Lightning Labs Raise $70M Series B to Bring Stablecoins to Bitcoin

The Taproot-powered “Taro” protocol aims to bring low-fee stablecoin and asset transfers to the Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Lightning Labs have announced the completion of $70 million series B funding round, in order to further expand its development of open-source Bitcoin and Lightning software.

Lightning Labs co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark commented:

“In a world with a lot of technology solutions in the search of a problem, we believe in solving real problems for real people, which is what sets the entire Lightning Network protocol community apart.”

According to the firm, it plans to employ the round’s proceeds to fund its efforts in building Bitcoin and Lightning software, including Taro, a protocol the firm proposed today to bring assets to the Bitcoin stack through Taproot.

The company explained:

“Taro makes sending assets like stablecoins possible using the bitcoin network with the instant, high volume, low fee nature of Lightning, and fees dramatically lower than Visa. Taro will bring interoperability between assets like USD stablecoins and BTC to the many places Lightning is already in use today such as across emerging markets, including El Salvador which recently made bitcoin legal tender, as well as video games, major exchanges, tipping on Twitter, and more.”

The funding round was led by Valor Equity Partners, early backers of Tesla and SpaceX, and joined by global asset manager Baillie Gifford. Bitcoin-only venture capitalist firm Stillmark, Goldcrest Capital, Kingsway, Moore Strategic Ventures, Brevan Howard, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, NYDIG, Silvergate CEO Alan Lane, and others also participated.

Stark said:

“We feel lucky to be working with mission-driven investors who believe in the power of Bitcoin and that the network stack can bring financial access to all.”

Lightning Labs raised $10 million in a series A round two years ago, at the same time when it released its Lightning Loop service in beta.