Modular blockchain developer Lava raises $15 million, offering reward points called Magma

Lava Network, a modular blockchain infrastructure developer, has raised $15 million in a seed funding round ahead of its mainnet launch.

Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital and Tribe Capital co-led the round, with North Island Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Alliance DAO, Node Capital, Finality Capital Partners, and others participating, Lava said Thursday. Unidentified executives from Celestia, Cosmos, StarkWare, Filecoin and other blockchain ecosystems also participated in the round, Lava added.

Lava was founded in 2022. The firm's CEO, Yair Cleper, said the seed round closed last December. He declined to comment on the structure of the round and valuation.

What is Lava Network?

Lava is a modular blockchain network focused on providing data access through remote procedure calls (RPCs) and indexing. In web3, application developers need to make RPC requests to send and retrieve blockchain data, while indexing helps them get specific data from a blockchain network.

“Developers use Lava to retrieve and send blockchain data (‘access blockchains’),” Cleper said. “New chains and APIs are added permissionlessly to Lava, which means the network can dynamically and quickly support access to all of web3.”

Lava can be compared with the popular modular blockchain network Celestia, but the latter is focused on data availability, and the former is focused on data access, Cleper said.

The Lava network is currently in testnet. Last month, it launched an incentivized public RPC service on NEAR, Evmos, Axelar, and other blockchains and plans to add more chains in the near future.

Blockchain node operators join Lava and get rewarded for providing performant RPCs. “Rewards are distributed based on volume served and quality of service, i.e., speed, uptime, and accuracy, thereby optimizing performance for developers and users,” Cleper said.

Lava aims to launch its mainnet in the first half of this year. There are currently 26 people working for Lava, 20 of which are blockchain engineers, Cleper said, adding that the project is looking to hire more people.

Lava aims to introduce its modular approach to oracles, sequencing, and other blockchain data infrastructure in the future, serving as a "permissionless everything store for any web3 service."

Lava reward points Magma

Ahead of its mainnet, Lava has today introduced a reward points program called Magma. Users can earn Magma points by switching their RPC connection to Lava, Cleper said. He declined to comment on whether Magma points will be redeemable for Lava’s own token in the future.

Points are becoming increasingly popular among crypto projects to reward loyal users. Crypto projects have given out over 40 billion reward points so far, as The Block reported recently.