Orchid Labs, which is using blockchain to free the internet of surveillance and censorship, has reportedly raised $4.7m in seed funding.
The company has collected capital from Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth, Blockchain Capital, and Struck Capital, among others.
With 75 per cent of the worlds population having restricted or censored Internet access, Orchid Labs says that it has developed a blockchain-based protocol that lets users everyone use the internet.
It combines its protocol with surplus bandwidth, state-of-the art-encryption, and a decentralized infrastructure to bring users surveillance-free access to the existing Internet. Orchid acts a new surveillance-free layer on top of the existing Internet, allowing users to bypass firewalls, access information, and communicate freely. Users can also exchange bandwidth in peer-to-peer transactions using Orchid tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
Earlier this year, Sequoia tapped its Indian arm to back lending app MoneyTap. The startup reportedly raised $12.3m in its latest funding round, which also saw participation from New Enterprise Associates and Prime Venture Partners. Just last month, Sequoia FinTech investing continued with the backing of Bitmain, a manufacturer of Bitcoin mining hardware and other related services. The venture firm joined with IDG to hand Bitmain $50m. Last month, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz?both participated in Filecoin ICO. The pair helped the Blockchain data storage network?raise more than $257m.
Overall investments in the Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies?sector made a strong start to the year with 72% of last years total funding already committed?according to data by FinTech Global. Funding to Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies companies is set to hit a record in 2017, with a total of $412m invested in the first half of the year.
Copyright ? 2017 FinTech Global
