The NEAR Foundation has raised $150 million in new funding to accelerate its mission to help billions of people learn and use blockchain and decentralized technologies at the heart of the fast-emerging, so-called web3.

Three Arrows Capital led the round. Also participating were Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, a16z, Jump, Alameda, Zee Prime, Folius, Amber Group, 6th Man Ventures, Circle Ventures and MetaWeb.vc.

Including the new round, NEAR has raised $162 million in venture capital funding to date, according to data from Crunchbase. The foundation has also raised additional funding through token sales.

Founded in 2018, NEAR offers the NEAR Protocol, a scalable blockchain designed to provide the performance and user experience necessary to bridge the gap to mainstream adoption of decentralized applications. The foundation’s blockchain has been built from the ground up with ease of use in mind for both developers and end-users while still providing scalability.

The foundation argues that the creator economy requires robust infrastructure, including intuitive developers and an engaged decentralized community. That community includes creators on nonfungible tokens or NFTs, decentralized autonomous organizations and decentralized finance.

While emphasizing ease of use, the ability to scale is also at the forefront of NEAR’s pitch, with the foundation claiming it’s eliminating the barriers to web3 adoption. The blockchain offers what the foundation says is high speeds, low fees and a progressive user interfaces, with a climate-neutral blockchain designed for high growth.

The NEAR Protocol does offer a standalone blockchain but can also run in concert with Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos and other blockchains, facilitating a free flow of assets and communication between networks for a multichain future.

Since launching its mainnet in the fourth quarter of 2020, the NEAR network has processed more than 70 million transactions and supports more than 2.3 million accounts. It has 200,000 community members, 1,700 actively monthly builders and more than 100 guilds.

The new funding will be used to accelerate the adoption of web3 technologies through ecosystem funding, developing NEAR’s regional hubs and raising awareness for the brand. The foundation has already established communities in Asia, Africa and Europe and is looking to help support emerging communities in Latin America, Turkey and India.

“We are looking forward to leveraging the funding to improve access to blockchain technology in an ever-growing list of countries across the world,” Marieke Flament, NEAR Foundation’s chief executive officer, said in a Medium post.

Image: NEAR Foundation