Analog, a platform in the Web3 space, has successfully raised $16 million to further develop its tools for cross-chain communication aimed at developers. This funding round has boosted the startup’s valuation to a whopping $120 million.
The funding round saw participation from a diverse group of crypto projects and Web3 funds, including Near, Wintermute, Orange DAO, Benqi Finance, and Quantstamp. Venture capital firms such as Tribe Capital, Alumni Ventures, and NGC Ventures also joined the round, along with notable individuals like former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan and Mike Novogratz’s family office, Samara Asset Group.
The brainchild of Victor Young and Sanchal Ranjan, Analog was born in 2021 out of a need observed by Young for cross-chain data triggers for smart contract execution while working on algorithmic trading bots. The increasing demand for cross-chain interoperability gave birth to the idea of Analog.
The team at Analog, having previously worked on projects from the Polkadot ecosystem like Moonbeam and Enjin, and cross-chain ecosystems including Cosmos and Chainlink, is now focused on building a product that allows developers to query data from smart contracts across various blockchain networks.
Young explains that their solution can simplify the process of pulling and analyzing on-chain data. For example, a cross-chain DEX (decentralized exchange) aggregator would need to pull data for each specified pair across different DEXs on various chains to provide users with the best routes and accurate price discovery mechanism.
In addition to this, Analog is launching a software development kit for general message passing, which will facilitate communication and interoperability across blockchains for asset transfers, automated market makers, decentralized exchanges, and nonfungible tokens.
As the number of layer 1s and layer 2s increases, the need for these systems to work together seamlessly will become even more critical. This is not just for tokens issued between these projects but also for decentralized applications (DApps) that have cross-chain functionalities and can benefit from DApps on other chains.
The need for solutions for cross-chain communications is growing as Web3 is rapidly becoming multichained. Projects like LayerZero and Axelar are also working on developing solutions to facilitate communication between networks.
To differentiate itself from the competition, Analog is focusing on combining cross-chain development features in a single toolkit, rather than depending on third parties like oracles. Young emphasizes that they are more developer-focused and are working on showcasing the breadth of their product’s reach through a lot more different verticals.
