In a significant development, Pharos Network, which focuses on layer 1 blockchain for tokenizing real-world assets, announced it has secured $44 million in a Series A funding round. This round was led by a coalition of traditional finance and cryptocurrency investors. Key participants include Sumitomo Corporation’s venture arm SNZ Holding, Chainlink, Flow Traders, alongside prominent unnamed financial institutions described as ‘giants in global finance.’
As the interest surges in transferring assets like bonds, energy projects, and private credit onto blockchain platforms, Pharos is constructing an ‘asset-native’ network. This infrastructure is tailored to manage regulated financial transactions on a large scale. It leverages parallel processing for handling extensive transaction volumes, incorporating compliance mechanisms essential for institutions requiring audit trails and identity verification.
Pharos aims at a market valued at $50 trillion, while the tokenization sector has been witnessing growth. Recent data indicates that on-chain total real-world assets have reached $24.3 billion, up from $14 billion earlier this year.
The company highlighted its testnet’s activity, which reportedly includes millions of users and unique addresses. Additionally, it showcased a partnership with energy firm GCL for solar-backed assets. These figures are typical in pre-launch networks and often incentivized, thus challenging independent verification.
Following an initial seed round where the company raised $8 million co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC, this new funding follows a recent investment from GCL New Energy (0451), which positioned Pharos near a $1 billion valuation. The mainnet’s launch is anticipated shortly.