Tampa-based Grove, a blockchain data platform formerly known as Pocket Network, is giving up equity for the first time in a $7.9 million investment led by three firms, including one based in Tampa.
The investment included Avon Ventures, the parent company of Fidelity Investments' venture capital arm; New York-based firm Placeholder Capital; and Tampa-based Druid Ventures. It was the Embarc Collective company's first equity-based investment after raising more than $20 million in previous funding from its blockchain token.
"Over the past five years, we've witnessed and supported Grove's vision for decentralized, self-sovereign blockchain networks. Their commitment to enabling coordination across globally dispersed blockchains has positioned Grove as critical integration infrastructure for Web3," Chris Pizzo, the director at Druid Ventures, said in a prepared statement.
The funding will go to hiring more employees and building Grove's infrastructure product, co-founder and CEO Michael O'Rourke told Tampa Bay Inno.
Grove is a Web3 infrastructure network gateway operating on the token Pocket Network or POKT. Grove is the company and platform, and Pocket Network is a separate crypto token it's based on, both run by O'Rourke. The company rebranded in October from Pocket Network Inc. to Grove as a way to minimize confusion around the brand and to give a name to the company overseeing the various parts at play, O'Rourke said.
Grove offers a go-between for crypto companies developing blockchain infrastructure. It provides a business-to-business software service that companies can buy to set up and have data-based displays of their tokens. It's a way to make clients' blockchain experiences more efficient and cost-effective, O'Rourke said.
The company was one of the first at Embarc Collective, O'Rourke said. In 2022, the Pocket Network token was valued at more than $1 billion, but that figure has tumbled alongside the downturn and ongoing volatility of crypto markets. The past year has been challenging for the company, as investors pulled back and valuations decreased after prominent names like FTX and Binance faced controversy and fraud allegations.
Today, the Pocket Network token has a market capitalization of more than $120 million.
In the past year, Grove laid off employees and faced difficulty landing an investment, O'Rourke said. While Grove was not associated with issues that raised concerns about the crypto industry, the entire marketplace suffered from the turmoil and tension, he said.
But the successful capital raise and positive developments in recent months are a sign of the company's return, he said.
"Things have been great, but May of this year to May of last year were pretty difficult all around," O'Rourke said. "We were impacted like all of the market for sure."
