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Web3 security firm Hypernative raises $16 million in Series A funding (The Block)

  • The Block
  • |
  • 09.03.2024


by Yogita Khatri
VENTURE CAPITAL


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Hypernative has raised $16 million in Series A funding from Quantstamp, CMT Digital and others. The round was structured as equity and brought Hypernative’s total funding to $27 million, co-founder and CEO Gal Sagie told The Block.

Hypernative, a web3 security firm that helps identify and prevent hacks, has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round.

Quantstamp, another web3 security firm, led the round, with Bloccelerate VC, Boldstart Ventures, Borderless Capital, CMT Digital, IBI Tech Fund, Re7 Capital and others participating, Hypernative said Tuesday.

Hypernative began raising money for the Series A round earlier this year and finalized it by mid-2024, co-founder and CEO Gal Sagie told The Block. The round was structured as equity and brought Hypernative’s total funding to $27 million, including a $9 million seed round in January 2023 and a $2 million seed extension from “some strategic partners,” Sagie said. He declined to disclose Hypernative’s valuation.

What is Hypernative?
Hypernative says it offers a “real-time” risk monitoring platform designed to detect hacks before they occur, giving users time to act before any damage is done. The firm says its platform monitors both on-chain and off-chain data, using AI and machine learning tools to identify over 200 types of risks, including smart contract hacks, bridge security issues and market manipulations.

Since its launch in September 2022, Hypernative says its platform has served over 120 clients, including notable names like Uniswap, Solana, Chainalysis, Chainlink, Circle, Consensys and Galaxy. “We are the first and only (in production) to provide a security solution connected directly with a Layer 2 sequencer to stop hacks/exploits from the chain infrastructure,” Sagie told The Block.

Crypto losses from hacks and scams have already surpassed $1.2 billion this year, up 15.5% from last year, according to Immunefi. Major incidents include Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin’s $305 million loss in June and Indian exchange WazirX’s $235 million loss in July.

When asked if Hypernative could have prevented the WazirX and DMM Bitcoin hacks, Sagie said it could have. “Over the last two years that Hypernative has been operating, it could have detected most if not all of the hacks/exploits that happened in the space, and 99.5% of them could have been completely prevented,” he added.

Hypernative says it has saved over $100 million in funds so far. The firm also claims it detected 99.5% of hacks last year with a false positive rate of less than 0.001%. Additionally, Hypernative says that in 99% of cases, the attacks were detected more than two minutes before the first transaction.

Hypernative plans
With fresh funding in hand, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Hypernative is planning to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region and the U.S., Sagie said. To that end, the firm also plans to grow its team of 30 people by hiring across functions, including research and development, customer support, sales and marketing, he added.

“We also want to make sure Hypernative as a platform is available at any chain out there, and we currently support the biggest number of chains, including non-Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains like Solana, Cosmos, Starknet, Stellar and Stacks and 40 other EVM-based chains,” Sagie noted.