(Rejected) Blockchain Development Company Community Labs Completed a $30M Series A Funding Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners

On September 8, according to Bloomberg News, Community Labs, a software company and venture capital studio designed to support the Arweave ecological project, has completed a $30 million Series A financing led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Other investors include Arweave, Bain Capital Crypto and Blockchain Capital.

Community Labs valuation has not been disclosed. The company's founder, Tate Berenbaum, was a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Virginia.

Berenbaum's studies have been delayed because of the company's creation, but he said he has no plans to return to campus at this time, and may focus on building software and development tools on the Arweave platform.

Arweave is an information technology company that specializes in data storage, blockchain, and serverless web.

The platform also archives digital records of the Ukrainian war, such as tweets and videos documenting the conflict.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, UK, the company has a software platform that provides users with an unparalleled level of data replication and security, as well as economic incentives for network participants.

Tate Berenbaum has built Verto, a decentralized exchange on Arweave, and will continue to explore other uses of Arweave to bring Arweave closer to blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, etc. for financial use cases.

Samuel Harrison, senior advisor to Lightspeed and founder and managing partner of Lightspeed Faction, said in an interview with Bloomberg that：

“Our team is still interested in backing projects like Community Labs despite the onset of the crypto winter. We really don’t try to ramp up or round down our investment activity based on the cycle.”