World, the company behind the digital identity network, has successfully raised $135 million through a sale of its native token, WLD. The funding round saw participation from prior investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto.
The proceeds from the token sale are earmarked for the expansion of the World Network both domestically and internationally. It will also support the expansion of infrastructure for World IDs, a platform designed to authenticate a user’s identity online, as per a statement released on Wednesday.
World has already achieved significant traction, with over 26 million users engaging with the World Network and 12.5 million users creating a World ID by using the company’s Orb. The Orb is a unique device that scans a user’s iris to gather their biometric data.
The company, in a statement, emphasized the rapid evolution of AI and the need for tools to differentiate humans from machines to scale at a similar pace. This funding round aligns with their long-term mission and is supported by the initial backers who believed in World’s potential to become one of the pioneering self-sustaining protocols.
World had previously announced its plans to launch in several US cities including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. Users who create their World ID by scanning their irises at a World Orb are rewarded with WLD tokens, thereby “proving their humanness” in the digital world.
World’s developer, Tools for Humanity, previously raised $115 million in a funding round in May 2023, led by Blockchain Capital and supported by a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is a co-founder of World. World, originally known as Worldcoin, launched its WLD token in July 2023.
As of May 21, WLD was valued at $1.13. The Block, an independent media outlet that provides news, research, and data about the crypto industry, reached out to World for further comments.
