Merkle Science has extended its Series A funding as more money arrives. According to a blog post, Merkle has now raised over $24 million.
Merkle Science is a predictive cryptocurrency risk and intelligence platform that provides information, data, and aids in the detection of nefarious activity while preventing illegal actions involving crypto. The company’s Behavioral Rule Engine enables compliance teams to fulfill their local KYC and AML obligations. The rise in illicit activities within the crypto ecosystem, and the need for regulators to better understand and apprehend perpetrators, mean demand is rising for Merkles’ services.
Merkle shares that BECO Capital, Susquehanna affiliate (Darrow Holdings), and K3 Ventures co-led the extension. Other investors include the participation of new investors including Republic Crypto, Summer Capital, 500 StartUps APAC and US, Aspen Digital, HashKey Capital, and Coinhako. Existing investors participating include Kraken Ventures, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Kenetic, Uncorrelated Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Lucy Gazmararian of Token Bay Capital, and Libertus Capital.
Merkle Science Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Mriganka Pattnaik reported that they have experienced a whopping 300% growth in the past year:
“Web3 companies, financial institutions, and regulators are continuing to invest heavily in crypto compliance and forensics. Recent high-profile events in the space, including the failure of large companies and massive hacks, are a clear indicator of the need for much more robust risk management, forensics and compliance for digital assets.”
Merkle Science is providing crypto threat detection, risk mitigation, investigations, and compliance solutions to financial institutions, crypto businesses, DeFi participants, NFT platforms, and government agencies.
Merkle Science’s solution is said to be able to screen over 3 million digital assets per month and covering 96% of the current $1.13 trillion crypto market cap. The company leverages machine learning to mitigate risk and enable compliance.
The new investment is expected to be leveraged to boost its expansion across the U.S. and Europe, as well as for R&D in emerging segments such as analytics and forensics across NFTs, DeFi, and cryptocurrency bridge protocols.
Dany Farha, co-founder and Managing Partner at BECO Capital, commented:
“The blockchain industry and its regulatory landscape is maturing rapidly across the world. We’re seeing a lot of activity in the UAE, where a large number of businesses are relocating to our jurisdiction to benefit from a robust digital assets regulatory regime and ecosystem. Crypto risk mitigation and intelligence solutions form a critical component of this ecosystem. When we evaluated the space, Merkle Science’s focus on predictive transaction monitoring, cross-chain analytics and DeFi analytics clearly demonstrated that they have the vision to become a global market leader. We are delighted to support them as they build the next generation of Web3 risk management and forensics solutions.”
Meng Xiong Kuok, founder and Managing Partner at K3 Ventures, said Merkle is taking a unique approach to new and increasingly complex challenges, such as the growing number of crypto bridge exploits.