#USA #Rochester #Ligero #Galaxy Ventures #ZKP Technology

Ligero Secures $4 Million in Funding to Revolutionize Data Security

Ligero, a pioneering startup in the realm of cryptocurrency and data privacy, has recently announced the completion of a $4 million seed funding round, primarily led by renowned investors Galaxy Ventures and 1kx. This funding initiative aims to support the development of Ligero's innovative product, Ligetron, which harnesses zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology to bolster data security and privacy.

Founded in 2018, Ligero specializes in simplifying the development, deployment, and scaling of zero-knowledge proofs without jeopardizing either compliance or security. The company's newest offering, Ligetron, is a cutting-edge zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) promising remarkable performance efficiency across various platforms, both web-based and on advanced hardware.

Funding Details

The funding round initiated in March 2024 and wrapped up by July 2024, resulting in a total valuation cap of $20 million. This financial round structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) included contributions from multiple notable investors, such as Franklin Templeton, Nascent, Anagram, and Digital Currency Group. As part of this agreement, Wei Dai from 1kx now serves on Ligero's board of directors.

With this recent injection of funds, Ligero's total fundraising since its inception has reached $5.15 million, including a prior round in 2019. Co-founder Matt DiBiase emphasized that while the new funding is a significant milestone, the primary focus remains on delivering their advanced product, Ligetron, to the market.

Ligetron: A Technological Milestone

Ligetron stands as a testament to Ligero's commitment to innovative solutions in data privacy. The product reportedly achieves 66 times faster inference speed and 1024 times better memory efficiency than existing market alternatives. This efficiency places Ligetron at the forefront of zero-knowledge technology, facilitating high-volume transactions without compromising speed or performance. In real-world applications, Ligetron is capable of managing up to 1,000 transactions per second (TPS) on a single NVIDIA L40S GPU, utilizing less than 2 GB of CPU RAM. Even on browser-based implementations, the product can maintain around 100 TPS, hinting at its potential implications for mobile ZK rollups.

The development journey for Ligetron has spanned approximately seven years, during which the company initially developed a dark pool auction platform employing multiparty computation (MPC) technology. In addition, Ligero's prior collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the SIEVE program allowed them to enhance zero-knowledge proofs further, ultimately shaping Ligetron's current design.

Addressing Current Security Challenges

Muthu Venkitasubramaniam, co-founder and CEO, highlighted the crucial relevance of scalable privacy in next-generation decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, machine learning, and real-world asset tokenization applications. The current landscape of privacy-focused blockchain technologies often appears cumbersome and lacks the necessary composability for practical implementation, he noted. Traditional ZK-SNARKs powering existing layer-2 technologies frequently require substantial hardware resources on the server side while offering limited flexibility for client-side applications.

In contrast, Ligetron marks a significant advancement as the first of its kind—an efficient ZKVM deployable across a range of devices, from simple Raspberry Pi systems to advanced NVIDIA H100 hardware, ensuring dependable and scalable performance.

Ligero's direct competitors include companies like Aztec Noir and Polygon Miden, yet the firm remains dedicated to carving out its niche by integrating privacy-preserving technologies into both on-chain and off-chain workflows across industries, from finance to gaming.

Future Growth Plans

Looking ahead, Ligero is poised to expand its team, planning to add several engineering and business development roles as part of its growth strategy. With its innovative product lineup and robust funding, the company is set to make significant strides in the data privacy landscape.

Overall, Ligero's emergence as a key player in the zero-knowledge proof technology arena represents a remarkable step forward in addressing modern security and privacy challenges in a rapidly evolving digital world.