Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs raises $14 million Series A

Quick Take

  • Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
  • With fresh capital at hand, TRM looks to expand its current team of 30 to 100 by the end of this year, CEO Esteban Castano told The Block. 

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs announced Thursday that it has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.

The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, an investor in companies like LinkedIn and Shopify, with participation from several other existing and new investors. These include PayPal Ventures, Initialized Capital, Jump Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Y Combinator, unnamed executives from Google and Plaid, and several others.

As part of the deal, Bessemer partner Ethan Kurzweil has joined the TRM board.

With fresh capital at hand, San Francisco-based TRM plans to grow its business and expand its current team of 30 to 100 by the end of this year, the firm's co-founder CEO Esteban Castano told The Block. TRM is hiring data engineers, data scientists, threat intelligence analysts, and sales and marketing staff, Castano said.

Founded in 2017, TRM Labs provides blockchain analytics tools to help financial institutions, government agencies, and crypto firms detect and manage crypto-related fraud and financial crime. Castano said TRM is seeing a surge in demand from clients and has seen its business grow 600% year-over-year.

When asked what is TRM's competitive edge over rivals such as Chainalysis and Elliptic, Castano said TRM has the "largest coverage of ransomware and emerging risks on blockchains" with over 80 different risk categories.

"TRM is the first and only blockchain intelligence platform with native cross-chain analytics, meaning that customers can understand activity across blockchains, not just within them," said Castano. TRM supports 360,000 digital assets across 20 blockchains, Castano added.

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

TRM's Series A comes as the Biden administration is expanding cryptocurrency analysis to trace ransomware-tied transactions. When asked whether TRM has U.S. government agencies as clients, Castano said yes, but declined to share names.

The Series A brings TRM's total funding to date to around $20 million. In 2019, TRM raised $4.2 million and $1.7 million in a round before that. Castano declined to share the firm's valuation from the latest round.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.