Phantom wallet on Solana raises $9 million in Series A

The operator of the Phantom cryptocurrency wallet on the Solana blockchain has raised $9 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz (A16z).

We’re excited to announce our $9M Series A! An investment led by @AriannaSimpson at @a16z with participation from @variantfund, @jumpcapital, @defialliance, @solana, @garrytan, @rleshner, @AntonioMJuliano, @ForrestBrowning and @alexadelman https://t.co/nuB0dlQfq7

— Phantom (@phantom) July 14, 2021

The round’s participants included Variant Fund, Jump Capital, the Solana Foundation, an early Coinbase investor Garry Tan, and several founders of crypto projects, including Robert Leshner, Antonio Juliano, Forrest Browning and Alex Adelman.

The capital will be used by the non-custodial wallet team to expand across networks, including Ethereum and scaling solutions.

“We are currently engaging with and evaluating a range of layer-2 solutions and sidechains, including Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism and ZK Sync,” said Phantom CEO Brandon Millman to The Block.

According to him, they aim to transform into a multi-chain application by autumn 2021.

The Phantom team, consisting of three founders, is expected to grow to 10-15 people through hiring engineers, support staff and community liaison personnel, Millman added.

The wallet is available as browser extensions for Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Edge. The app enables users to store, send, receive and exchange digital assets, including DeFi-tokens and NFT.

As part of its development plan, the team intends to release mobile versions for iOS and Android.

Earlier, FTX exchange launched the DEX Serum on the Solana blockchain. Later, Solana developers introduced a cross-chain solution, linking tokens of their network and Ethereum.