Quick take:
- The fundraising attracted participation from crypto VCs Framework Ventures and Electric Capital.
- The company will use the funds to hire more employees as it seeks to double the size of its staff from five to ten.
- By leveraging RSIC-V, Heeger says the new virtual machine will make the Thru blockchain more accessible to non-crypto native developers.
Unto Labs has announced a $14.4 million funding round backed by leading crypto-focused venture firms, Framework Ventures and Electric Capital.
Developed by Liam Heeger, a former engineer at Ethereum and Solana, Unto Labs is building a new virtual machine, ThruVM, that seeks to address one of the biggest drawbacks of network-specific virtual machines by using the popular computing system RISC-V to build Thru blockchain.
“Crypto-specific tools, bespoke crypto VMs, and domain‑specific programming languages pigeon‑hole blockchain development and prevent mainstream industry adoption,” Unto Labs said in a statement.
The company plans to use ThruVM to make its upcoming layer-1 blockchain, Thru more accessible to non-crypto native developers.
RISC-V is widely used outside of the crypto world and Heeger thinks its ability to allow software to interact with hardware will promote more innovation in the crypto space.
“RISC-V maps better to conventional hardware that you would find in a server or in a laptop,” Heeger said. “There are performance benefits, there are developer benefits, there’s more tooling.”
Heeger’s new layer-1 blockchain is built to compete with leading dApp-focused blockchains Ethereum and Solana. Thru will let users make transactions, interact with existing crypto applications, and build blockchain-based finance tools, Fortune reported.
Heeger said the company plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team of five to ten by the end of the year.
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