According to reports, level-1 blockchain network, 5ire, has raised $100 million in a Series A round of funding from UK-based conglomerate SRAM & MRAM Group and becomes India’s 105th unicorn and 20th in this year.

Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum, for example, are level-1 blockchains.

5ire, which is still pre-revenue, expects to start generating revenue from November, and hit a billion-dollar revenue mark in three years.

The startup, which was founded by Indian-origin entrepreneurs, Pratik Gauri and Prateek Dwivedi, along with web3 financier Vilma Mattila, in August 2021, has become one of the fastest Indian startups to reach $1 billion valuation.

5ire claims to be a sustainable blockchain and has built its own blockchain validating mechanism called ‘proof of consensus’, which works along the lines of 17 UN Sustainability Development Goals and various ESG parameters.

5ire’s latest fundraise follows a $21 million funding in its seed round at a valuation of $110 million last October with participation from both private and institutional investors such as Alphabit, Marshland Capital, Launchpool Labs and Moonrock Capital.

The last funding round was mostly deployed on talent acquisition, building technologies, filing patents as well as sales and marketing.

“A big part of the funding went to that, but we are still left with 49 percent of the money raise from the last round,” says Gauri.

According to the company, 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. The startup’s 70 percent employees are based out of India.