RISC Zero, a company that provides infrastructure to help developers create zero-proof software, has raised $40 million in a Series A round led by crypto-focused investment firm Blockchain Capital. The funds will be used to bring the Bonsai computing platform to market. Other investors in the round included Galaxy Digital, IOSG, RockawayX, Maven 11, Fenbushi Capital, Delphi Digital, Algaé Ventures, IOBC, Tribute Labs’ Zero Dao, and Alchemy.
This Series A round is a testament to the fact that infrastructure projects are still able to raise capital despite the crypto winter. Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic methods used to validate transactions while preserving the privacy of the transaction. In March 2022, RISC Zero released an open-source, zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) that allowed developers to build zk proofs that could be executed on any computer using standard traditional or blockchain-focused programming languages.
The Bonsai computing platform is a decentralized proving engine that allows developers to easily integrate zk proofs into their applications and chains for improved security and complex computations. “For developers who are new to crypto, RISC Zero’s technology will allow them to build applications using tools and languages they are more familiar with while imposing many fewer restrictions on the complexity of the code,” said RISC Zero CEO Brian Retford.
RISC Zero previously raised $12 million in Aug. 2022 in a Bain Capital-led seed funding round.