Layer 1 blockchain developer Berachain raises $100 million in Series B funding

Framework Ventures and the Abu Dhabi branch of Brevan Howard Digital (BH Digital) co-led a $100 million Series B round for Layer 1 blockchain developer Berachain. 

Additional financial support came from Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Samsung Next, Laser Digital from Nomura Group, Hashkey Capital, Nomad Capital, Hypersphere, Arrington Capital, Cypher Capital, Tribe Capital, Rubik, Dragonfly’s Bo Feng, Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu, Temasek’s Antony Lewis, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and others, Berachain wrote on the social media platform X. 

Berachain initially sought to raise $69 million for this Series B round at a $1.5 billion valuation.

The firm intends to use the funds to bolster expansion in Hong Kong, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, reports Bloomberg, adding that Berachain's testnet processed over 100 million transactions. Investors used a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) to fund Berachain. 

On April 20, 2023, Berachain raised $42 million in a private token round led by Polychain Capital, along with participation from Hack VC, Shima Capital, Robot Ventures and others, The Block previously reported. The firm's Series B co-lead, BH Digital, maintains $1.7 billion in assets under management. 

Berachain's ecosystem

Berachain is a modular Layer 1 blockchain undergirded by a "proof of liquidity" consensus mechanism, which is a way to verify the liquidity available for certain assets on-chain.

Berachain has its governance token, BGT, a gas token, BERA and its native consensus collateralized stablecoin, HONEY. Users can only obtain BGT by performing certain tasks within the Layer 1's ecosystem, such as providing liquidity on Berachain's decentralized exchange BEX. BGT can then be swapped for the USD-pegged HONEY, using BERA to pay transaction fees. 

Berachain is also compatible with Ethereum ETH -1.77% Virtual Machine (EVM), an Ethereum-specific runtime environment that determines the parameters for "computing a new valid state from block to block," according to Ethereum developer documentation. Berachain is built on top of Cosmos SDK, a tech stack for building public proof-of-stake blockchains.