Voltage charges ahead with $6M seed round in quest to ‘fast-track a Bitcoin standard’

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WICHITA — Another Kansas blockchain tech startup is reaping the rewards of surging confidence in the emerging industry, with Voltage — a leading bitcoin infrastructure company — announcing a $6 million seed round Thursday.

Funding is expected to fuel Voltage’s next phase of growth and expansion. The Wichita-based startup’s focus is on the continual development of enterprise-grade Bitcoin and Lightning infrastructure helping to accelerate the growth of Bitcoin’s scaling layers, detailed Graham Krizek, founder of Voltage. 

“At Voltage, we are building the tools and services needed to take Bitcoin into its next phase of adoption,” Krizek said. “By creating a simple and easy way to interface with Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, we are ushering in a new wave of users and use-cases. It has been amazing watching the Lightning Network come to fruition and we are joined by an incredible ecosystem.”

“We are grateful for the community’s support and will continue our mission to provide easy, scalable solutions to fast-track a Bitcoin standard,” he continued.

The round was led by Trammell Venture Partners with participation by Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Stillmark, Cavalry Asset Management, Strategic Cyber Ventures, Fulgur Ventures, Tenzing Capital, and others.

“Some of the most talented entrepreneurs in the world are building industry-defining companies and fueling the adoption of Bitcoin and the Lightning Network,” said Josh Oeding, founder and general partner at Tenzing Capital. “Graham and the rest of the Voltage team, with their backgrounds in cloud software and infrastructure, have already built and positioned Voltage as a leader in enabling this continued growth. I’m beyond excited that Tenzing.vc and Accelerate Venture Partners were able to invest alongside a ridiculously strong group of other investors.”

Click here to read more about Wichita’s burgeoning startup and tech scene.

Voltage’s funding news comes about a week after Overland Park-based NFT startup CryptoSlam announced a $9 million seed investment featuring celebrity investors, high-profile tech founders and local VC stalwart KCRise Fund.

Click here if you missed the CryptoSlam news.

A longtime Kansan and Kansas State University graduate, Krizek got involved with Bitcoin in 2013 and used his computer science background — most recently at Salesforce — to identify the need for Voltage.

He founded the company in October 2020.

“I noticed a lack of good infrastructure services for Bitcoin so I started creating a cloud platform for Bitcoin in my free time,” Krizek told Startland News. After getting a lot of positive feedback I decided to try my hand at creating a company around this. The first year has been an amazing journey and today we’re helping some of the best companies in Bitcoin leverage the technology.”

Click here to follow Voltage on Instagram and learn more about the company.

Demand for reliable infrastructure, accessible liquidity, and scalable enterprise solutions has driven interest in Voltage, which already has been working to address such challenges for companies like THNDR Games, Podcast Index, Amboss, Sphinx Chat, Zion, and Carrot.

Such solutions are helping to push growth of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, especially over the past 12 months, said Krizek and Christopher Calicott, managing director of Voltage’s lead investor, Austin-based Trammell Venture Partners.

“In 2021 with the backdrop of broader Lightning Network adoption, Voltage itself has seen outsized and accelerating month-over-month growth with a delighted customer base,” said Calicott, who joins the Voltage board of directors as part of the deal. “As more developers and companies move to adopt and deploy Bitcoin and Lightning applications at scale, Graham and his team are poised to support rapid, consumer-grade Bitcoin-native development and deployment.”

“Voltage is ideally positioned to increase the adoption of Bitcoin itself, and from its critical infrastructure offerings, deliver new sophisticated Lightning-native products and services via the Voltage platform in the near future,” he continued. “TVP is excited to partner with this great team at Voltage.”

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