Fermah, a NYC-based universal proof generation layer, raised $5.2M in Seed funding.
The round was led by a16z CSX fund and Lemniscap with participation from Bankless Ventures, Longhash Ventures, P-OPS team, Public Works, ZK Validator, Lambda Class, Daedalus, Zero DAO, Velocity Capital, and Daemon Ventures, as well as angels including former Coinbase CTO and a16z GP Balaji Srinivasan; Celestia’s Mustafa Al-Bassam (CEO) and Nick White (COO); Co-founders of Polygon, Sandeep Nailwal, Jaynti Kanani, and Daniel Lubarov; as well as Aztec’s Zac Williamson (CEO) and Claire Kart (CMO); and several others.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate product development and team expansion.
Led by Vanishree Rao, CEO and Founder, Fermah is a universal proof generation layer which functions as a marketplace, where the supply side comprises GPUs and FPGAs. On the demand side, it can generate proofs for any instance in which ZK is used.
Fermah aggregates demand from various sources, allowing suppliers to leverage economies of scale, enabling a reduction in costs for proof generation. In turn, the range of use cases that can practically leverage ZKP technology expands – creating a growth of the aggregate demand for proofs, and hence enabling further economies of scale to lower costs. This makes the economics of ZKPs viable across a much broader range of use cases. When combined with Fermah’s several technical breakthroughs, Fermah enables the first efficient marketplace for ZK proof generation.
Commenting on the news, Vanishree Rao said: “I’m extremely optimistic that Fermah will revolutionize the ZK space as we know it. With the right team, backers, and experience, we’re poised to bring our vision to fruition. Soon, incorporating zero knowledge into applications will be frictionless. After over 15 years of building ZKPs, I can clearly see that we are approaching an inflection point: the infrastructure is finally in place, and we’re on the precipice of a boom in innovative ZK applications. Fermah will play an integral role in this boom.“
FinSMEs
18/09/2024