Chia Startup Valuation Stands at $500 Million, Considering Going for IPO

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by Patrick Kariuki · 3 min read
Chia Startup Valuation Stands at $500 Million, Considering Going for IPO
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Chia eyes an IPO in the course of the year. If presented with a lucrative SPAC deal the company wouldn’t shy away from exploring the opportunity.

Chia Inc, a blockchain digital assets network, founded by Bram Cohen, BitTorrent‘s founder, has seen its valuation doubling to $500 million after having additional funding to a tune of $61 million. The company sourced its funds through some of the industry’s key players including Andreessen Horowitz, and Richmond Global. Now there are talks that Chia may go for an IPO.

A source, privy to the funding deal, disclosed that apart from the investors named above, the funding round wasn’t short of other investors who included Naval Ravikant, Breuer Capital, DHVC, and Slow Ventures among others. After the funding round Chia network, a Francisco-based Blockchain startup, ended up with a valuation of $500 Million.

Chia Boss Sentiments on the Company’s Future and Possible IPO

Gene Hoffman, who is the company’s COO and president, indicated that they wanted to simplify the use of digital currencies and make it more user-friendly when compared to traditional cash. In an interview, the network founder likened the recent funding deal to “rocket fuel”, which will propel and accelerate the network’s vision and ambition of becoming an alternate and efficient vehicle for payments and trading that appeals to banks, governments, and all institutions in need of financial services.

On matters IPO, Hoffman revealed that Chia eyes an IPO in the course of the year. He however noted that if presented with a lucrative SPAC deal the company wouldn’t shy away from exploring the opportunity. Speaking of the company’s goal, he revealed that their aim to go public is informed by the need to help clients address and mitigate volatility issues using the digital currency that’s different from the other digital coins.

Chia’s Insider Assessment

The Chia network considers its activities as eco-friendly and noble. Granted, its core business is not as energy-intensive as traditional mining. The company’s president Hoffman noted that currently, the startup is the biggest storage-based Blockchain- almost doubling Filecoin, in addition to being an eco-friendly venture.

A key investor, Richmond Global, noted through its Managing partner, David Frazee, that some of the outstanding features of the Chia Coin are security, efficiency, and compliance to regulations.which makes it a favorite choice for multinationals and even monetary authorities. In a statement, David Frazee compared Bitcoin and the Chia coin in the most humorous way. He was quoted saying that “Chia is what Bitcoin would look like if it was designed with knowledge from the last thirteen years”. Richmond Global’s managing partner is believed to be joining Chia network’s board. However, he’s not new to Chia’s affairs, being one of the company’s investors since 2018.

Key Takeaway

Being an eco-friendly digital asset, the Chia coin is definitely headed for growth, and will most likely achieve its vision of a successful IPO. Since its core business has a positive impact to the environment, it’s likely to appeal to many environmentally sensitive investors.

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