Zama Raises $57M, Becomes First Unicorn Involved With Fully Homomorphic Encryption

Zama, a cryptography company pioneering fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) for blockchains, said it raised $57 million in a series B round co-led by Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital.

The team said the fundraise pushes Zama’s total capital raised to over $150 million and values it at over $1 billion, making the firm the first unicorn involved with FHE.

Fully homomorphic encryption is a way of keeping data private even while it's being used, making it especially valuable for sensitive applications in blockchain and AI. The funding, which comes as Zama's public testnet opens for use, will go toward the mainnet introduction, growing its ecosystem adoption, and research efforts.

The Zama protocol allows developers to build encrypted decentralized applications (dapps) without needing deep cryptographic expertise. Use cases can range from confidential stablecoin issuance and asset tokenization to private identity verification and governance in network states, according to a statement shared with CoinDesk. It also has uses outside the blockchain environment, such as health care and defense, where secure computation on encrypted data is increasingly crucial.

“Zama is commercializing an entirely new generational technology that could redefine how confidentiality is handled in the blockchain and, ultimately, in all of cloud computing,” Ken Seiff, co-managing partner of Blockchange Ventures, said in the statement.

“This is our third and largest investment in Zama. Not since I first saw Ethereum in 2014, have I seen a company commercializing an entirely new technology that could be as foundational to our global technology infrastructure.”

Zama's series A round, in which it raised $73 million, was led by Multicoin Capital and Protocol Labs.

Read more: Cryptography Firm Zama Raises $73M for 'Fully Homomorphic Encryption' Apps