Liam Heeger was a core engineer for two years at Jump Crypto, helping the company build its flagship product Firedancer, which lets computers connect to the Solana blockchain. In January, Heeger left to pursue his own venture, triggering a lawsuit from his former employer that alleged he was creating a “competitive business.”
Now, after the two parties settled the case, Heeger is announcing his new project: A startup that plans to launch its own blockchain. Unto Labs, the company he co-founded, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $14.4 million in a combined round, with Framework Ventures leading the pre-seed round and Electric Capital leading the seed round. The round values the San Francisco-based company at $140 million.
Many blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana, use virtual machines, computer systems that are used to automate trading activity with digital agreements known as smart contracts. Heeger says these virtual machines limit innovation in the crypto space because they are incompatible with certain hardware and alienate non-crypto native developers.
“Crypto-specific tools, bespoke crypto VMs, and domain‑specific programming languages pigeon‑hole blockchain development and prevent mainstream industry adoption,” the company said in a statement.
Instead, Heeger is developing his own virtual machine, called ThruVM, for the planned Thru blockchain. It will use RISC-V, a popular computing system that allows software to interact with hardware and is commonly used outside of the crypto world. Heeger says his new virtual machine will make the Thru blockchain more accessible to non-crypto native developers.
“RISC-V maps better to conventional hardware that you would find in a server or in a laptop,” Heeger said. “There are performance benefits, there are developer benefits, there’s more tooling.”
Unto’s blockchain will compete with others like Solana and Ethereum, letting users make transactions, interact with existing crypto applications, and build blockchain-based finance tools.
Heeger, who co-founded Unto Labs with Will Yoo, who previously worked at grocery delivery service Misfits Market, says the company will make money by building—and directly charging for—its own applications on the Thru blockchain. At present, the company has no source of revenue.
Unto Labs will use the money raised in this round to hire more employees, Heeger said, adding that he hopes to double the size of his team by the end of the year from five to 10 employees.
Clarification, May 1, 2025: This article has been updated to clarify the role venture capital firm played in Unto’s funding.