5 employees raised 100 million, why did Thru gain capital favor?

Thru will launch a new RISC-V based Virtual Machine ThruVM, and the co-founder was a core member of the Jump Crypto Firedancer team.

Written by: Alex Liu, Foresight News

On the evening of April 29, Unto Labs announced the completion of a $14.4 million financing round. This article will comprehensively analyze Unto Labs and its flagship project Thru from aspects including the financing background, team introduction, project technical features, and the differences between Thru and other blockchain projects.

Financing details: $14.4 million in funding, with a valuation of $140 million

According to Fortune, Unto Labs has completed a $14.4 million funding round led by Framework Ventures and Electric Capital, with the company's valuation reaching $140 million. The funds will mainly be used for two purposes: first, to expand the team size, and second, to accelerate the research and development of the Thru blockchain and its ecosystem.

Currently, the Unto Labs team has only 5 employees and has completed approximately 100 million RMB in financing. In an interview, they stated plans to expand the team size to 10 by the end of the year. According to their recruitment page, there are three technical positions open: Crypto Application Engineer, Tooling Engineer, and Systems Engineer, as well as three business positions: Communication Manager and Community Manager, all requiring full-time on-site work in San Francisco, USA.

Team Strength: Experienced Founders

Unto Labs was co-founded by Will Yoo and Liam Heeger.

Liam Heeger:

Unto Labs was founded by Liam Heeger, a former core engineer at Jump Crypto, who was a key member of the Firedancer client team and led the development of the high-performance client for Solana. In January of this year, Heeger left to start his own venture, only to be sued by his former employer, who accused him of creating a "competing business". Now, after both parties have reached a settlement, Heeger has announced his new project.

Will Yoo:

Will Yoo previously worked at Misfits Market, accumulating rich experience in market innovation and operations. He was responsible for product and ecosystem strategy, and together with Heeger, created the technical blueprint and roadmap for Thru.

The team at Unto Labs may be small, but its members are all industry elites, focusing on the underlying research and application of blockchain technology.

Thru, exploration of the next generation Layer 1 blockchain

Thru is the flagship project of Unto Labs, aimed at building a Layer 1 blockchain platform that can compete with globally scaled applications. The design intention of Thru is to address the shortcomings of existing blockchain technology in terms of performance, scalability, and developer friendliness, providing a more efficient and open underlying architecture for Web3.

Thru's target market is not limited to the cryptocurrency sector, but is aimed at all developers and enterprises that need to build decentralized applications (dApps). Thru supports trading, interaction with crypto applications, and the development of financial tools, aiming to become a universal blockchain platform that meets the needs of large-scale applications globally.

Technical Features: The combination of ThruVM and RISC-V

The core technology of Thru is ThruVM, a virtual machine specifically designed for blockchain, but its RISC-V architecture features give it significant advantages in performance and compatibility. Here are the main technical features of Thru:

• RISC-V Architecture: RISC-V is an open instruction set architecture that allows software to interact directly with hardware. This enables ThruVM to utilize traditional hardware resources (such as servers and laptops) more efficiently, rather than relying on virtual machines specifically designed for cryptocurrencies.
• Performance Improvement: Through RISC-V, ThruVM can better map to conventional hardware, providing higher computing efficiency and lower resource consumption. According to a report by Fortune, this will significantly enhance Thru's scalability to meet the demands of high concurrency scenarios.
• Developer-friendly: RISC-V is widely used in traditional computing, which means that developers from non-cryptocurrency fields can easily get started with Thru. This greatly lowers the barrier to blockchain development and helps attract more traditional software developers to join the Web3 ecosystem.
• Tool Support: RISC-V has a wealth of development tools and ecological support, and ThruVM can directly utilize these resources, reducing the learning cost for developers.

Thru's technical design not only enhances the performance of the blockchain but also provides developers with a more open and flexible development environment. This makes Thru suitable not only for cryptocurrency applications but also capable of supporting a wider range of industry needs, such as finance, supply chain, gaming, and more.

Unique Features: Breakthrough the Limitations of Traditional Blockchain

The uniqueness of Thru is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Innovation in Virtual Machine Design: Existing blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum and Solana, mostly use virtual machines (like EVM) that are specifically designed for cryptocurrencies. While these virtual machines are powerful, they often require developers to learn new, proprietary programming languages and tools, which poses a significant barrier for developers from non-cryptocurrency fields. ThruVM addresses this issue by adopting RISC-V, making Thru more accessible to traditional developers.

Compatibility and Scalability: The design goal of Thru is to match applications on a global scale, which means it needs to handle high concurrency and high-performance demands. Through RISC-V, Thru can better utilize existing hardware resources to achieve greater scalability.

Mainstream Push: Unto Labs has clearly stated that Thru's goal is to promote the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology. By utilizing a universal computing architecture, Thru aims to break down the "barriers" of blockchain development, allowing more businesses and developers from non-cryptocurrency sectors to participate in the construction of Web3.

Compared to other blockchain platforms, Thru's emphasis on developer-friendliness and mainstream adoption is impressive. This not only helps to expand the application scope of blockchain technology but also injects new vitality into the Web3 ecosystem. Thru's RISC-V strategy is considered an important step towards the mainstreaming of blockchain technology.

Currently, Thru has not launched a testnet or any other early participation channels. Interested readers can continue to pay attention to subsequent official information.