Optimism, an L2 (Layer 2) rollup solution for Ethereum, has raised $150 million in its Series B funding round coming from big companies in the venture capital (VC) scene. The funding round was led by A16z and Paradigm, with the former also having invested during the previous funding round. The scaling solution reached a valuation of $1.65 billion with this fund injection, reaching well above unicorn status.
Optimism is supported to continue to grow
Optimism, a solution that enables Ethereum transactions with low fees, made a $150 million investment in its Series B funding round. The round, which was co-led by A16z and Paradigm, has led the organization to reach a valuation of $1.65 billion, being one of the most valuable L2 Ethereum expansion layers.
VCs are considering the relevance that these scaling technologies have for the future of Ethereum. While Ethereum fees have been relatively low recently, during the recent bull market, this was almost never the case. To appease users not wanting to take the hit of paying these sometimes exorbitant fees, L2 solutions rose to the spotlight. Optimism is one of these solutions, based on Optimistic rollups that take L1 (Layer 1) data to process it in batches in L2, to then return this abbreviated data to Ethereum.
According to figures offered by the company, Optimism has already saved its users $1 billion in gas costs and has over $469 million in TVL (total value locked) on its platform, which which makes it the fourth highest accumulation in this regard, according to statistics from L2beat.
Expansion via Hiring and Advancements
Optimism informed users via a blog post about how the funds would be directed. The company is planning to hire more people to complete its already sizeable team in order to keep delivering features. Optimism has 18 job offerings currently open across several departments, ranging from software development-related jobs to finance openings.
This latest funding injection follows the company’s Series A funding round, in which the company raised a $25 million investment also led by A16z. The company praised Optimism, noting that its “tight adherence to Ethereum’s development paradigms results in a very easy transition for developers, wallets, and users: no new programming languages, changes minimum code to existing contracts needed”.
