Web3 Security Startup Shield Raises $2.1M in Pre-Seed Funding

Web3 security firm Shield said Thursday it raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to build an industry standard that keeps businesses and consumers safe from potential threats.

The funding round for the company, which is also member of crypto investment firm a16z’s Crypto Startup School, included participation from Kraken Ventures, Eterna Capital, Alchemy, MoonPay and Rob Behnke, CEO of crypto security firm Halborn.

Emmanuel Udotong, CEO and co-founder of Shield, told CoinDesk the company aims to build an industry standard for companies in the Web3 space to securely operate their businesses.

Shield starts with a certification program that helps businesses determine where their vulnerabilities lie and then recommends products to keep users safe. Currently, Shield offers an API that helps identify potential scams within a protocol, as well as a Discord bot that helps monitor community-based malicious activity.

Shield Chief Operating Officer and co-founder Isaiah Udotong told CoinDesk that much of the security necessary for Web3 stems from the same problems users faced in early days of the internet.

“In the early 2000s e-commerce scammers were stealing credit card details from people when they were entering credit cards to buy products online,” said Udotong. “That problem was solved with a secure sockets layer (SSL), and that's what we're doing in 2023 – we're building a scam-free layer for crypto.”

Luis Carchi, chief technology officer of Shield, told CoinDesk that Web3 security is multifaceted, and that it’s necessary for the company to implement multiple products to ensure Web3 businesses are protected.

“We aren't trying to be ‘the Chrome extension,’ or ‘the Discord bot,’” said Carchi. “We're actually thinking about this from a full-stack point of view, and we’re being as holistic as possible.”

Shield has already amassed over 350,000 users and has clients including entertainment company Fox Sports, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible and token-gated infrastructure platform Guild.xyz.

Shield aims to use the funding to build out its engineering team, as well as devote resources to research and development as Web3 technology – and scammers – becomes more advanced.

Edited by Toby Leah Bochan.

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