Saga raises $6.5 million to build scalable ‘chainlets’ for web3 developers

Quick Take

  • The raise values Saga, which broke cover in March, at $130 million.
  • The protocol gives web3 developers access to dedicated “chainlets” to help scale their operations.

A protocol focused on carving out dedicated blockchain space for gaming and entertainment developers today announced a $6.5 million seed-stage fundraise.

Saga, which broke cover in March after it was founded in late 2021, is now valued at $130 million.

Investors involved in the fundraise — which was denominated in as-yet-unlaunched tokens — included Maven 11, Longhash Ventures, Hypersphere, Figment, Polygon Studios, Samsung NEXT, Chorus One, GSR, C2X, CRIT Ventures, Akash Network, Unanimous Capital, Strangelove Ventures, Tess Ventures, Merit Circle, Hustle Fund, Polymer, Zaki Manian, Jae Kwon, Garrette Furo, Alex Shin, Nick Tomaino and other angel backers.

Saga had previously raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in late 2021 from Ignite, formerly Tendermint, as part of an incubation program.

“The purpose of Saga as a protocol is to ensure that developers get their own space in which to build because as more users come into web3, particularly in gaming and entertainment, the expectations around developer and user experience are going to grow higher and higher,” Saga’s co-founder and CEO Rebecca Liao told The Block.

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Saga seeks to solve this problem with so-called "chainlets" — dedicated blockchains that can be tailored to meet developers’ needs. Those wishing to build applications that incorporate crypto can do so using Saga’s chainlets directly, or by relying on them as a scaling solution for another layer 1 or layer 2 blockchain.

Liao says that web3, as it stands, cannot deal with more “experiential” apps — especially those involved in gaming and entertainment. She points to network congestion, performance issues stemming from slow throughput and high gas fees as key limiting factors. Saga’s chainlets, she says, can help developers overcome these.

With about 20 validators verifying transactions across of each of these through a shared security model, Liao says Saga can support as many as 1,000 chainlets in its current form. “A lot of the innovation is going to happen around validator orchestration and making sure that we are balancing the compute cycle accordingly,” she adds.

Saga is planning to launch its mainnet and token early next year. In the next few months, it will release an "AlphaNet" to begin onboarding developers and forging partnerships with infrastructure and gaming outfits.


© 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

Ryan Weeks is deals editor at the The Block, focused on fundraising, M&A and institutional trends in the crypto space, among other things. He is particularly interested in investigative work — so please send tips! Ryan previously worked at Financial News, Dow Jones as a fintech correspondent in London. Prior to that, he wrote for several different publications, including Sifted, AltFi and Wired. Beyond journalism, Ryan is a keen reader and writer. He enjoys all things active, especially running, rugby, climbing and tennis.