Sequoia China and Dao5 back ZK startup Hyper Oracle

Zero-knowledge (ZK) middleware developer Hyper Oracle closed a $3 million round co-led by Sequoia China's seed fund and Dao5.

Foresight Ventures and FutureMoney Group also participated in the round, according to a company release.

Founded in 2022, Hyper Oracle is a developer of a suite of "Meta Apps," which include indexing and automation protocols for blockchains. A key component of these protocols is a ZK proving system that enables trustless transmission of blockdata, which is needed in indexing and automation tasks.

A ZK proof is a cryptographic technique that confirms whether a statement is true or false without revealing that statement’s contents. ZK technology is being used by Layer 2 scaling solutions called ZK-rollups to allow blockchains to validate transactions at a lower cost and in a faster timeframe.

Hyper Oracle is just one of a number of ZK startups that have raised funds this week including Ulvetanna, a startup that builds hardware to increase the efficiency of ZK proofs, and the Nil Foundation, a ZK data accessibility developer, which raised at a $220 million valuation.

Hyper Oracle's funding will be put toward research as well as the development of ZK oracle and blockchain infrastructure, the company said.

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