Nebra, a UK-based crypto startup, has recently raised $4.5 million in funding during a successful pre-seed and seed round led by Nascent and Bankless, with support from notable angel investors such as Tim Beiko from Ethereum Foundation, Kartik Talwar from ETHGlobal, Nick White from Celestia, Sandy Peng and Haichen Shen from Scroll. Additionally, Nebra is part of the CSX Spring 2024 cohort in London as a member of the a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator program.
Nebra’s main focus is on researching and developing strategies to improve blockchain technology’s privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). ZKPs have the potential to enhance on-chain privacy, which is crucial for blockchain scalability. However, current technologies are costly, with Ethereum ecosystem users collectively spending over $50 million in gas fees.
The funds raised will be used to fund further research into the Shared Settlement Layer (SSL) of the new internet. The goal of this research is to address the high cost of proof settlement on Ethereum and other blockchains by advancing ZKP technology. During a stress test in 2023, Nebra demonstrated remarkable resilience by processing 1 million proofs within 36 hours while achieving an average verification latency of around 2 minutes and a throughput of 10 proofs per second.
Dan Elitzer, Nebra’s co-founder, stated that the company aims to revolutionize ZKP settlements in the blockchain ecosystem like Google transformed information access or Uber changed urban mobility. Nebra seeks to become the leading platform for those looking for cost-effective and efficient ZKP settlement solutions across blockchains.
In summary, Nebra’s success in raising $4.5 million during its pre-seed and seed round shows its commitment to improving blockchain technology’s privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). The funds raised will be used to further research into the Shared Settlement Layer (SSL) of the new internet to address high cost of proof settlement on Ethereum and other blockchains by advancing ZKP technology.
