At Web Summit Vancouver, Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, credited the company’s meteoric rise—from $0 to a $3 billion valuation in just 18 months—to unwavering conviction, obsessive focus, and deep technical debate. Speaking on a panel about the entrepreneur’s journey, Pellegrino emphasized that founders must be “unnaturally obsessed” with their mission to survive […]
LayerZero Labs
After Slow Start to 2023, VC in BC Returns to ‘Pre-Pandemic Momentum’
A B.C. company building a scalable, fault-tolerant, and unified quantum computing platform secured in November US$100 million. Photonic’s capital hailed from a variety of contributors, including the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund in the UK, Inovia Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Microsoft. The sizeable round of fundraising is a marked […]
BC’s Startup Resilience: Navigating Economic Headwinds with Innovation and Optimism
As the new year unfolds, startup founders face the dual challenge of daunting goals and invigorating opportunities. While the past year has been a lesson in cautious spending and navigating a risk-averse investment landscape, there’s a sense of renewed optimism in the air. For many, a new year is a time to mentally reset and […]
Vancouver Holds on to Second Place in Canada’s Startup Ecosystem Ranking
Four the fourth year in a row, Canada ranked fourth on StartupBlink’s Global Startup Ecosystem Index for 2023, behind Israel, the UK, and the US. Within Canada, Toronto ranked as the top startup hub. Vancouver, whose startup ecosystem ranked 18th in North America, placed second in the nation. Vancouver best watch out though—the city dropped […]
LayerZero Secures Capital, Strategic Alignment to Unlock ‘Blockchains Without Borders’
Web3 messaging platform LayerZero Labs this week closed a Series B round to the tune of US$120 million. The sizeable raise builds on LayerZero’s US$135 million round co-led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz in 2022. Last year’s round pushed the Vancouver-born blockchain startup into Unicorn status; this week’s follow-up values the BC tech firm […]
Rapture Labs Adds LayerZero Co-founders To Board Of Advisors
Vancouver web3 gaming startup Rapture Labs has added LayerZero co-founders Bryan Pellegrino and Ryan Zarick to its advisory board. Pellegrino and Zarick co-founded LayerZero, along with Caleb Banister, to solve a problem nobody else had been able to effectively solve in crypto and blockchain spaces – to enable secure and direct cross-chain communication. Rapture Labs […]
Frontier Collective Announces Flagship Summit to Connect Global Leaders with Local Startups
Frontier Collective has created a flagship summit aimed at connecting global investors, leaders, and stakeholders with metaverse and Web3 leaders in Vancouver. The local nonprofit announced today that the inaugural Frontier Summit will take place in mid-August. “Frontier technologies are thriving in this region and we see a tremendous opportunity to cement Vancouver’s position both nationally […]
Christie’s Auction House Invests in Web3 Unicorn LayerZero Labs
A new venture fund from a renowned international brand has made its first portfolio investment. Luxury art giant Christie’s this month launched Christie’s Ventures, a new fund targeting emerging technologies in the art and crypto spaces, as well as fintech startups. “The intersections of technology and financial products are increasingly relevant and prevalent, and we […]
It’s Official: LayerZero Labs Becomes Vancouver’s Newest Unicorn
Vancouver’s LayerZero Labs announced today that it raised USD $135 million in a round co-led by Sequoia Capital, FTX Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz and with participation from Coinbase Ventures, PayPal Ventures, Tiger Global, Uniswap Labs, and more. This funding round values LayerZero Labs at $1 billion and will accelerate the development of cross-chain decentralized applications […]