Thru will launch a new virtual machine ThruVM based on RISC-V, and the co-founder was previously a core member of the Jump Crypto Firedancer team.
Author: Alex Liu, Foresight News
Cover: Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash
On the evening of April 29, Unto Labs announced the completion of a $14.4 million financing round. This article will comprehensively analyze Unto Labs and its flagship project Thru from aspects such as financing background, team introduction, project technical characteristics, and differences from other blockchain projects.
Financing Details: $14.4 Million Funding, Valuation Reaches $140 Million
According to Fortune, Unto Labs completed a $14.4 million financing round led by Framework Ventures and Electric Capital, with the company's valuation reaching $140 million. The funds will be primarily used for two purposes: expanding team size and accelerating the R&D and ecosystem development of the Thru blockchain.
Currently, the Unto Labs team has only 5 employees and has raised approximately 100 million yuan. They stated in an interview that they plan to expand the team to 10 people by the end of the year.
According to their recruitment page, they currently have open positions for crypto application engineers, tooling engineers, system engineers, as well as three business roles including communication lead and community lead, all requiring full-time offline work in San Francisco, USA.
Team Strength: Experienced Founders
Unto Labs was co-founded by Will Yoo and Liam Heeger.
Liam Heeger:
Unto Labs was led by Liam Heeger, a former core engineer at Jump Crypto. He was a core member of the Firedancer client team, leading the development of Solana's high-performance client.
In January this year, Heeger left to start his own business and was immediately sued by his former employer for allegedly creating a "competitive business". Now, after reaching a settlement, Heeger has announced his new project.
Will Yoo:
Will Yoo previously worked at Misfits Market, accumulating rich experience in market innovation and operations. He is responsible for product and ecosystem strategy, working with Heeger to create Thru's technical blueprint and roadmap.
Although the Unto Labs team is small, its members are industry elites focused on blockchain technology's underlying R&D and applications.
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Virtual Machine Design Innovation: Existing blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum and Solana, mostly use virtual machines (like EVM) designed specifically for cryptocurrencies. While these virtual machines are powerful, they often require developers to learn new, proprietary programming languages and tools, which is a significant barrier for developers outside the cryptocurrency field. ThruVM avoids this issue by adopting RISC-V, making Thru more accessible to traditional developers.
Compatibility and Scalability: Thru's design goal is to match global-scale applications, which means it needs to handle high concurrency and high-performance requirements. Through RISC-V, Thru can better utilize existing hardware resources and achieve higher scalability.
Mainstreaming Promotion: Unto Labs clearly states that Thru's goal is to promote blockchain technology's mainstream adoption. By using a universal computing architecture, Thru hopes to break down the "barriers" of blockchain development and enable more non-cryptocurrency enterprises and developers to participate in Web3 construction.
Compared to other blockchain platforms, Thru's focus on developer-friendliness and mainstreaming promotion is impressive. This not only helps expand the application range of blockchain technology but also injects new vitality into the Web3 ecosystem. Thru's RISC-V strategy is considered an important step towards blockchain technology's mainstream adoption.
Currently, Thru has not yet launched a testnet or other early participation channels, and interested readers are advised to continue following official information.
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