From theblock by Yogita Khatri

Brevis Network, a startup that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) technology to do off-chain computations (processing data outside the blockchain to make it faster and cheaper), has raised $7.5 million in a seed funding round.

The round was co-led by Polychain Capital and Binance Labs, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, Hashkey and several undisclosed angel investors, Brevis said Monday.

Brevis began raising funds for the seed round in June and closed it in September, co-founder Michael Dong told The Block. The round was structured as a token raise, Dong added, but declined to comment on the post-round valuation.

What is Brevis?

Brevis is a ZK coprocessor or computation network designed to improve blockchain scalability using ZK proofs. By enabling complex tasks, such as data processing, to occur off-chain with only the verified proof sent back to the blockchain, Brevis seeks to reduce the blockchain's workload, improve speed and cut costs.

"Even with the advent of Layer 2 rollups, blockchain smart contracts are still severely limited when it comes to handling complex, data-driven computations," Dong explained. "For example, performing relatively simple tasks, such as trust-free access to a DEX [decentralized exchange] trader's historical trade data, comes with prohibitive computational costs and latency on any blockchain, including Layer 2s. This limitation explains why not a single DEX currently offers trading-volume-based fee tiers — a standard feature to boost revenue and retention on centralized exchanges (CEXs)."

Brevis aims to solve this issue by enabling smart contracts to offload complex computations to a "highly cost-efficient" verifiable off-chain computing network, Dong said.

Brevis' closest competitors include Axiom, RISC0's Steel and Vlayer, according to Dong. However, Brevis differentiates itself in several key areas, including the fact that its technology is already in use by partners, while most competitors are still in development, Dong noted. Last week, Vlayer raised $10 million in a pre-seed funding round to build "verifiable data infrastructure."

Brevis' offerings

Brevis' ZK coprocessor is currently in the beta mainnet stage, with partners such as Kwenta, JoJo Exchange and Trusta already utilizing it. Other DeFi protocols, including PancakeSwap, Frax, Gamma, Quickswap, Mask Network, 0G, Bedrock and Mellow Finance, are also building Brevis-powered products and features, Dong said.

"We are now focused on launching a decentralized prover network, which will allow any prover to join and handle workloads from applications built using Brevis," Dong said. When asked if Brevis would launch its token then, Dong said, "We do not have any details on tokens yet."

Meanwhile, Brevis' "SpaZK Verifiable AI" product is still under active development and will be released in future phases, Dong said.

Singapore-based Brevis currently employs 12 people, Dong said, adding that he is looking to hire senior marketing and research and development professionals.

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