Bastion: Enterprise-Focused Web3 Orchestrator Company Raises $25 Million In Funding

By Annie Baker • Sep 22, 2023

Bastion – an enterprise-focused web3 orchestrator – recently announced the launch of its product suite, enabling companies to seamlessly integrate web3 infrastructure into enterprise technologies through a compliant white-label platform. Bastion also revealed it had secured $25 million in seed financing led by a16z crypto, with additional participation from Autograph, Laser Digital Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Robot Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, and Aptos Ventures. This seed round will be used to scale Bastion’s operations, recruit top engineering talent, and secure additional licensing to diversify Bastion’s product offerings. 

With Bastion’s proprietary routing system, companies can now utilize the utility of the blockchain only when necessary, providing a pragmatic solution for web3 implementation. Bastion (founded by the former Chief Technology Officer and Chief Security Officer of a16z crypto) empowers enterprises to develop products and experiences that unlock the full potential of web3 for their end users by allowing brands to implement new or expand existing infrastructure. And through its comprehensive platform, Bastion eliminates the need to individually source solutions such as custody, wallet management, and user onboarding. Bastion combines the simplicity of web2 with the efficiencies of web3, so businesses can create faster, easier ways for people to pay, play, connect, and shop while offering valuable insights through data analytics.

Bastion’s product suite is supported by three key pillars that underlie its proprietary web3 infrastructure services and separates the company from other web3 infrastructure providers – ownership & monetization of digital goods, smart transaction routing, and customer analytics.

Ownership And Monetization of Digital Goods

The Bastion product suite offers deeper connections between brands and end users by fostering a sense of ownership. And unlike its competitors, Bastion has adopted a custodial wallet model to provide enterprises with the control and security to ensure their web3 initiatives are successful. 

Through Bastion, end users receive the benefits of digital ownership without the hassle of managing a wallet. Bastion maintains the wallet’s private keys, allowing for on-chain transfers while making password recovery simple for end-users. And rather than entering a 12 or 24-word seed phrase, users seamlessly log in to their accounts using their web2 credentials without ever realizing Bastion and blockchain technology are working on the back end.

Smart Transaction Routing

Smart transaction routing recognizes when a transaction requires the utility of a blockchain and when it does not, enabling transactions to be completed rapidly and economically while enhancing the customer experience. Automatically routing interactions off-chain makes more transactions free, instant, and entirely private, utilizing the best elements of web2 and web3 to maximize the user experience.

Customer Analytics

The Bastion product suite develops a better understanding of end-users over time by compliantly accumulating data and insights, offering enhanced value to enterprises. And tracking analytics enables companies to learn from users’ on-chain and off-chain activity outside of their own platform, offering them to provide customized recommendations for products and services to end-users. By utilizing blockchain technology, these insights ultimately provide smoother interaction between web2 ecosystems.

KEY QUOTES:

“We founded Bastion to enable businesses to onboard their products and end-users into a web3 environment without the complicated, overwhelming experience we know today. Web3 technologies have tremendous promise but until now, have lacked the enterprise-level infrastructure necessary to support tangible web3 use cases. Additionally, the blockchain industry is at an inflection point, ready to transition into a regulated and safe environment that allows brands and enterprises to thrive. We believe that by leveraging the ease and high-quality user interfaces already working in web2, we can create more immersive and engaging products for users without disrupting the user experience.”

— Nassim Eddequiouaq, co-founder of Bastion

“Many of the products and services we use daily can be radically improved by blockchain technology, and we’re excited to be able to provide seamless web3 experience that is intuitive and ready for mass adoption. With Bastion, startups and legacy businesses alike now have a pragmatic, accessible platform to improve complex e-commerce flows, including subscriptions, buy-now-pay-later, loyalty programs, and more. We are pushing the boundaries of what enterprises can offer in an increasingly digital world, and Bastion is going to redefine how enterprises leverage this technology to improve their product offerings and user experiences.”

— Riyaz Faizullabhoy, co-founder of Bastion