zkPass raises $12.5 million Series A at $100 million token valuation

zkPass, a privacy-preserving protocol for data verification, has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round.

Investors in the round included dao5, Animoca Brands, Flow Traders, Amber Group, IOBC Capital, Signum Capital, MH Ventures and WAGMI Ventures, zkPass said Thursday. There was no lead investor in the round as zkPass aimed to let all investors contribute more than they could have if one lead investor took a large share, co-founder and CTO Bing Jiang told The Block.

zkPass began raising funds for the Series A round at the end of last year and closed it in May, Jiang said. The funding was structured as a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT), giving zkPass a fully diluted token valuation of $100 million. The zkPass token is expected to launch in the first quarter of next year, Jiang said.

The Series A round brings zkPass' total funding to $15 million, following a $2.5 million seed round in August 2023 from Binance Labs, Sequoia China, OKX Ventures and others.

What is zkPass?

zkPass is a zero-knowledge proof-based data verification protocol that allows users to prove information without sharing the actual data, such as identity or financial records. Users can generate a "proof" from a website where personal information is stored, like a bank or social media account. This proof verifies specific details — such as the existence of an account or the duration of a relationship with a service — without disclosing any sensitive information. The proof can then be securely shared with others, such as lenders or decentralized apps, for verification purposes without revealing the underlying data.

"Right now, we have over two million proofs generated from 70+ web data sources," Jiang said. "ZK-based technology is still at such an early stage that we believe the vast majority of opportunity lies ahead — not just for our firm, but for the industry as a whole."

Earlier this week, zkPass' competitor, Opacity Labs, the developer behind Opacity Network — a data verification platform using zero-knowledge proofs — also raised $12 million in a seed funding round co-led by Archetype and Breyer Capital.

zkPass currently has a team of 26 employees, and Jiang plans to hire a few more people across engineering, marketing and business development functions.

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