Decentralized blockchain infrastructure node provider Gateway.fm today announced that the company has raised $4.6 million in seed funding to provide developers tools for accessing scalable Web3 infrastructure so they can build decentralized applications.

The round was led by Lemniscap, an investment firm specializing in cryptoassets and blockchain startups, with participation from other notable investors in crypto, including among others the Fantom Foundation, Unstoppable Domains Ventures, CMT Digital Ventures and the LAO DAO.

Blockchain and Web3 technology depend on node infrastructure to operate, where nodes validate and store data in decentralized networks instead of a centralized authority. Nodes are run on devices, such as a computer, server or specialized machine that stores a full transaction history of the blockchain and runs all of computation on the network.

Accessing this network to read, write and perform computation requires node infrastructure that integrates with current blockchains and protocols that can link into the network with the appropriate access. Gateway.fm’s solutions offer this access for multiple blockchains in a decentralized manner without relying on centralized services such as Amazon Web Services.

“I’ve felt that the spirit of decentralization at the heart of the Web3 movement has been undermined by limited access to scalable infrastructure. No more,” said Cuautemoc Weber, co-founder and chief executive of Gateway.fm. “We want to provide reliable node infrastructure, best-in-class validators and robust dev tooling to help Web3 projects scale at pace, while enticing financial institutions and enterprises to explore blockchain technology with confidence.”

Using its services, Web3 companies can access nodes directly using remote procedure calls and eschew any middlemen, allowing it to provide a highly decentralized service.

The company provides access to free Public RPC calls for up to 30 requests per second on the Ethereum mainnet to test the service. The company also offers an enterprise offering with unlimited requests for businesses and elastic pricing and advanced analytics.

Using Gateway Grow, clients can quickly build node networks for Ethereum staking, a way to use the ether cryptocurrency to help maintain the security of the blockchain and earn rewards. By staking a cryptocurrency, users lock it up for a period of time to prove that they have a “stake” in the blockchain, which in turn provides them with a reward during transaction validation. Grow can connect to proof-of-stake chains such as Ethereum, Gnosis and IXO.

With Gateway Access, the company provides high-speed, scalable Web3 RPC node service for clients looking for decentralized blockchain access. It is currently available in Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany and provides 3,000 procedure calls per second or 260 million per day. Access currently supports Ethereum, Gnosis, Fantom and NEAR.

Finally, Gateway Jumpstart helps allow engineers developing new blockchains and protocols to rapidly get their projects off the ground and drive user adoption by providing decentralized scalable decentralized node access for early development.

The blockchain infrastructure solution industry is filled with big players, including well-known companies such as Alchemy, Infura and Blockdaemon. More recently, large cloud providers Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google Cloud have also begun to offer nodes-as-a-service solutions. Even the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Inc. launched Node, a blockchain node infrastructure solution as part of Coinbase Cloud.

Gateway.fm said it plans to use the new funding to scale up its engineering department and expedite product development of its current solutions with an eye to advanced staking services.

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