Inco Raises $4.5 Million in Seed Funding
Inco, a modular blockchain developer focused on confidentiality, has secured $4.5 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by crypto-focused venture firm 1kx, with participation from Circle Ventures, GSR, Polygon Ventures, Robot Ventures, Alliance DAO, zkSync developer Matter Labs, and others. The funding round began in September and closed in November. It was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) plus token warrants. Inco founder Remi Gai did not disclose the valuation of the company.
Inco Launches Testnet and Plans for Mainnet Release
Inco, founded in August, has launched its first testnet called Gentry. The second testnet, Paillier, is scheduled for release between the second and third quarters of this year, with the mainnet set to launch in the fourth quarter.
What is Inco?
Inco is a modular, interoperable Layer 1 blockchain network that focuses on bringing confidentiality to decentralized applications. While other projects focus on data availability and data access, Inco prioritizes confidentiality. It integrates fully homomorphic encryption to keep on-chain data confidential yet auditable.
Strategic Partnerships and Advisors
Inco has formed a strategic partnership with Zama, an FHE research company. Rand Hindi, CEO of Zama, is an advisor to Inco along with Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, and Anand Iyer, managing general partner at Canonical Crypto and venture partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Inco’s Technology Stack
Inco is built using the Cosmos SDK and will be secured by Ethereum via EigenLayer. The project plans to implement dual staking (ETH + INCO) to benefit from Ethereum’s larger economic security and stability. Inco will also support other public Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.
Inco’s Vision for Confidential Decentralized Applications
Once launched, Inco aims to create an ecosystem of confidential decentralized applications. Solidity developers can easily create these dApps within 20 minutes using Inco’s technology. The company currently has eight employees and plans to hire more engineers and additional staff after the mainnet launch.
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