Paradigm leads $25 million Series A round for web3 domain infrastructure firm D3 Global

The venture firm Paradigm Capital led a $25 million Series A funding round for D3 Global, a web3 domain infrastructure firm.

Coinbase Ventures, Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah and Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall also participated in D3's financing, according to a Wednesday release .

D3 aims to make domains a type of tokenized real-world asset, building out the tools for domain-based lending, fractional ownership, digital identity and other financial use cases, the release continues. Using its Series A fundraising, D3 plans to launch the decentralized network called Doma Protocol, an interoperable network connecting web2 domain extensions, such as .com and .net, with web3-oriented ones like .shib or .ape.

"Internet domains have long been a valuable asset class," said D3 Co-Founder and CEO Fred Hsu in a statement. "And for the first time in nearly three decades, we have the opportunity to modernize and transform the technologies and processes currently used by the domain industry through the Doma Protocol. The DomainFi economy will usher in a new era of innovation and financial opportunity as every domain, community and user comes on-chain."

In September 2023, D3 raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Shima Capital, The Block previously reported.