Phantom just secured $109 million in Series B fundraising and has now been classified as a unicorn.
The Solana wallet aims to serve the Ethereum ecosystem before the end of the year, according to its CEO Brandon Millman.
Phantom, a cryptocurrency wallet that enables users to access the Solana ecosystem, has secured $109 million in a Series B fundraising round, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion.
Phantom was funded in part by Paradigm. Existing investors participated in the round as well, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Variant Fund, Jump Capital, Defi Alliance, and Solana Ventures.
This was an equity fundraising round that would aid Phantom’s expansion across various blockchains, including the addition of Ethereum compatibility before the end of the year, according to CEO Brandon Millman. Phantom also plans to release an Android app in the first part of this year, according to Millman.
Today, Phantom launched its iOS application. The wallet began as a browser plugin in July of last year and swiftly grew to become the top Solana wallet, comparable to Ethereum’s MetaMask.
Phantom claims to have surpassed two million monthly active users in less than six months since its introduction. ConsenSys introduced MetaMask in 2016 and expects to reach one million monthly active users in October 2020. It now boasts over 21 million monthly active users.
Millman said that Phantom is “doubling down” on Solana by concentrating on mobile applications and features that would ease new user onboarding. “By providing a world-class onboarding and DApp discoverability experience for mobile users on Solana, we will drive the development of the web3 ecosystem,” he stated.
Millman formerly worked as a technical lead at 0x, a platform for developing decentralised exchanges, where he made heavy use of MetaMask. He created a new wallet due to his perceived flaws with MetaMask and its concentration on Ethereum. He picked Solana as Phantom’s first backer due to the lack of competition.
Phantom is hoping to increase its existing workforce of 20 to at least 40 in the near future in order to satisfy its multichain support objectives. Millman said that the business is recruiting for a variety of positions, including engineering, operations, and customer service.
Phantom has already raised $118 million in total investment. In July of last year, it secured $9 million in Series A investment led by a16z. Millman said that Phantom is not seeking further funding in the foreseeable future. When questioned about the possibility of launching a local token, he said that there is no specific plan at the moment. However, Millman told The Block in September that issuing a token is “absolutely on the table.”
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