Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom backs Aethir in funding round at $150 million valuation

Decentralized cloud infrastructure network Aethir completed a Pre-A funding round, bringing the total raised to date to over $9 million at a valuation of $150 million.

Aethir’s latest funding was led by Sanctor Capital, Hashkey, Merit Circle and CitizenX, with participation from Arthur Hayes’ Maelstrom, Mirana Ventures and Animoca Brands, among others, according to a statement. Aethir did not disclose the specific amount raised from this round.

The investment will fund the Singapore-based project’s expansion into key markets like South East Asia, Latin America and North America, as well as building out its decentralized cloud infrastructure to a growing network of AI companies and gaming studios, Aethir said.

“The cloud sector has traditionally been a challenging industry to scale, plagued by high costs, particularly for customers requiring complex real-time rendering or streaming infrastructure — and that’s not taking into account the additional stress on the ecosystem as a result of the AI boom,” Aethir co-founder and CEO Mark Rydon said.

Aethir’s latest fundraising

Aethir’s latest fundraising follows a previous Seed round led by Framework Ventures and Infinity Ventures Crypto in January 2022.

"We're backing projects that are using the blockchain to solve real-world issues. Aethir is meaningfully expanding the addressable market for gaming and other streaming content in the world's highest-growth (but hardware-constrained) markets. Everybody wins as Aethir expands — gamers, publishers and globally distributed rendering node operators alike,” Maelstrom CIO and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes said.

"For the metaverse to become a populated, engaging, virtual universe, the underlying infrastructure needs to support efficient, low-cost computation. Aethir is part of this next-generation infrastructure stack that unlocks the gaming and social communication possibilities we have been waiting for,” Sanctor Capital CEO Han Kao added.