Zyfi, a Swiss startup offering a Paymaster-As-A-Service platform, recently announced securing $2 million in a private funding round on June 10. The investment is aimed at further developing Zyfi’s innovative gas abstraction layer on zkSync, which is set to revolutionize on-chain experiences through native account abstraction.
The startup is reshaping the DeFi landscape by allowing any tokens to be utilized as gas for transactions. The funding round attracted participation from key industry players such as Everstake Capital, Tenzor Capital, Apvc.capital, Criterionvc, NxGen, Majinx Capital, v3ntures, Momentum8, and several other investors.
Having processed over 815,000 transactions and benefiting more than 110,000 users with gasless transactions on zkSync, Zyfi has proven its capabilities and appeal in the market. The platform has successfully integrated with major protocols including Zerolend, Increment Fi, Pancakeswap, zkMarkets, Libera, and various NFT collections on zkSync.
Zyfi’s primary goal is to address critical DeFi bottlenecks by offering a seamless user experience. By leveraging native account abstraction on zkSync, the platform enables decentralized applications (dApps) to provide users with the option to pay gas using any ERC-20 token or have dApps sponsor gas costs using custom logic.
This innovative approach simplifies transactions by eliminating the need for users to manage Ethereum for gas fees, making DeFi services more accessible to all. Zyfi’s solution is powered by an API that abstracts protocol complexities, allowing developers to focus on product development and enhancing user experience.
The $2 million funding will be strategically utilized to support the development of software development kits (SDKs) and paymaster services for dApps. Zyfi also plans to drive utility for governance token holders and advocate for research on account abstraction across all blockchain networks, including the implementation of EIP-7702.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of ZK rollups, Zyfi’s efforts on zkSync are contributing significantly to the growth of the technology. The surge in ZK rollups in 2024 has been driven by the need to offload activities from the Ethereum mainnet to enhance scalability and confidentiality.
While ZK rollups are not inherently confidential, some projects within the ecosystem are working towards enhancing financial privacy and supporting anonymous voting. The adoption of ZK rollups began less than two years ago, with Polygon being one of the early adopters. The trend has gained momentum in the 2024 bull market, turning “ZK” into a recognizable brand.
Matter Labs, the developers behind zkSync, have decided to abandon their efforts to trademark the term “ZK” following criticism from ZK researchers. The move reflects the belief that ZK technologies should be treated as a public good accessible to all.