Avail, a blockchain infrastructure initiative focused on enhancing the Web3 ecosystem’s interoperability and scalability, has successfully closed a US$27 million seed funding round.
The investment was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Dragonfly, with additional contributions from other venture capital firms and angel investors. Avail, which originated from Polygon Labs, is now an independent entity co-founded by Anurag Arjun and Prabal Banerjee to address fragmentation issues within the blockchain space.
The funding will primarily support the development of Avail’s three key products, collectively known as the “Avail Trinity,” which includes Data Availability (DA), Nexus, and Fusion. These components are designed to accelerate the unification of Web3 by providing a scalable data availability layer, a central hub for verification, and enhanced security through Fusion Security.
The Avail Trinity aims to facilitate a more modular and secure design space for blockchain projects, with a focus on layer-2 rollups, which are essential for blockchain scaling.
Avail’s approach to improving the Web3 ecosystem involves leveraging Polkadot’s Substrate technology and employing a nominated proof-of-stake (nPOS) consensus mechanism to promote broad stake distribution. The project is currently operational on a testnet and is seeking additional funding before its mainnet launch.
The DA component is expected to be released in early Q2, around April, while Nexus and Fusion Security are slated for later releases. Avail’s DA aims to address rollup scalability and ensure secure data availability using zero-knowledge technology, while Nexus will serve as a verification hub for rollups, and Fusion Security will provide extra security to the Avail system by leveraging assets from established ecosystems like Bitcoin and Ethereum.