Eclipse Labs Secures $50M Series A Funding to Accelerate Ethereum L2 Development
August 25, 2024
3 min read read
In a significant development for the blockchain industry, Eclipse Labs, the software firm behind the first Ethereum layer-2 solution using the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), has successfully raised $50 million in a Series A funding round. This latest investment brings the total capital raised by Eclipse Labs to an impressive $65 million, underlining the strong confidence in their innovative approach to blockchain scalability.
Funding Details and Investors
The Series A round was co-led by Placeholder and Hack VC, with participation from a roster of notable investors:
- Polychain Capital
- Delphi Digital
- Maven 11
- DBA
- Apollo-managed funds
- Fenbushi Capital
Strategic investments also came from key players in the crypto trading and exchange space:
- Flow Traders
- GSR
- Auros
- OKX Ventures
Additionally, the round saw participation from prominent researchers and builders in the blockchain space, including:
- Barnabé Monnot (Ethereum Foundation)
- John Adler (Celestia Labs)
- Austin Federa (Solana Foundation)
- ZachXBT
- Meltem Demirors
Eclipse's Vision and Technology
Neel Somani, Founder of Eclipse Labs, emphasized the unique positioning of Eclipse in the Layer 2 landscape: "Eclipse is built to be Ethereum's fastest layer-2, leveraging the best pieces of the modular stack available today. Ethereum needs a single, scalable, composable layer-2 capable of handling the 99% of use cases."
Eclipse integrates the high-performance Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) with Ethereum's deep liquidity pools, while maintaining verifiability. This approach aims to address the fragmentation and performance issues seen in other L2 ecosystems that have focused solely on EVM compatibility.
Team and Expertise
The Eclipse Labs team brings together a wealth of experience from various corners of the crypto and finance industries:
- Vijay Chetty: Former Head of BD and Growth at Uniswap and dYdX
- David Lin: Former VP of Engineering at Discreet Labs (zk-L1 development)
- Neel Somani: Ex-Citadel quant
Progress and Future Plans
Since announcing its mainnet architecture in September 2023, Eclipse Labs has made significant strides:
- Released Devnet and Testnet versions of the Eclipse protocol
- Attracted leading dApps from both Solana and Ethereum ecosystems, including Rarible, Pyth Network, and Solend
- On track for a Q2 launch of Eclipse Mainnet
The funding will be used to push mainnet adoption through developer and retail initiatives, including:
- Ecosystem grants for top developers and projects deploying to Eclipse Mainnet
- Engineering and marketing support
- Sponsoring hackathons and accelerators
- Community-building events for users interacting with Eclipse Mainnet
Industry Perspectives
Tarun Chitra, Founder of Gauntlet and GP at Robot Ventures, an investor in Eclipse, commented on the project's potential: "Eclipse's launch will be the first of many harmonizations between Solana and Ethereum. Neel and the team have spent a lot of time researching all of the technological and economic ways to try to get the best of both worlds when it comes to utilizing succinct proofs and fees."
Chris Burniske of Placeholder highlighted the unique value proposition of Eclipse: "What this looks like in practice for the user is Ethereum's fastest L2, with transactions that cost 1/100th of a cent. For developers, Eclipse represents the continued viral spread of the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)."
Conclusion
With this substantial funding and strong industry support, Eclipse Labs is poised to make significant waves in the blockchain scalability space. As they move towards their mainnet launch, the crypto community will be watching closely to see how this innovative Layer 2 solution performs in real-world conditions.
Developers and users interested in participating in the Eclipse ecosystem can connect via Eclipse's Discord and Twitter. Eclipse Labs is also hiring for several roles, including a Growth Engineer, Marketing Lead, and People Operations Manager, with a preference for candidates based in the Bay Area.