Layer 1 Quai Network closes $5 million strategic round

Layer 1 crypto network Quai Network has closed a $5 million strategic funding round with participation from Cogitent Ventures, MH Ventures, TPC Ventures, Giga Chad Ventures and DexCheck Ventures.

According to a press release, this brings its total funding up to $15 million after previous rounds, which saw $10 million secured from Polychain Capital, Alumni Ventures, and others.

The new funds will be used to scale the project's engineering and developer relations teams, support research and development efforts, and invest in community engagement initiatives, the project claims.

Quai is also launching its main net-compatible devnet — which precedes the protocol's fourth testnet and features workshares, UTXO transactions and dynamic sharding, according to the release. The project claims to introduce "the first decentralized energy dollar on the only scalable and programmable proof-of-work blockchain." The project uses a two-token system.

"Quai Network's unique hierarchical structure transforms scalability and security, eliminating the need to prioritize one over the other," Cogitent Ventures General Partner Sayantan Mitra said.

"By enabling seamless, trustless interactions across multiple chains and supporting fast, low-cost transactions, Quai addresses the pain points of multi-chain systems and sets the stage for high-throughput global execution," they added.

Quai was founded in 2022 and recently joined the UTXO Alliance. It has also formed strategic partnerships with PortalToBitcoin, Stork Network and IO.net.