ArkStream Capital: Why We Invest in Avail
Date: June 5, 2024
We are thrilled to announce that ArkStream Capital has successfully made a strategic investment in Avail. This move not only precisely aligns with our investment strategy but also marks a crucial step in our strategic deployment in the modular blockchain field, specifically in the data availability layer track. This financing round, which raised up to $75 million, saw robust support from renowned industry entities such as Founders Fund, DragonFly, and Cyber Fund.
Through in-depth research on the technological evolution of the blockchain industry, we have observed that infrastructure technology is rapidly advancing, particularly the modular approach, which has become a contemporary trend. This approach fundamentally deconstructs the technology from a functional architecture perspective, giving rise to outstanding projects and investment targets in numerous sub-tracks. Among these, the data availability layer is particularly significant for its role in offloading core functionalities of Ethereum, and we are confident in its developmental prospects.
This investment in Avail reflects our deep commitment and high expectations for the modular blockchain field, and we look forward to working closely with Avail to drive continuous innovation and development in blockchain technology.
1. Unique Technological Ecosystem Positioning
Today, hundreds of Rollup Layer 2 networks are increasingly diverging into two camps: Optimistic Rollup and ZK Rollup. Although their technical implementations vary, their core need points to the same goal: the Data Availability (DA) layer. As Ethereum gradually offloads its execution layer functionalities, its role as a DA layer becomes increasingly clear: ensuring that Rollup Layer 2 networks can securely and effectively publish data to the DA layer and inherit its security. For this purpose, Avail has implemented core data availability functionalities through Data Availability Sampling (DAS), light node mechanisms, and a pluggable design, distinguishing it from previous Ethereum-based Rollup networks (such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Starknet, and zkSync) and enhancing its influence in the DA track of the modular blockchain field.
2. Iterative Breakthrough in the Unification Layer
Avail closely follows industry trends and keenly captures market pain points, continuously upgrading its product roadmap and proposing a series of richer and more comprehensive technical solutions. Recently, Avail has comprehensively upgraded its DA product line and innovatively introduced the concept of the Unification Layer. The Unification Layer meticulously constructs three product stages. The first stage, Avail DA, serves as the well-known data availability layer, playing a crucial and key DA role and providing stable, efficient DA services for the entire ecosystem. The second stage, Nexus, aims to address the fragmentation issues between various Rollups and establish trust bridges before Rollup, promoting seamless integration and collaborative cooperation within the ecosystem. The final stage, Fusion, integrates Avail’s token mechanism to create a unified economic security, providing a more solid security guarantee for the entire ecosystem and driving the Unification Layer towards higher stages of development.
3. Rich and Powerful Ecosystem
Whether it’s chains (Arbitrum / Optimism / Polygon CDK / Polygon zkEVM / zkSync), SDKs and development frameworks (dymension / RISC ZERO / stackr), or RaaS (Altlayer / conduit / Gelato), bridges, and other categories of projects, many well-known projects within the industry have collaborated with Avail. This fully demonstrates that Avail’s solutions have gained broad recognition in the industry, and its maturity and reliability have been verified. We eagerly anticipate Avail’s official launch, confident that its robust ecosystem will bring more empowerment and opportunities to the entire industry.
4. Deeply Rooted Team
As a faithful witness and ecosystem participant of Ethereum, Polygon has grown alongside it while accumulating a wealth of industry technical experience and excellent solutions. As such, Avail, born from Polygon, not only inherits Polygon’s years of deep technical accumulation but also enjoys unique industry resources.
Conclusion
ArkStream Capital’s investment in Avail is not only a recognition of its excellent technical strength and broad market prospects but also a firm optimism about the future development direction of the entire data availability layer track and a broader technical field. As pioneers and supporters of the industry, we see not only the potential value of Avail but also the infinite possibilities and opportunities it brings. To this end, we will continue to provide comprehensive infrastructure and ecological connectivity support to help Avail achieve faster and more stable development.
ArkStream Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage investments in Web3 unicorns.
Founded by crypto experts with pedigrees from MIT, Stanford, Tencent, Google, and BlackRock, ArkStream leverages eight years of deep Web3 expertise to drive the zero-to-one growth of its portfolio companies.
ArkStream Capital is managing a portfolio of over 100 companies, including Aave, Flow, Sei, Manta, Fhenix, Merlin, Particle Network, and Space and Time.
