Gelato Network raises $11 million in Series A funding led by Dragonfly Capital

Gelato Network, a protocol that helps automate smart contract execution on Ethereum and other blockchains, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round.

Dragonfly Capital led the round, with ParaFi Capital, Nascent, IDEO CoLab Ventures, and Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, also participating.

This was a token sale round and the fresh capital will help support more blockchains, Gelato co-founder Hilmar Orth told The Block. Gelato Network currently supports Ethereum, Polygon, and Fantom blockchains and it is looking to add support for Arbitrum, Optimism, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche, said Orth. To that end, the project is also planning to double its current team of 15 to around 30.

The blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi) world runs on smart contracts, which are pieces of code that execute certain functions when conditions are met. But while they are commonly seen as "self-executing," they actually need someone to execute them. Therefore, is someone wants to make transactions periodically, they will need a third party to execute their transactions. Gelato says its service strips away the need for such third parties and replaces them with "bots."

"Gelato is a decentralized network of bots that automates smart contract executions on blockchains," said Orth. "It solves one of the key problems in smart contract platforms being that in order to execute transactions recurringly or conditionally, you require external servers to monitor state and execute transactions on your behalf. So instead of having to write custom 'bots' which are run on centralized servers, web3 developer teams can now plug into an existing, reliable, and decentralized network that they can outsource all of their Web3 DevOps needs to."

Projects currently utilizing the Gelato Network include QuickSwap, Furucombo, MakerDAO, KeeeperDAO, Instadapp, and others, said Orth.

The Series A funding round brings Gelato's total funding to date to $12.2 million, and it plans to raise more funds in the near future.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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