Paradigm heads up StarkWare funding round

Cryptography startup StarkWare has closed a $30 million equity round, led by Paradigm.

It lines up alongside a number of new investors including Intel Capital, Sequoia, Atomico, DCVC, Wing, Consensys, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Collaborative Fund, Scalar Capital and Semantic Ventures. Existing investors Pantera, Floodgate, and Naval Ravikant also participated in the round.

StarkWare has developed the STARK zero-knowledge proof system and is now working to commercialise the tech. Its co-founders are Prof. Eli Ben-Sasson (Technion), Prof. Alessandro Chiesa (UC Berkeley), Uri Kolodny, and Michael Riabzev.

“We’ve assembled a world-class team of experts in zero-knowledge proof systems and engineering, to solve two of the main challenges in the blockchain space: privacy and scalability,” the venture says in a Medium post.

Paradigm’s Matt Huang will join StarkWare’s board of directors. “Paradigm was co-founded by Matt, formerly a Partner at Sequoia, and Fred Ehrsam, Co-founder of Coinbase. We’re proud to be the first investment Paradigm leads,” the Medium post concludes.