Merkle Science, a predictive tool crypto risk and intelligence platform, today announced an extension of over $19 million to its Series A funding round, which now brings the total raised to over $24 million.
New investments will help accelerate the company’s growth and will be used for expansion in the United States and Europe, as well as for R&D in emerging segments such as analysis and forensics through NFT protocols, DeFi and cryptocurrency bridge.
Merkle Science’s suite of solutions scans over 3 million digital assets per month and covers cryptocurrencies representing 96% of the current $1.13 trillion market capitalization. It uses machine learning to drive transaction monitoring and risk mitigation for AML compliance, offers a cryptographic forensics tool that tracks stolen funds and enables enhanced investigation, due diligence and entity reporting, as well as training in cryptographic compliance and investigations.
Susquehanna’s subsidiary BECO Capital (Darrow Holdings) and K3 Ventures co-led the expansion, with new investors including Republic Crypto, Summer Capital, 500 APAC and US StartUps, Aspen Digital, HashKey Capital and Coinhako. They were joined by existing investors Kraken Ventures, Digital Currency Group (DCG), Kenetic, Uncorrelated Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Token Bay Capital’s Lucy Gazmararian and Libertus Capital.
Several market drivers have converged to generate exponential global demand for the company’s solutions. This includes the rapid adoption of blockchain technology in the financial services industry, including by many large institutions; the increasing impact and cost of hacks and exploits, such as the Nomad and Ronin Bridge exploits; and increased regulatory scrutiny, such as the NYDFS Virtual Currency Guidelines, FINCEN’s Notice of Illicit Activities Involving Convertible Virtual Currency, and US Treasury sanctioning of Tornado cash and Blender.io.
Merkle Science addresses this need by providing next-generation crypto threat detection, risk mitigation, investigation, and compliance solutions to financial institutions, crypto firms, DeFi participants, NFT platforms, and agencies. governmental.
“We have seen over 300% growth over the past year, despite the onset of a severe bear market in crypto and across the global economy. Web3 companies, financial institutions and regulators continue to invest heavily in crypto compliance and forensics. Recent high-profile events in the space, including major corporate bankruptcies and massive hacks, are a clear indicator of the need for much more robust risk management, forensics and compliance for digital assets.
– Mriganka Pattnaik, CEO and co-founder of Merkle Science
To support its goals, Merkle Science recently added to its leadership team, which includes talent from Paypal, Luno, Bank of America, the FBI and the DOJ, with new chief revenue officer Fernando Castellanos – a sales chief based in New York and former Forter VP experienced in scaling organizations.