Blockchain Firm Skynet Labs Shutters After Failing to Get New Funding

Skynet Labs, which is behind decentralized platform Skynet, is shutting down after the company couldn’t raise more funds. It will also be cutting jobs, according to a blog post Friday.

CORRECTION (Aug. 13, 22:52 UTC): Clarifies Skynet's relationship to Siacoin, which was taken over by a completely separate non-profit organization, the Sia Foundation, in 2021.

In 2020, the startup formerly known as Nebulous, raised $3 million in a funding round led by crypto investing giant Paradigm. Skynet Labs was formed as the company sought to focus on Skynet, a decentralized storage and app hosting platform to buildout a decentralized internet.

“It is with regret that we announce Skynet Labs has been unable to complete its next round of fundraising and will be shutting down,” CEO David Vorick wrote in the blog post. Skynet, however, will continue to operate as a platform, he said, adding that user files will stay online, and key portions of the infrastructure will continue to be actively developed.

"Not the outcome we wanted, but not the end of the road for Skynet either," Vorick also said in a Tweet on Friday.

Read more: Blockchain File Storage and the Fight Against Ransomware

Skynet Labs has cut headcount by half and will decrease the number of employees even more over the next month. “Much of what Skynet has accomplished, including its ability to continue operating in the face of Skynet Lab’s dissolution, and including its ability to provide value to the wider Web3 ecosystem, is owed to the efforts and contributions of the Skynet Labs team members,” Vorick added.

On July 26, Vorick laid out road map for Skynet in a blog post and said the team has been focusing on decentralization and Web3 user experience similar to Web2. "Achieving both of those things at the same time has required a substantial amount of innovation, but we are fortunate enough to have a team that is more than capable of consistently churning out new updates that push the boundaries of our industry," he said.