2014, Chainalysis’ data-driven investigations and compliance platform helps hundreds of government agencies and private businesses around the world detect and prevent cryptocurrency crime and money laundering. The company’s stated goal is to build trust in blockchains to “promote more financial freedom with less risk.”
Co-founder and CEO Michael Gronager says Chainalysis operates under the belief that, eventually, every company will use the blockchain to conduct their business.
“We’ve collected more information about what happens to blockchains than anyone in the cryptocurrency industry. That information enables our customers to make better data-driven decisions,” Gronager said in a statement. “Our partners at Paradigm share our vision and understand that the data Chainalysis provides will enable accelerated adoption of cryptocurrency.”
This investment from Paradigm and the others is Chainalysis’ third round of funding in less than a year, and comes at a time of massive growth both for the company and the cryptocurrency industry. Over the last year, the company claims that both its annual recurring revenue and client base has more than doubled. Meanwhile, the U.S. government recently reported that we are in a “cryptocurrency spring fever,” and Bitcoin hit a record price of more than $61,000 earlier this month (but plunged 9 percent days later).
Either way, Paradigm’s co-founder Fred Ehrsam indicated in a statement that, overall, cryptocurrency adoption is growing, and that the VC firm sees Chainalysis as a clear leader that will “enable the future of money.”
To get there, Chainalysis plans to use this fresh funding to continue to invest in its compliance software, as well as build new data products for its expanding customer base. The company also plans to hire hundreds of new employees across all departments in 2021, with more than 20 open tech positions available at its NYC headquarters.
