Lightning Labs has announced a $70 million Series B fundraising round led by Valor Equity Partners and including global asset manager Baillie Gifford.
On Tuesday, Lightning Labs co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark introduced Taro, a project that aims to bring assets such as stablecoins to the Bitcoin blockchain. A new Taproot-enabled protocol known as the Taproot Asset Representation Overlay, or Taro, is giving Bitcoin a boost (like the root vegetable, not the playing cards). Taro is a Lightning Network-powered open-source protocol (LN).
Taro, according to Stark, increases Bitcoin’s functioning and is made feasible by Taproot, a last-year improvement. Schnorr signatures, Tapscript, and Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees were among the enhancements included in Taproot (MAST). Taproot improves Bitcoin’s efficiency, privacy, and flexibility, but only if developers integrate it into tools for consumers. When Taproot is put to work, Taro depicts what might be possible.
Lightning Labs Director of Business Development Ryan Gentry elaborated on the protocol:
“Taproot is the only company that can integrate spending constraints into MASTs without revealing all of the facts to the blockchain. Taro embeds data for new assets using MASTs so that they can all be treated as bitcoins.”
Stark said the joint strategy was purposeful when asked about the $70 million Series B announced in conjunction with Taro. According to her, the cash will be used to increase Lightning Lab’s runway flexibility and serve as fuel for the company’s growth. Lightning Labs is still a small business, with only 24 employees listed on its website.
Goldcrest Capital, Kingsway, Moore Strategic Ventures, Brevan Howard, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, NYDIG, and Silvergate CEO Alan Lane, in addition to Valor Equity and Baillie Gifford, participated in the investment round.
Read more: Kraken exchange now supports Bitcoin’s Lightning Network
