Kiln: Enterprise-Grade Staking Platform Closes $17 Million In Funding

By Annie Baker • Jan 22, 2024

Leading enterprise-grade staking platform Kiln announced the closing of a $17 million funding round led by 1kx, with participation from IOSG, Crypto.com, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, LBank, and further contributions from existing investors. And the assets raised will be used to fund Kiln’s global expansion, including the growth of its APAC division through the opening of its APAC Headquarters in Singapore in Q1 2024, and further product development by expanding its platform to encompass various reward mechanisms within DeFi.

Kiln’s white-label staking technology platform combines stakers, node operators and integrators with multiple applications and has been growing steadily over the past year. And since its launch, Kiln has cemented itself as one of the largest staking platforms in the market and now the largest operator of Ethereum validator nodes according to Rated. Kiln has increased its stake under management by over 5x in the last year alone, successfully executing integrations with multiple operators and integrators, including top-tier custody solutions, wallets, and exchanges.

Late last year, Kiln partnered with Ledger Live, Crypto.com and Coinbase to provide pooled staking services, allowing every ETH holder to access staking with any amount of ETH. In alignment with Kiln’s mission of maximum inclusivity, these latest integrations continue to expand access to value creation in the digital assets ecosystem.

This news follows an announcement in September that Coinbase Cloud has integrated Kiln’s On-Chain platform into its product offering enabling Coinbase Cloud to bring on-chain partial ETH staking capabilities to their clients, with limited engineering effort needed to integrate.

Since launching, Kiln has raised a total of $35 million from investors across various leading crypto investing groups, including Illuminate Financial, Kraken Ventures, Avon Ventures, Consensys, GSR, Leadblock Partners, Sparkle Ventures, XBTO and renewed participation from existing investors 3KVC, Blue Yard Capital, SV Angel and Alven among others.

KEY QUOTES:

“Today’s news demonstrates our commitment to growing our enterprise-grade staking platform and we are delighted to be joined by leading digital assets investors who are primed to help us achieve our goals. Our mission is to democratize value creation in the digital assets ecosystem, providing millions of users with easy access to rewards through our platform. We have an exciting lineup of products and upcoming expansion plans, including the establishment of an office in Singapore. This announcement marks the beginning of a series of exciting developments.”

– Laszlo Szabo, CEO and Co-founder at Kiln

“Financial institutions will become a dominant force in crypto, leveraging the immense market opportunity as they stake on behalf of their customers. Kiln emerges as the industry leader, offering the most comprehensive, secure, and sophisticated staking-as-a-service solution. We are thrilled to support Laszlo and his exceptional team as they pioneer global accessibility to staking solutions.”

– Christopher Heymann, Founding Partner at 1kx

“As entrepreneurs ourselves, we are always actively looking for high-potential and impact firms in key areas to support, particularly when based in markets in which we have a long-term commitment such as France. As we looked to launch our pooled staking feature within our DeFi wallet, Kiln was the ideal partner for us to work with. The team’s track record and their approach to creating enterprise-grade infrastructure impressed us and gave us the confidence to work together on this product but also to become a long-term partner and investor in the business in this latest funding round.”

– Eric Anziani, President and Chief Operating Officer at Crypto.com