Blockchain management startup Blockdaemon Inc. today announced that it has raised $155 million in new funding to make strategic investments and hire more people.

The funding was raised on a valuation of $1.255 billion, giving Blockdaemon unicorn status for the first time.

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the Series B round. Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital also invested in the round, with previous investors Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital and Lerer Hippeau also participating.

Founded in 2017, Blockdaemon is a blockchain deployment facilitator that manages nodes and payment rails for blockchain networks. The company’s platform is designed to allow businesses and organizations to roll out their own blockchains and operate nodes, which store and preserve data.

Created to scan and deploy nodes more easily with security and monitoring both in the cloud and on-premises, the Blockdaemon solution is fully portable. Users can switch networks and chains with the click of a button, so they don’t have to be concerned about picking the perfect network configuration from the beginning.

As noted when the company raised $28 million in June, node infrastructure and monitoring, and its attendant health and scalability support, is essential. Successfully managing nodes allows exchanges, custodians, cryptocurrency platforms, financial institutions and developers to connect apps, users and more to blockchains.

Along with a 70 times increase in its valuation in the last year, the company has also seen a 20 times increase in revenue and five times increase in its headcount, though it didn’t provide absolute numbers. Blockdaemon has now averaged more than $10 billion in staked assets across the more thanr 40 protocols it supports.

The company has also launched over 10,000 Ethereum 2.0 validators across its network in the last six months.

“We are committed to a future of decentralized financial infrastructure and accelerating the ease of integration to bridge traditional banking to the crypto ecosystem,” Konstantin Richter, founder and chief executive officer of Blockdaemon, said in a statement. “As regulations get further defined, a backer of the caliber of SoftBank and Masa’s experience is crucial.”

Including the new funding, Blockdaemon has raised $191.3 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

Image: Blockdaemon