Portuguese cybersecurity protocol Naoris raised $11.5 million in an equity and token sale with participation from Tim Draper’s Draper Associates, Holt Xchange and other investors, the company said Wednesday.

According to CEO and founder David Carvalho, Naoris will use the funding to expand and scale its operations, creating a decentralized proof-of-security consensus mechanism by the end of 2022.

Carvalho, who has worked in cybersecurity for the past two decades, is building a multichain layer 2 and layer 3 protocol, building on security and decentralization. His team is addressing the “points of failure” for Web2 and Web3, helping cybersecurity pivot to blockchain technology.

Users will be allowed to create individual validator nodes in a cybersecurity mesh network, where peer-to-peer transactions are distributed across devices, furthering network decentralization.

Naoris is built on top of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which aids the protocol in executing transactions atop Ethereum. According to Carvalho, “from a cybersecurity perspective, it's probably the most audited piece of code in the space.”

With the upcoming Ethereum merge scheduled for September, Ethereum users are anticipating its switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, which some have said will lead to centralization of the chain.

Naoris is seeking to change this sentiment.

The EVM allows the network to operate on a secure foundation. According to Carvalho, the validators work “across verge clusters,” which can also be described as a shards of the chain, making nodes extremely difficult to breach.

Carvalho is targeting those seeking to transition from Web2 to Web3. Naoris' security features make decentralization ideal for users new to the space that have concerns about the privacy of data living on the blockchain.

He sees the current crypto bear market as an even better time to make a change.

“It has the effect of like clarity of mind. All the noise disappears, and suddenly people are interested,” Carvalho told CoinDesk.

Other investors in the round were Holdun Opportunity Fund, Brendan Holt Dunn, Holdun Family Office, SDC Management, Expert Dojo, Uniera, Level One Robotics and multiple individual angel investors.