UAE based Cypher Capital leads $15 million investment in ZAP, a powered token distribution protocol built on the Ethereum Layer 2 network, Blast, allowing it to reach a token valuation of $100 million.
As per a post by Vineet Budki, Managing Partner and CEO of Cypher Capital, “ ZAP features a questing and airdrops protocol, a no-code token launcher, and curated launches via ZAP Labs. The token launchpad and no-code token offer users access to venture-backed projects, giving them more options to fully utilize their on-chain activity. ZAP’s developments aim to advance the vision of democratizing access to early-stage investments and creating a fairer crypto space where participants can engage on a level playing field.”
He adds, that Cypher Capital is proud to invest in these innovations, which will address key issues in the airdrop and launchpad space.
As per the ZAP X post, “ZAP is thrilled to announce a successful $15M funding round, led by Rarestone Capital, Cypher Capital and Sharding Capital with support from Presto Labs, Auros Global, and industry angels including LawMaster, Chelsea Jiang of ForesightVen, LucaNetz and many more, including LayerZero Labs.”
According to ZAP, they are committed to building a comprehensive suite of products to make them even more feature rich offering the user experiences found only on the smoothest web2 platforms.
Labs, ZAP’s offerings will be deeper and smoother with more options and better experiences.
ZAP noted on X that with the funding, they will continue to develop innovations and solve key issues in airdrop and launchpad space, as well as grow to new locations and broaden their reach to different blockchain ecosystems.
In addition ZAP noted, “These new developments, and our ongoing ones, all serve to further our vision of democratizing access to early-stage investments, creating a fairer crypto space, and ensuring that all participants can engage on a level playing field.”
pseudonymous founder and CEO Francis told The Block, “ The funding was raised in three recent rounds $900,000 seed last December, $2.1 million private round last month and $12.1 million in an ongoing “vault sale” The seed and private rounds were structured as simple agreements for future tokens (SAFTs).”
“The vault sale will end when we conduct our token generation event in the next few months, Francis said. “If all vaults sell out, we will end up raising a total of $50 million.”
ZAP was valued at $15 million at the time of its seed round, then its valuation increased to $30 million during the private token round and is now valued at around $100 million, Francis said. “Our ongoing vault sale puts our implied fully diluted token valuation at around $100 million,” Francis said.
ZAP recently launched the “Blast Gigadrops” campaign, rewarding users for both their social and on-chain interactions with over 20 Blast ecosystem projects. The campaign boasts a prize pool of around $1 million and has partnerships with projects including Thruster, Particle and MetaStreet.
While ZAP’s token distribution protocol is currently built on Blast, it looks to expand to more blockchains, starting with Base. ZAP is also building a “no-code” token launcher and a token launchpad to offer users access to venture-capital-backed projects.
Francis told the Block that already 12 people are currently working for ZAP in London and the United Arab Emirates, and he is looking to hire a couple more for the engineering function.
