After leaving Meta, ex-Diem employees raise $200 million for new blockchain project Aptos

• Ex-Diem employees have raised $200 million for a new blockchain project called Aptos.
• The blockchain network plans to live sometime between July to September this year.
• The founders are happy to be free of scrutiny after moving on from its parent Meta (formerly Facebook).

Mark Zuckerberg may have given up on the idea of creating a cryptocurrency, but ex-Diem employees behind the project are happy to have a fresh slate to kick off their new blockchain project, Aptos.

The startup has raised $200 million to launch the new network after being sold off by Facebook-parent Meta in February. According to the founders, former Meta employees Mo Shaikh and Avery Ching, leaving Facebook has been a blessing in disguise for the company – especially when it comes to scrutiny from the law.

The funding round was led by capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which has pumped money into at least 50 crypto startups betting big on blockchain technology and web3. Other firms like Three Arrows Capital, FTX Ventures, Paxos, and Coinbase Ventures also participated.

Aptos has not shared a specific valuation but told TechCrunch the company’s overall worth is “well off into the unicorn territory.”

Aptos – the new face of Diem

The influx of fresh capital will be used onboard new staff and to support the developers who plan on building out their projects on the Aptos blockchain.

According to the company, the blockchain’s underlying vision is based on “absolute safety, extensible scalability, and credible neutrality.” Aptos uses the Move language to code its blockchain, which was originally built for Diem, which incorporates all three aspects from their point of view.

Over the past couple of weeks, the startup has been showcasing decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible token (NFT), web3, and other projects that are in development. Developers have another six months to build them out with Aptos expecting its Mainnet launch to happen sometime between July to September this year.

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