Terminal 3, a Hong Kong-based Web3 startup, announced it has raised a seed funding round of $8 million. The funding round was co-led by Illuminate Financial and CMCC Titan Fund, with participation from Animoca Brands, Progression Fund, IDG Blockchain, and Cherubic Ventures. And the round also included additional investment from existing investors 500 Global, Consensys Mesh, Hard Yaka, and BlackPine.
What Terminal 3 does: Terminal 3 utilizes blockchain and privacy-enhancing technologies (such as zero-knowledge cryptography) to enable secure and self-sovereign storage of user data with fully private access for an array of applications from banking to government credentials, social media, and marketing. And in recent weeks, Terminal 3 has also announced an authentication and authorization platform for AI agents, providing trust, security, and privacy for autonomous transactions.
Terminal 3 founders: Terminal 3 was co-founded by Gary Liu, Malcolm Ong (CPO), and Joey Liu (COO), all with extensive experience at world-class technology companies, including Google, Spotify, Microsoft, and Uber. And more recently, the three of them led the digital transformation of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s century-old newspaper of record, where Gary was CEO from 2016 to 2022. Over the past 3 years, the co-founders have led the development of Terminal 3’s platform while advancing policies for adopting digital assets and open data across Asia and the Middle East.
What the funding will be used for: The funding will drive the development of a novel data privacy and security protocol due for launch later in the year and accelerate the adoption of the company’s decentralized identity and credentials platform for enterprises. Now, Terminal 3 already serves nearly 8 million users across multiple blockchains and industries. With this new funding, Terminal 3 will also continue to develop world-class data security and privacy solutions that protect the universal rights of users around the world.
KEY QUOTES:
“The demand for user data is growing exponentially, increasing the privacy risks for billions of people. At the same time, evolving data regulations and security requirements are saddling enterprises with major compliance burdens and costs, impacting user experience and restricting the adoption of emerging technologies such as AI. Our new funding will help advance Terminal 3’s enterprise solutions that empower businesses to grow with new technologies while protecting their users and cutting costs.”
Gary Liu, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
“We are at a critical inflection point for digital assets and decentralized technologies across global financial markets. The key for unlocking these massive opportunities is secure data and identity, and we believe that Terminal 3’s innovative solutions will accelerate the institutional adoption of both while creating a new era of digital trust. Illuminate is thrilled to be investing in this mission.”
Luca Zorzino, General Partner and Head of Asia at Illuminate Financial
“Terminal 3 was one of our fund’s first investments. The growth of the digital asset industry hinges on verifiable identity solutions that will address and incorporate regulatory compliance, interoperability, and trust by all industry participants. We believe the complementary mix of experience, expertise, and vision of the co-founders is unique in Web3, and has led to the company’s early growth and future potential. Titan is delighted to continue building with these exceptional industry leaders.”
Shiau Sin Yen, Co-founder and Managing Partner of CMCC’s Titan Fund
“The market for agentic AI is set to grow at a staggering 4,000% in the next ten years. Trustless networks are critical for this market to scale responsibly, so Web3 technologies must be core to the future of AI. Terminal 3’s approach to decentralized data privacy and security for AI is revolutionary, and we are excited to be supporting their vision.”
Yat Siu, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands
