PUERTO RICO, Feb. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aligned, a prominent new DeFi and Web3 infrastructure company, announced today it has raised $34 million. The funding news propels the firm out of stealth as it brings to market a suite of Web3 infrastructure products and services to support decentralized finance (DeFi), a market valued at $186.55 billion today. Aligned delivers a robust suite of product offerings, including solutions for mining and high performance computing, staking and liquidity provisioning, while supporting decentralization through an immutable, full-stack infrastructure for DeFi. Aligned is designed to support a future built on natively decentralized technologies, such as Zero-knowledge proofs, which will reduce reliance on centralized infrastructure with single points of failure.
Aligned was founded by Sam Cassatt, former Chief Strategy Officer at ConsenSys and a notable investor and early Ethereum adopter. Aligned has been in development since 2020, quietly amassing a reputable team with decades of experience in high performance computing, data center management, Web3 infrastructure, telecoms, and asset management, and includes crypto-native DeFi builders and power users. With deep expertise across Web3 tech and financial services, Aligned brings an impressive track record of developing and implementing cutting-edge blockchain solutions.
Aligned has raised $34 million from a variety of institutional investors including crypto market maker and ecosystem partner GSR, Altium Capital, Cavalry Fund, and Ninja4, a group of private investors including notable executive, film producer and sports agent Happy Walters. In addition, Aligned received investment from individual investors including prominent entrepreneur and investor Steve Wiggins, Gryphon Digital Mining executive Chris Ensey, ConsenSys alum and DARMA Capital founder Andrew Keys, and Ron Patiro, who led PayPal's Experimentation Program.
Aligned’s funding will enable the firm to grow its core offerings, which include advanced solutions for mining, staking and liquidity provisioning for Ethereum compatible blockchains, including Layer 2 networks, as well as for prominent blockchains and new emerging architectures.
Mining & High Performance Computing
Aligned has created proprietary, state of the art hardware and software that leverage programmable silicon (FPGAs) and highly configurable chips for the next generation of on-chain computation to mine tokens such as ETH, while providing hardware acceleration and cloud services to other Web3 protocols. Aligned is collaborating with industry leaders to create high performance computing infrastructure that is faster, more efficient, and purpose-built to meet the demands of the growing decentralized ecosystem.
Staking
Projected to become a $40 billion market by 2025, staking is the next generation of mining. As the industry continues to witness the compounding growth of proof-of-stake blockchains, the demand for staking and validators is exponentially increasing. With its proprietary core infrastructure, Aligned’s architecture is designed to stake at significant scale, helping organizations maximize the return on their investments by generating cash flows from staking.
Liquidity Provisioning
DeFi protocols require liquidity to operate, which Aligned provides for bootstrapping various protocols. Similar to market making, liquidity provisioning can be achieved by leveraging smart contracts rather than hardware or centralized exchanges. Aligned is committed to enabling on-chain liquidity provisioning and to date has supported the deployment of 15,000 ETH (nearly $40 million) across the DeFi ecosystem. Aligned is working with projects like investment DAO NeptuneDAO to strategically deploy the liquidity that promising new decentralized applications need to jumpstart their platforms.
“We see Aligned as Web3’s answer to AWS. We are building custom hardware, tooling, and infrastructure at every layer of the stack, which enables us to support decentralized networks and leverage the crypto assets needed to operate decentralized tech. This all goes towards creating massive upside for our clients. We are thrilled to have the support of like-minded investors who understand the opportunity to create a more perfect business model for running Web3 infrastructure. Our team has ambitious plans to optimize every layer of blockchain, from data centers to DeFi applications, and this fundraise is just the beginning of a breakthrough year for Aligned and our partners,” – Sam Cassatt, founder and CEO of Aligned.
With its early mover advantage and world-class team, Aligned is enabling rapid adaptivity and scalability in the DeFi space. For more information, please visit aligned.co.
Media Contact
Kara Miley, kara@serotonin.io
