Former Coinbase Execs Raise $5.3M for Web 3 Node Support Platform

Company founders Ola Muse and Karthik Kalyanaraman left Coinbase in August. It only took them two months to raise and close the seed round, which was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from Mysten Labs and Howard University.

Their firm, Scale3, is an infrastructure startup that focuses on supporting blockchain node operators. Node operation is a complex process that needs highly technical support and rapid response when problems arise.

As the Web 3 infrastructure expands, constant node monitoring and support will be necessary, a niche that this company aims to fill, according to the announcement.

1/ Hello world! We’re a web3 infrastructure company building developer tools. We’re excited to announce (a) our first product – Autopilot, a platform to monitor and maintain your blockchain nodes and networks, and (b) our $5.3M+ fundraise!https://t.co/ApX9kP452H

🧵 👇

— Scale3 (@Scale3Labs) October 6, 2022

Node Analytics Dashboard

Scale3’s first product, called Autopilot, aims to simplify and automate the process of setting up, monitoring, and upgrading blockchain nodes. Open source tooling will be used to provide node operators with node and network telemetry, community intelligence, and ecosystem-specific insights on its dashboard, it added.

Karthik Kalyanaraman, CTO of Scale3, acknowledged the problems of operating node infrastructure at scale, commenting, “We are bringing our experience and knowledge to solve this problem and are leveraging best practices and best-in-class open source tools to reduce the total cost of operations for the industry.”

Ola Muse added that the team has decades of infrastructure experience to tackle the problem of much-needed standards and tools for blockchain network and node operations. Muse commented that it currently takes about eight hours for operators to update their nodes, but Scale3 can reduce that time to less than 20 minutes.

The first blockchain network to be supported by Scale3 is MystenLabs’ Sui ecosystem, and expansion for other networks is planned for the fourth quarter.

Bear Market Builders

Bear markets are often used to build better infrastructure and invest more in research and development. This has been the case during the 2022 crypto winter as Web 3 venture funding continues to increase despite a collapse in crypto asset prices.

Crypto markets are currently down a percentage point or so on the day, dipping below the $1 trillion total capitalization again. There doesn’t appear to be any end in sight to the consolidation, which has been occurring now for more than three months.