Shopify, the service provider which helps medium sized businesses and merchants to set up shops on the internet through its web platform, is increasing its investments in Web3. It has joined a series A funding round for Thirdweb, a startup that is developing tools for Web3, which is a future vision of the web that is based on decentralization and blockchain.
Web3 technology is growing by leaps and bounds as investors, retailers, luxury brands, sports clubs, banks, celebrity influencers and almost all major industries invest directly or indirectly in blockchain and non fungible tokens (NFTs). It is built on decentralized blockchain and includes applications such as NFTs, the metaverse as envisaged by Meta, formerly called Facebook and blockchain games.
In a report by Forbes, Brandon Chu, vice president of product acceleration at Shopify sent an email to the outlet explaining the company’s decision to invest in Thirdweb. Chu said that Shopify’s “shift to a decentralized internet infrastructure (Web3)” had already started and the shift to Web3 would accelerate as Thirdweb had “built an incredible platform.”
The vice president added that there would be a simplification in “block-chain enabled applications” being developed with their strategic investment in Thirdweb as well as their collaboration with the Web3 platform. This new collaboration will enable the developer ecosystem of Shopify to have the tools that are required “to effectively build on Web3.”
Thirdweb has operations in London and headquarters in San Francisco, California. The company’s latest round of funds is co-led by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Shopify. Haun Ventures was founded by Katie Haun, an ex-partner of a16z. Coinbase has already worked in the past with Thirdweb to build its NFTs. Shopify is considered to be both an investor as well as a partner of Thirdweb. Polygon is also a strategic backer. These backers have joined investors such as Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk and others who had invested $5 million in the start-up’s seed round as it set up shop on Web3 using blockchain.
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