Unto Labs Raises $14.4M to Challenge Solana with Thru

Unto Labs, a new player in the blockchain space, has recently garnered attention for its ambitious plans to compete with established platforms like Solana. The company's cofounders, Will Yoo and Liam Heeger, have expressed their confidence in taking on the challenge, despite initial skepticism from the community.

Yoo and Heeger both have extensive experience in building high-performance systems, which they believe gives them an edge over other teams in the space. They have stated that they admire Solana and view it as a formidable competitor, expressing honor in the prospect of competing with them. Unto Labs plans to differentiate itself by replacing the Solana virtual machine with its own solution, Thru.

Heeger, who previously worked at Jump Crypto, left the company to start Unto Labs with Yoo. This transition was not without controversy, as Jump filed a lawsuit against Heeger after his departure. The case was eventually dismissed, and Unto Labs secured a term sheet from Electric Capital the following day, leading their seed round.

The company has raised $14.4 million in a combined pre-seed and seed round, with Framework Ventures leading the pre-seed investment. The funds will be used to develop the core infrastructure of Thru and build an ecosystem around it. Unto Labs believes that by going first-party rather than third-party, they can achieve capital efficiency despite the capital-intensive nature of the project.

In their manifesto, Unto Labs argues that existing blockchains have lost their way and that Thru's consensus mechanism scales through competition rather than accumulation. The goal is to not only compete with other Web3 projects but also to challenge Web2 platforms.

When asked about their plans for the next year, Yoo and Heeger stated that they aim to create something incredible, even if it takes time. They are focused on the long-term vision and believe that their approach will allow them to stand out in the competitive blockchain landscape.