Dapix Inc, the company behind the initial development of the FIO Protocol, has raised $5.7 million in Series A funding led by Binance Labs, the venture arm of leading global cryptocurrency exchange and Blockchain ecosystem, Binance. The FIO Protocol is an industry standard, decentralized service layer that improves usability across every Blockchain, token or coin. Ultimately, the protocol will be guided by the Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FIO), a consortium of leading wallets, exchanges and cryptocurrency payment processors.
The news coincides with the debut of the FIO Address Presale, where individuals across multiple major wallets can begin to reserve human-readable FIO usernames and domains that will enable access to the FIO Protocol’s features upon its mainnet launch. The funding round and the Address Presale will enable the FIO Protocol to deliver its mainnet launch in early 2020 with a number of integrated FIO Members products available for users.
“Binance and Binance Labs have a long-standing commitment to growing the cryptocurrency ecosystem and bringing more real-world adoption to Blockchain,” said Ella Zhang, Head of Binance Labs. “We are delighted to advance Blockchain usability as the lead investor in the development of the FIO Protocol. We were impressed by FIO’s dynamic business team and founders and look forward to working with the FIO team to achieve our mission together.”
In addition to Binance Labs, participating investors in the round include Blockwall Capital, NGC Ventures, LuneX Ventures as well as existing investors contributing additional investments such as Access Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, and First Mile Ventures.
During the FIO Address Presale, users can reserve the username of their choice on their selected wallet’s FIO Domain (akin to registering a username on Gmail or Hotmail). The rapidly growing FIO consortium currently consists of 24 members such as Binance’s Trust Wallet, BRD, ShapeShift, MyCrypoto, Edge Wallet, Infinito Wallet, and Coinomi Wallet. Other recent additions include Atomic Wallet, Enjin Wallet and the official Bitcoin.com wallet. During the Presale, users can also bid on FIO Domains that are self-sovereign non-fungible tokens (NFTs) so users will be able to use smart contracts to trade and sell FIO domains.
“The Internet was around for more than 10 years before a key usability protocol enabled usage to explode. Our goal is nothing less than to have the decentralized FIO Protocol enable a similar outcome for the Blockchain ecosystem,” said David Gold, Founder and CEO of Dapix Inc. “We are humbled by the overwhelming support we’ve received from FIO Members, investors and Binance, who share our vision of improving usability and achieving mass adoption.”
