Optimism, a startup focused on the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain network, has raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
A16z said in a blog post published Wednesday that its investment followed a period of “looking at various approaches and teams building Layer 2s.”
“Optimism is currently in the midst of a phased rollout, and will be ready for large-scale production later this year. We are thrilled to partner with Optimism, and to help support the Ethereum ecosystem as it continues its rapid growth,” Chris Dixon and Arianna Simpson wrote in the post.
The latest funding round comes more than a year after the startup’s founders raised $3.5 million to create Optimism, as The Block previously reported. The startup grew out of a non-profit research organization known as Plasma Group.
Optimism is developing Optimistic Rollup with the aim of boosting the scalability of Ethereum. Optimistic Rollup is a scaling solution that aggregates transactions onto a Layer 2 protocol. The startup’s work is perhaps particularly relevant today given the high cost of transacting n Ethereum.
Optimism. rolled out its preliminary mainnet last month after going live with a limited test network in September.