Blockchain startup Union has closed a $12 million Series A round led by San Francisco-based Gumi Cryptos Capital and Singapore’s Longhash Ventures. Atlanta, Ga.-based Borderless Capital, and the founders of Polygon, Movement and Berachain were among other investors. So far, the Dover, Del.-incorporated firm has raised $16 million capital.
Founded in 2023 by CEO Karel Kubat and others, Union is a so-called modular interoperability protocol that enhances the security and ease of exchange of assets and messages between blockchains and distributed app, or dApps.
Secure Future
“I couldn’t be more excited about this news; it calls for a big thank you to Union’s partners, supporters, and users,” said Kubat, pointing out that its Series A has come less than a year since its seed round. This, he added, is “reflective of our team’s ongoing dedication to reducing fragmentation by bringing secure, sovereign, and seamless interoperability to Web3. Union, like its connections, is unstoppable.”
Kubat was previously the chief technology officer of Composable Finance. A coder of smart contracts since 2016, he is credited with developing the IBC Protocol on Substrate (Polkadot).
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Union says it leverages two key innovations. The first is called consensus verification, where validators on one blockchain verify that consensus was achieved among validators on another chain before accepting a transfer. The second is “secure zero-knowledge cryptography,” which reduces the computing power required to facilitate a transfer. Together, Union delivers “fast and cost-effective connection between protocols across any execution environment with zero trusted actors.”
Inevitable Multi-Chain Future
Longhash Ventures’ CEO and managing partner Emma Cui said Union would play a “pivotal” role in the inevitable multi-chain future. By leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and a cryptographic protocol called Boneh–Lynn–Shacham, or BLS, signature, “Union provides the most secure and efficient layer for general message passing, asset transfers, and rollup settlement.”
“The freedom and incentives to fork creates a dizzying array of choices and an abundance of capabilities – but also a world of fragmentation and chaotic user experiences,” said Miko Matsumura, managing partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital. “Union has a world-changing combination of deep technical expertise, burning passion, hard pragmatism and partner-centricity to solve this exceedingly hard and universal problem.”
