Keplr, a crypto wallet provider, has raised $5 million in a seed funding round after four years of operating as a bootstrapped company.
The round was led by Nick Tomaino's 1confirmation, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, HashKey Capital, Chorus One Ventures, Skip Protocol, Binary Builders and others, Keplr said Wednesday. Co-founder Josh Lee told The Block that the equity round closed late last year and valued Keplr at $50 million.
Keplr launched its wallet in 2021, initially focusing on the Cosmos ecosystem. Its growth was affected by the 2022 collapse of Terra, which was built on Cosmos blockchain technology. Despite the setback, Keplr claims to be the largest Cosmos wallet, with over 2 million users.
Last August, Keplr introduced support for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible chains, enabling users to manage Ethereum assets directly within the wallet. By October, it expanded further by integrating with Starknet, marking its first integration with a non-EVM ecosystem beyond Cosmos.
"We see a future where the most useful crypto apps want their own chains and the products Keplr is building are essential to this vision," 1confirmation's general partner Tomaino said in a statement.
Keplr claims to have facilitated the self-custody of billions of dollars in assets on its platform. Lee said exact figures remain unclear due to user privacy, but it is estimated to be "at least above $5 billion."
With the new funding, Keplr aims to enhance its platform by hiring additional people for its engineering and product development teams. The firm plans to improve the user experience and expand support for both EVM and non-EVM blockchains.
Keplr has no plans to launch a token. Lee said, "There is a bigger picture that needs to be played out in regards to connecting ownership, verifiability and usability for Keplr first before we start considering tokens."
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