Today, we have some thrilling news to share about our company: Decrypt has raised $10 million in funding from 22 investors at a $50 million post-money valuation, and has spun out from ConsenSys Mesh.
We launched Decrypt in 2018 inside the ConsenSys Mesh incubator program with the aim of helping the world understand crypto and Web3. At the time, it was "Crypto Winter" and sentiment about the industry was far from rosy—but we believed crypto and blockchain-based tech were here to stay, and that the industry deserved a media brand that covers all of it clearly and truthfully.
Now crypto is more mainstream than it's ever been. Decrypt Media, which includes Decrypt Studios, has 25 full-time employees and reaches an average 5 million readers every month.
Our new investors range from traditional VC firms to Web3 funds to DAOs to angel investors (see the full list here). The funding will be used to grow our roster of excellent journalists and beef up video and live events, invest in our Decrypt Studios production arm, and further develop PubDAO, the decentralized media project we’re building with other publishing partners.
It's a pivotal time to be in the Web3 space, which is moving at breakneck pace. On our editorial side, our vision remains the same as it's always been: to demystify crypto and blockchain for readers of all understanding levels with our daily news coverage and our Learn section. We now have two high-value podcasts (our daily news digest Decrypt Daily and gm, our bi-weekly conversation with the biggest names in crypto); a daily email newsletter, weekly DeFi edition, and Saturday edition; and we hold live video roundtables and interviews.
On the commercial side of our house, Decrypt Studios is seeing success with branded NFTs and metaverse activations in fashion, entertainment, and real estate for clients. We're also planning more intimate live events and dinners over the next two years under our Camp Decrypt umbrella, after an extremely successful gathering in Wyoming in March.
In our first three years, ConsenSys Mesh and CEO Joe Lubin gave us the financial support we needed to grow and never crowded us or interfered with editorial. We want to thank Joe, Michael Kriak, and the Mesh team who helped us vault into the vanguard of crypto press.
Now, as a truly independent news organization, we'll be able to take an authentically Web3-native approach. ConsenSys Inc remains a minority investor, along with Hack.VC, Hashkey Capital, Canvas Ventures, Protocol Labs, SK Group, Nexo Inc, four DAOs, and a number of strategic individuals that support our vision.
We also welcome all crypto builders, writers, editors, illustrators, marketers, and DAO reps into PubDAO, which we're building into a full-suite talent pipeline to help address the problems with the broken existing digital media models. We're building this not just for us but all publishers, and not just crypto sites. If you’re curious, join our Discord.
With Decrypt, Decrypt Studios, and PubDAO, we're laying the foundation for a new approach to media, one that utilizes Web3 applications to forge a better path for all. We want to thank our investors and our readers for joining us on this path.