Coinbase, Google veterans raise $5 million for a blockchain alternative to LinkedIn

Icebreaker, co-founded by Coinbase and Google veterans Dan Stone and Jack Dillé, has secured $5 million in seed funding at a $21 million valuation to scale its team and build blockchain’s answer to LinkedIn.

CoinFund led the raise, with participation from Accomplice, Anagram and Legion Capital, among others, according to a statement on Wednesday. The project wants to become “the world’s first open professional network," founded on the belief that people’s digital identity shouldn’t be owned by a single entity like LinkedIn.

“One of the next significant use cases for crypto is to develop foundational social graphs for applications to leverage. We are proud to back Dan, Jack and their team in their mission to introduce true ownership of professional identity to everyone online,” CoinFund CEO Alex Felix said.

Icebreaker uses blockchain technology to enable users to consolidate their professional profiles and networks into a single channel, logging in with email, Farcaster or an Ethereum Wallet. Users can instantly verify their credentials and offer verifiable endorsements for people in their network. The founders aim to create an "open graph of reputation and identity" to challenge LinkedIn’s closed system, establishing a public ledger of shared context and trust.

“Digital networking is increasingly saturated with AI-driven noise and fake personas,” according to the founders. Dillé, a former design lead for Google Workspace, said existing platforms make it intentionally difficult to build and use our own connections, often requiring payment just to navigate our own network. "We have a core belief that data should be completely user-controlled, where people decide exactly what and how much they want to share with their connections, with no third-party intervention."

"The world runs on trust," Stone, a former product manager at Coinbase, added. "Until now, it's been impossible to see because our existing networks optimize for engagement over signal. Yet every leader knows the loudest or most followed person is rarely the best. Icebreaker lets you see who your close network trusts so you can cut through the noise to surface the talent and opportunities that are quiet, yet exceptional."

"I'm encouraged by this new wave of consumer startups that are implementing cryptography in a practical way," Dan Romero, co-founder of Web3 social network Farcaster and angel investor in Icebreaker, said. "If Icebreaker can issue and maintain offchain and onchain credentials at scale, it will dramatically pull crypto adoption forward by years."

Updated with additional details throughout.