Zero-knowledge startup Lagrange Labs on Thursday announced a pre-seed funding round of $4 million to boost its proprietary zero-knowledge proof system.

The round, led by 1kx, included Maven11, Lattice Fund, CMT Digital, and Daedalus Angels, among others.

The company in an emailed statement to Benzinga said the firm aims to solve the long-standing issue of blockchain interoperability, permitting developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) that can access multiple blockchains at once.

"Modern DeFi applications require more sophisticated relationships between data on different blockchains, and we’re excited to see how our technology can unlock new multi-chain DeFi primitives," said Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, Founder and CEO of Lagrange Labs.

Zero-knowledge-proof technology is gaining traction as a viable solution to scalability issues in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Zero-knowledge-proof technology is increasingly being recognized as an effective strategy to address the challenges of scalability within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Lagrange Labs, however, is using this technology to address the pressing problem of interoperability.

While cross-chain communication required a bridge or intermediary to relay information, leading to potential security vulnerabilities, Lagrange allows blockchains to bypass the need for intermediaries.

This will provide dApps with real-time and historical data across various Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks.

"Our unique type of n-to-1 chain interoperability is a paradigm shift that unlocks new cross-chain DeFi use cases," Hishon-Rezaizadeh added.

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Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou, Co-Director of the Applied Cryptography Lab at Yale University, has joined Lagrange Labs as chief scientist, bringing years of research on verifiable and privacy-preserving computations to the table.

The funding will allow Lagrange Labs to expedite research into its zero-knowledge proof system, with potential applications ranging from DeFi to decentralized identity, cross-chain GameFi, and cross-chain governance.

“Proving arbitrary amounts of any state on any chain is a powerful concept that will empower developers to build novel, secure, and cross-chain-native applications. Lagrange is at the forefront of that research and we are excited to support the team as they bring this new primitive to market," said Lasse Clausen, Founding Partner of 1kx.

The startup is expected to reveal its ZK-proof system in the summer of 2023, with the Test Network set to follow.

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