Unstoppable Domains, a leading platform for Web3 digital identity with more than 2.5 million registered NFT domains, announced yesterday that it closed $65 million in Series A funding at a valuation of $1 billion.
Pantera Capital, a new investor, led the investment round which also included participation from previous investors Boost VC and Draper Associates as well as Mayfield, Gaingels, Alchemy Ventures, Redbeard Ventures, Spartan Group, OKG Investments, Polygon, CoinDCX, CoinGecko, We3 syndicate, Rainfall Capital, Broadhaven, EI Ventures, Hardyaka, and Alt Tab Capital.
Paul Veradittakit, a Partner at Pantera Capital said, “Unstoppable Domains is rapidly defining a new category of decentralized identity that will change the internet as we know it. We’re proud to back Matt [Gould, Founder and CEO of Unstoppable Domains] and the rest of the team who are making this vision a reality.”
“For too long, companies have controlled people’s digital identities, and Unstoppable Domains is putting that power back into the hands of people. As the digital economy becomes a larger part of our lives, it’s time for people to own their identities on the internet. We’re thrilled to partner with Pantera and other investors who share our vision of onboarding billions of people onto Web3 through NFT domains that unlock user-owned, private, and portable identities.” Matthew Gould added.
Founded in 2018, Unstoppable Domains offers NFT or blockchain domains that give people full ownership and control of their digital identity. Blockchain domains are domains just like the popularly known .net, .com or .org, but stored and managed on blockchain making them decentralized and secure. What this means is that no company or government can manipulate content on these domains. Also, as compared to the traditional domains, the blockchain domains are exclusively owned by the user rather than just rented.
The company has registered 2.5 million domains which people can use to log onto more than 150 Web3 applications. The domains are “human readable names” replacing lengthy alpha-numeric crypto wallet addresses (making them much more user friendly) on which users can add multiple crypto currency addresses. Once a user gets a domain name, he/she becomes the sole owner of the domain name and so no one can take or modify it unless they choose to sell it using the auction option on the platform. Users can also create decentralized websites, decentralized chats and build their Web3 identity on the Unstoppable Domains platform.
With top web3 firms like Polygon, Blockchain.com and MoonPay, Unstoppable Domains has established more than 300 partnerships. Since its 2018 start, Unstoppable Domains has made over $80 million in sales.
According to the announcement issued yesterday, Unstoppable Domains will use the funding to fuel product innovation and further grow its partnerships in the web3 space as it continues to build a platform for user-owned and portable digital identity.