Zama, an open-source cryptography company, has announced the successful closure of a $73 million Series A funding round. This significant investment underscores the growing demand for robust data protection solutions in the global market.
The company specializes in developing fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) solutions designed to safeguard privacy in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. FHE represents a groundbreaking encryption technique that enables computations to be performed directly on encrypted data, thereby revolutionizing data privacy for organizations, governments, and consumers.
Over the past four years, Zama has developed a suite of open-source cryptographic libraries and solutions, making FHE accessible to developers and facilitating the creation of privacy-preserving applications. Rand Hindi, CEO of Zama, expressed the company’s vision of establishing data privacy as a fundamental design principle rather than an afterthought.
Hindi stated, “We envision a world where data privacy isn’t an afterthought but rather guaranteed by design. With the support of our investors, our talented team, and over 3,000 developers in our community, we can make FHE and privacy synonymous and ubiquitous.”
The Series A funding round was led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs, with participation from Metaplanet, Blockchange Ventures, VSquared, and Stake Capital. Notable blockchain pioneers, including Juan Benet, Anatoly Yakovenko, and Gavin Wood, also contributed to the round.
Kyle Samani, Managing Partner of Multicoin Capital, emphasized the importance of FHE as a foundational cryptographic primitive for the future of computing. He praised Zama’s technology as pivotal for constructing multiplayer, privacy-preserving applications.
Samani commented, “FHE is the most important foundational cryptographic primitive for the next decade of computing. Zama’s technology is the key to building multiplayer, privacy-preserving applications.”
In addition to addressing data privacy challenges in the blockchain sector, Zama is actively developing tailored solutions for industries such as AI, healthcare, financial services, and governmental security.
The newly raised funds will support Zama’s expansion efforts, including the recruitment of skilled engineers, software developers, and cryptography researchers. These resources will be dedicated to maintaining the company’s open-source libraries and collaborating with strategic partners to advance the development of a new class of FHE solutions.
