Image source: Blocto
Blocto, a cross-blockchain wallet application and Web3 ecosystem, has closed Series A funding round, sending its valuation soaring by 700%.
Participants in the round included entrepreneur and advisor Mark Cuban and returning investor venture capital firm 500 Global, as well as global character brand IPX (formerly Line Friends). Other previous Blocto investors and advisors include Kevin Chou of Gen. G Esport Roham Garegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs; and blockchain gaming giant Animoca Brands.
Launched in 2019 by parent company portto, Blocto aims to simplify blockchain and Web3 applications including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and gaming to make them more accessible to a broad, non-technical user base. Blocto will use the funds to develop the infrastructure to onboard more users to crypto.
The multichain Blocto wallet supports the Ethereum, Aptos, Solana, Flow, BNB Chain, Polygon and Tron networks to make transactions straightforward for experienced and non-technical users alike. Features such as email logins enable Web3 developers to benefit from established Web2 marketing solutions at lower user acquisition costs. Blocto intends to expand the wallet to new blockchain ecosystems in the future.
Blocto recently expanded into the Aptos ecosystem as part of its efforts to drive mass adoption across multiple blockchains. It has quickly become established as the second largest Aptos wallet with more than 400,000 users.
As of November 2022, Blocto had 1.6 million users, and BloctoBay had become the most popular non-custodial NFT marketplace on the Flow blockchain.
“We believe the continuous growth of Blocto users in the current environment is indicative of portto’s commitment to be one of the most influential blockchain companies in the industry,” said Tony Wang, a managing partner at 500 Global.
Blocto aims to remove the typical friction points that new users who are unfamiliar with blockchain and cryptocurrencies encounter. It has simplified the often-confusing cryptographic key system that enables crypto transactions and designed a more intuitive, blockchain-agnostic system for gas, or processing, fees.
Blocto’s software development kit (SDK) is designed to increase user acquisition by strengthening cross-platform expansion. Blocto claims to offer developers a 95% conversion rate (which is 20x the industry standard), an email login process of less than 30 seconds, and a freemium model that simplifies gas fees and transactions.
“Although we can see the full potential of blockchain technology, the main key to mass adoption is an easy user onboarding experience — something that Blocto provides,” said Edwin Yen, portto’s co-founder and chief operating officer (COO). This is also why big consumer-facing companies such as Yahoo, MotoGP Ignition, and Gogoro all choose Blocto as their exclusive partner to explore the Web3 world.”
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