Easy Company, a startup focused on building a consumer layer for the decentralized web, has raised $14.2 million in a seed round for a “social” crypto wallet, which seeks to help bring more key audiences to the Web3 ecosystem.
As reported by TechCrunch, the seed funding round was backed by a diverse group of investors, including venture capital firms Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures and 6th Man Ventures, as well as Tapestry, Upside and Scribble. In addition, the round features angel investors with backgrounds in traditional social media and Web3, including former executives from Instagram, Novi, Airbnb, Twitter, Uber, OpenTable and Eventbrite.
8/ Easily backed by Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Tapestry VC, Upside Partnership, Scribble Ventures and other experienced social and web3 Investors.
– The Easy Company (@TheEasyCoHQ) January 10, 2023
The wallet is available to the public on iOS and Android after completing a 30-day private testing phase. According to Easy’s CEO, Mike Dougherty, the company aims to combine user-curated profiles with engaging social features so people can search, navigate and discover themselves in the Web3 world.
Many of Web3’s current products and services are too technical for everyday use, Dougherty points out. The company aims to make it easier for users to participate in Web3 and use digital wallets. The platform reportedly has a similar layout to social media apps like Instagram, where users can swipe to see NFTs of themselves or people they’re “watching,” like Instagram Stories.
related: Top crypto funding stories of 2022
Despite the long crypto season, the Web3 project continues to receive large amounts of funding from Venture Capitalists. In 2022, billions of dollars will be poured into various projects in the ecosystem, including blockchain-based startups.
In the first two quarters of 2022, the inflow of Venture Capital was more than $14 billion, and although it decreased to only $5 billion in the third quarter, the amount is still large due to the negative impact of the sudden collapse of some important players in the industry, such as Celsius, Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi and FTX. Venture capitalist funding for 2023 is still not in sight.
On January 4, Cointelegraph reported that Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange MEXC plans to invest $20 million to support the growth and development of Sei Network, a layer-1 blockchain platform designed specifically for trading.