SphereX Gets $8.2 Million In Funding To Market Software To Web3 Developers

SphereX has raised $8.2 million in a seed funding round led by Aleph. The company secured this funding at a valuation of $24 million. The other investors participating in the funding round include Fabric Ventures, Mensch Capital Partners, and Pillar VC.

SphereX raises $8.2 million in a seed round

SphereX is a startup founded by Eyal Meron and Oren Fine. The startup seeks to close the gap between traditional finance and the crypto industry by making transactions more secure. As such, the company aims to ensure that the basic security measures seen in traditional finance, such as blocking suspicious transactions, are brought to the blockchain space.

The company has a product known as SphereX Protect. This product allows protocols and blockchain applications to halt suspicious transactions from being executed and replicating one of the first lines of defense in the traditional financial sector. According to Meron, cyber resilience was necessary in the blockchain industry.

Those developing protocols and applications can install the SphereX code within their software and later analyze past transactions that appear suspicious. The SphereX program will flag future transactions that are suspicious.

While speaking to Fortune, Meron, and Fine said they had tested the software against popular hacks and exploits in the last few years. They noted that adopting the program across the industry would have prevented over $2 billion worth of losses.

Before joining the cryptocurrency industry, Meron and Fine served in the cyber unit of the Israeli military, giving them extensive expertise in cybersecurity. Meron has also worked for a year at one of the largest financial companies in Israel, Bank Lumi, before partnering with Fine to start SphereX in July last year.

One of the principals at Pillar VC, Parker McKee, commented on this funding round, saying, “The market has been pigeonholed for years on monitoring solutions, while SphereX’s flagship product is focused on actually stopping malicious actors.”

Working with blockchain developers

The blockchain community prides itself on decentralization. As such, the ability to reverse blockchain transactions might raise concerns. However, Fine noted that SphereX would work with developers to maintain decentralized ethos.

Fine said that after SphereX has flagged a transaction, the developers can change the decision-making process. Moreover, the choice to reject a transaction permanently might be turned over to a few decision-makers or to the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which will preserve the values of the community.

Meron and Fine plan to use the funds raised to commence marketing activities on their software to Web3 developers. The platform plans to grow the team and deal with the fast-changing hacking industry. According to Meron, the move will ensure that bad actors are dealt with proactively.

SphereX is not the first cybersecurity startup to secure millions in funding over the past year. A report by Chainalysis noted that hackers stole nearly $4 billion from blockchain protocols in 2022 in multiple exploits. As such, firms have launched products seeking to safeguard blockchain applications and users.