Blockchain Startup Merkle Science Secures $5.7 mln In Series A Funding

Merkle Science, a blockchain startup based in Singapore, has closed a $5.7 million Series A funding round to expand its blockchain data analysis platform.

The round was led by Darrow Holdings with participation from Kraken Ventures, Bain-backed Uncorrelated Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Token Bay Capital, Kenetic, and Lunex Ventures. Merkle Science also announced that Dean Carlson, Head of Digital Asset Investments at Susquehanna, would be joining the startup’s board of directors. Brandon Gath, Managing Partner at Kraken Ventures, said about the round:

“We are excited by the advanced predictive analytics that Merkel Science brings to monitoring and vetting blockchain transactions. We believe they offer a superior set of products in a market that will see tremendous growth in demand from businesses, financial institutions, and government bodies looking to strengthen their risk management and compliance capabilities. That’s why we are thrilled to be able to support them in their journey to becoming the leading crypto risk and intelligence platform.”

Merkle Science conducts its seed funding round back in 2019 and has experienced fast growth ever since, not only expanding its presence to Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific but also by increasing its revenue by more than 900%. The funding will be used to accelerate product development for enterprises, the development of its behavior-based rule engine, and to create new solutions for the growing DeFi and NFT sectors. Mriganka Pattnaik, Merkle Science Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, referred to the startup’s success by stating:

“Globally, we have seen strong demand — especially from financial institutions and law enforcement agencies — as crypto-related illicit activity and regulations have taken center stage. Merkle Science’s intelligence platform is highly customizable and built to evolve with crypto criminal activity, simplifying crypto compliance for our users and ultimately allowing them to focus on their core competencies.”

The increasing relevance of crypto on the global stage has prompted financial institutions and law enforcement to rely on blockchain data analysis platforms like the one developed by Markle Science to detect illicit activity and enforce regulations. Over the past year, the cryptocurrency market has seen its size increase by more than 300%, reaching a market capitalization of $2 billion by the end of September 2021, which has boosted the growth experienced by the blockchain startup.