5ire raises $100Mn at $1.5Bn

Level-1 blockchain network 5ire, has raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion in a Series A round of funding from UK-based conglomerate SRAM & MRAM Group, becoming India’s 105th unicorn and 20th in this calendar year and one of the fastest Indian startups to reach $1 billion valuation.

The fresh capital will be used for business expansion and extending its footprint across three continents, including Asia, North America and Europe, with India as the hub of operations and core area of focus.

5ire claims to be a sustainable blockchain and has built its own blockchain validating mechanism called ‘proof of benefit’, which works along the lines of 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals and various ESG parameters. The last funding round was mostly deployed on talent acquisition, building technologies, filing patents as well as sales and marketing.

Co-Founder Pratik Gauri said, “Our valuation jump has come from the fact of 12 pending patents that we have and all the other proof of benefit consensus that we've built. The UK-based conglomerate owns about 800 hospitals a lot of real estates. So, we will also get access to a lot of relationship capital.”