Project Eleven, a crypto startup building tools to help blockchains like Bitcoin prepare for post-quantum security, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round at a $120 million post-money valuation.
The round was led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Fin Capital, Variant, Quantonation, Nebular, Formation, Lattice Fund, Satstreet Ventures, Nascent Ventures, and Balaji Srinivasan.
As part of the deal, Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures, is joining Project Eleven as a board member. Carter said quantum computing is "the biggest and most complex threat public blockchains have ever faced."
Bitcoin and most public blockchains today rely on the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, a cryptographic standard that could eventually be broken by sufficiently powerful quantum computers, exposing private keys derived from public ones.
Quantum computing research has grown rapidly in recent years, with a series of breakthroughs including Google’s Willow chip, which has been described as the first experimental demonstration that existing approaches to quantum computing can scale.
"One or two more breakthroughs mean that we could see a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer by 2030," Pruden said. "In light of the $3 trillion worth of digital assets at risk, it’s far better to be safe than sorry."
Project Eleven is building tooling to help crypto networks prepare for the quantum era. One product already live is Yellowpages, launched last year. The application allows bitcoin holders to generate post-quantum keys for their assets, serving both as a commitment to a future migration path and as a way to prove ownership in a post–"Q-Day" scenario, when quantum computers could potentially forge digital signatures, Pruden said.
The project is also working on additional products, with one expected to launch in the coming months.
Project Eleven has recently teamed up with the Solana Foundation on post-quantum readiness planning and technical implementation.
On the business model side, Pruden said Project Eleven has already recognized revenue through grants for protocol work. More broadly, the company aims to become a “Palantir” for digital asset migrations to post-quantum cryptography.
“We have some products that we also anticipate will earn revenue, both directly and indirectly,” through value accrual to a token, Pruden said.
Project Eleven operates with a small, distributed team primarily based in the U.K. and is hiring selectively across engineering and research, according to Pruden.
