Worldcoin raises $135M from Andreessen Horowitz to fund network expansion

World Assets, a subsidiary of the World Foundation, raised $135M through the sale of WLD tokens. The sale at current market prices gained support from the project’s earliest backers, Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto. 

World Assets, the company behind Worldcoin (WLD), raised $135M to fund global expansion. The funding came from the sale of WLD tokens at market prices, with support from the project’s top investors, Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) and Bain Capital Crypto. Additional investors include Selini Capital and Arctic Digital. Previously, the project has been backed by Coinbase Ventures and other Tier 1 funds.

Worldcoin is still after its goal of creating a digitally verified biometric ID, despite setbacks with bans and limitations in some countries. The funding will support the goal of gathering biometric data and issuing World ID. Worldcoin aims to focus on the US market, continuing with its Orb-verified IDs. 

In previous funding rounds, World Network has raised $240M in two undisclosed rounds and one Series C round. The current WLD sale is the biggest funding round so far. World Network is one of the projects to appear during the 2021 bull market, only to face setbacks from the years-long bear market. 

The previous funding rounds settled the supply of WLD at 10B tokens, and the latest sale will raise the maximum supply. All WLD tokens are unlocked and in circulation. 

Worldcoin prepares for rapid AI evolution

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is also aware of the pace of AI development. The World Foundation still aims to offer tools to distinguish humans from machines and even prepare humanity for the emergence of AGI. 

The funding will serve in the long term, adding support from the company’s earliest backers. In the future, World Network also aims to become self-sufficient through protocol fees. 

So far, the network has accrued 26M registered users across 160 countries. Worldchain is operational, functioning as a partially centralized L2 chain based on Ethereum. The chain has a limited number of challenger nodes and is considered centralized. World Network is not considered a part of the standard L2 chains but a separate entity mostly tied to the creation and verification of personhood ID.

Following the funding round news, WLD traded closer to its higher range for the past three months. WLD recovered to $1.22, still far from its 2021 peak above $11. At its current price range, the token is seen as potentially breaking out above $3 if the 2025 bull market continues.

Despite being one of the major projects, World Network does not carry DeFi or other apps, hence the limited utility for WLD. 

The project has a market cap of $1.8B, though based on funding rounds, World Network has a value of $3B. The project has proven it can draw in the trust of big investors but has failed to tap the Sam Altman premium based on reputation. The Worldcoin project is still splitting the crypto community, seen as either a revolution of personhood ID or a gimmick to boost the token price.

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