Modular blockchain data protocol startup Lava raises $15M

Lava Protocol Inc., a startup that provides a modular data network for scaling access to blockchains, today announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding led by Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital and Tribe Capital to build out its infrastructure and data marketplace.

Also joining Lava’s seed round are Alliance, Node, North Island, Quiet, Finality, Dispersion Capital and others. Top blockchain infrastructure providers and ecosystem validators joined in the funding round as well, including Alchemy Insights Inc., Blockdaemon, ConsenSys Software Inc., Cosmos, Polkadot, Filecoin and StarkWare Ltd.

Lava’s technology stack provides a modular network that allows developers access to blockchain data through remote procedure calls and indexing. RPC is a way that apps communicate with blockchains in order to read and write data, while indexing is a specialized utility for discovering the placement of data so that it can be accessed and analyzed.

Using a modular protocol, Lava provides developers the ability to easily get data from blockchain networks in order to interact at the data layer by acting as a marketplace for RPC node providers. Data consumers come to Lava to get data from the blockchain by making requests and RPC providers serve data and receive rewards.

“At Lava, our vision is to unlock innovation across Web3 by giving developers total flexibility to build with the most performant and scalable infrastructure,” said Yair Cleper, founder and core contributor of Lava. “For a long time, infrastructure providers decide which chains to serve — they control the keys to all the doors. Developers use Lava to build whatever, wherever.”

Traditionally, when choosing an infrastructure provider, developers would get locked into a particular blockchain such as Ethereum, Solana or Celo. However, with a modular marketplace where providers can join and build data access routes, developers can get data access from any RPC provider that has partnered with the protocol.

To make this happen, Lava has worked directly with ecosystems in an incentivized RPC program and node providers that include partnerships from NEAR, Axelar, Starknet, Koli, Agoric and more. According to the company, there are already over 30 blockchains accessible via RPC.

Lava is currently in the testnet stage, but the full launch of the protocol is planned for the first half of this year. Ahead of that launch, Lava is introducing “Magma points,” a system that will reward wallet users for connecting blockchains through the service.

Image: Pixabay