Paris-based cryptography startup Zama has secured €49 million in Series B funding to accelerate the adoption of its breakthrough encryption technology for blockchain developers.
Zama, a French startup pioneering Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) for blockchain applications, has closed a €49 million Series B funding round co-led by U.S.-based firms Blockchange Ventures and Pantera Capital. The new raise brings Zama’s total funding to more than €129 million and values the company at over $1 billion — making it the first unicorn in the FHE space.
The company, founded in 2024 by cryptography veterans Dr. Rand Hindi and Dr. Pascal Paillier, is building open-source tools that allow developers to process encrypted data without ever decrypting it. With confidentiality becoming a central concern for finance and Web3, Zama’s technology offers a potential game-changer: smart contracts and applications that remain fully private while running on public blockchains.
“Reaching a $1 billion valuation is more than a funding milestone — it signals that confidentiality is now a must-have in onchain computing,” said CEO Dr. Rand Hindi. “With this round, we’ve brought on strategic blockchain investors who can help scale the ecosystem as we prepare to launch our mainnet and token.”
The funding coincides with the launch of Zama’s Confidential Blockchain Protocol and its public testnet, now live on Ethereum. Developers can already begin building confidential dApps using Zama’s FHEVM, with support for other chains like Solana expected in 2026.
“Zama is unlocking a new class of secure, composable applications across crypto, AI, and cloud,” said Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital. “This is a pivotal moment for onchain identity, finance, and consumer use cases.”
What Zama Enables
Zama’s protocol is designed to let any blockchain developer build confidential applications — no cryptography PhD required. Using familiar tools like Solidity, developers can build on Ethereum while ensuring all user data remains encrypted onchain. Key use cases include:
- Private stablecoin payments and token issuance without disclosing balances
- Confidential identity verification for distinguishing humans from bots
- Secure onchain governance and registry infrastructure for network states
- Compliant finance tools that meet increasing global privacy standards
Zama reports that over 5,000 developers are already using its FHE libraries, signaling growing traction ahead of its full mainnet launch.
Speeding Toward Scalability
One of the key obstacles to FHE adoption has historically been performance. Zama claims it has already made major breakthroughs here — its encryption technology is now reportedly 100x faster than when the company launched, and it’s investing in GPU optimization and custom hardware chips to further scale throughput.
“We’re working toward tens of thousands of transactions per second with hardware acceleration,” said Hindi. “And the best part: developers don’t need to change their tech stack to use us.”
Beyond Crypto: A Privacy Layer for the Cloud
While Zama is laser-focused on crypto, its investors see broader implications. “What Zama is building isn’t just for blockchain — it could redefine cloud computing confidentiality,” said Ken Seiff, Co-Managing Partner at Blockchange Ventures. “This is the most transformational technology I’ve seen since Ethereum.”
As financial systems move onchain and regulations around data protection tighten, the demand for verifiable, private computation is surging. Zama’s latest raise positions it at the forefront of that shift — offering a critical building block for the future of encrypted, decentralized infrastructure.
For developers interested in building with FHE, Zama’s testnet is now live on Ethereum.
