GIANT Protocol Raises $5 Million Seed Round Led by CoinFund
16.12.2021 19:30:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
GIANT Protocol, a leading-edge web3 protocol to decentralize and democratize access to the internet and financial services, is delighted to announce it has raised USD $5 million in a seed funding round led by pioneer blockchain-focused investment firm, CoinFund, with additional participation from other tier one blockchain investors including Blockchange, Gumi Cryptos, Entheos Ventures, Argonautic Ventures, Bronco Fund. The round was oversubscribed.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211216005703/en/
GIANT Protocol Team: Left to Right: Merijn Terheggen COO and Co Founder (left), Suruchi Gupta CEO and Founder (center), Jinesh Doshi, Founding Engineer (right) (Photo: Business Wire)
GIANT (Global Internet Access Network Token) Protocol was founded with the objective to launch a decentralized connectivity economy that can address multiple challenges in the telecom industry. The tokenized bandwidth platform will enable anyone with a mobile phone to access the internet and earn rewards based on their connectivity. GIANT Protocol is in an advanced stage of development with an experienced founding team and a well-established network in the telecom sector.
Suruchi Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of GIANT, commented "At GIANT, we believe internet access is a basic human right and that an Internet that works for everyone can only be built together. We are at the start of our journey, but we are honoured to have received support from tier one investors who fundamentally understand the problem we are solving with GIANT.”
Jake Brukhman, Founder and CEO CoinFund, said “Telco networks have historically been functionally local, yet our lives have become more international and interconnected. Customers are looking for better telecom services experience all over the World. GIANT is moving the world forward by establishing a new global connectivity economy.”
He added: “As a strategic fund, CoinFund is passionate about being the best partner to early-stage blockchain companies. Suruchi is a rising star in the world of technology and she is also working with some of the most seasoned and respected technology leaders in the industry to bring this idea into a practical utility the world over. GIANT has uniquely pledged to convert bandwidth into a digital asset that can be used as a currency and we are pleased to support this innovative team as they continue to develop their Global Internet Access Network Token.”
As part of GIANT’s development, the project has also hired a world-class team of executives hailing from Juniper, Salesforce, HackerOne, Roku, Mobile365, and others. The team has collectively raised $200M+ in the past and has generated $10B+ in value.
Merijn Terheggen, Co-Founder and COO, has extensive experience at building startups. Before joining GIANT as a Co-Founder, Merijn Terheggen cofounded HackerOne and served as its CEO. HackerOne is the leading and still rapidly growing bug bounty platform that has raised $110M in funding, has about 350 employees, and has 2 million hackers that have found and reported hundreds of thousands of serious security vulnerabilities in thousands of large companies, governments, and banks.
Merijn Terheggen, commented: “HackerOne was created from a desire to unite people working on security and unlock the creativity and ingenuity of those trying to get around obstacles. The key for us had always been about community and collaboration, and rewarding creativity and merits. GIANT is taking this philosophy to a whole new level by leveraging blockchain. Where HackerOne aims to empower the world to build a safer internet, GIANT expands this mission by aiming to empower the world to build the digital infrastructure that humanity will need in the coming decades. And of course this infrastructure is decentralized, democratized, accessible to anyone, and owned by everyone. It is an honour to work with Suruchi and the team on this mission.”
ENDS
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211216005703/en/
Contact information
Rachel McHugh
Rachel@cw8-communications.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Philip Morris International’s Moira Gilchrist Positions Human Judgment as a Critical Leadership Advantage Amid Rapid AI Adoption at Wall Street Journal Forum8.5.2026 11:00:00 EEST | Press release
Philip Morris International’s (PMI) (NYSE:PM) Chief Global Communications Officer, Moira Gilchrist, joined global thought leaders at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference in New York to examine why human cognition—judgment, context, creativity, and ethical reasoning—is becoming the most valuable asset in an age of artificial intelligence. “The AI boom is putting a premium on distinctly human capabilities,” said Gilchrist, who took part in the session “Cognition: The New Currency – Why Human Judgment Matters More Than Ever.” Speaking to attendees, she emphasized that, “As knowledge is getting democratized, human judgment, intuition, and creativity become the true differentiators that leaders need to nurture across all levels of their organizations.” Philip Morris International is today a different company, built with a singular objective: achieving a smoke-free future. It has evolved its product portfolio, reskilled its workforce, and adopted new ways of working to e
Fortegra Appoints Iwan Röpcke as Chief Executive Officer, Belgium8.5.2026 10:30:00 EEST | Press release
The Fortegra Group, Inc., a global specialty insurer, today announced the appointment of Iwan Röpcke as Chief Executive Officer, Belgium. Mr. Röpcke brings more than 25 years of insurance industry experience to the role, spanning broking, commercial leadership, and executive management across the Benelux and broader European markets. He joins Fortegra from Lloyd’s Insurance Company S.A., where he served as Country Manager for Belgium and the Netherlands, building out the operation from its early stages and overseeing both business strategy and development. Prior to Lloyd's, Mr. Röpcke held senior leadership positions at Willis Towers Watson (via Gras Savoye), where he served as Head of Sales and Head of the Competence Center. His career also includes roles at Inter Partner Assistance (AXA Assistance) as Commercial Director Benelux, Winterthur Europe Assurances, AIG Europe, Aon Belgium, and Marsh. Mr. Röpcke’s industry expertise spans a range of specialty risk areas, with deep relations
KAYTUS Launches All-QLC Flash Storage at AI EXPO 2026 for 10,000-GPU Clusters8.5.2026 10:02:00 EEST | Press release
At AI EXPO KOREA 2026, KAYTUS officially launched its All-QLC Flash Storage Solution, engineered to deliver high performance, massive scalability, and cost efficiency for 10,000-GPU clusters. The solution addresses data-delivery bottlenecks in ultra-large-scale AI training, helping maximize GPU resource utilization. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260508313130/en/ Based on the KR2280 and KR1180 server platforms, the solution is deeply integrated with industry-leading AI-native parallel file systems to eliminate data silos inherent in traditional tiered storage. Purpose-built for read-intensive AI workloads, it overcomes the horizontal scaling limitations of massive clusters. Verified test-data shows that, at exabyte-scale deployment, the solution delivers 10 TB/s aggregate bandwidth and 100 million IOPS. In addition, it reduces five-year TCO by 70% compared with traditional TLC-based solutions, accelerating mo
Beneq Appoints Dr. Jason Harrison as Chief Executive Officer8.5.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
Beneq Oy, the home of atomic layer deposition (ALD), today announced the appointment of Dr. Jason Harrison as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Harrison succeeds Dr. Tommi Vainio and will lead Beneq into its next phase of growth across semiconductor, optical, and emerging technology markets. A Strategic Leadership Transition Beneq enters its next phase of growth from a position of strong commercial momentum. Recent milestones include the qualification of the Beneq Transform® cluster tool for volume production of GaN power and RF filter devices; the introduction of Beneq Transmute™ and Beneq Transform® XP, both engineered for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) of specialty semiconductors; growing adoption of the P-Series for coating critical chamber parts in advanced node devices; and selection of the C2R™ for AR waveguide production in next-generation XR optics. Against this backdrop, the Board of Directors has determined that the time is right to align executive leadership with the company's
World Employment Confederation’s 59th Annual Conference to Address Critical Global Labour Market Concerns8.5.2026 08:12:00 EEST | Press release
Taking place on 12-13 May in Toronto and entitled ‘Grow With Talent’, this year’s World Employment Conference – co-organised with ACSESS – arrives at a time of profound economic uncertainty. This gathering of leaders and experts will help define the path forward for the global labour market and set the stage for discussions at the 114th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June. Bettina Schaller, President of World Employment Confederation (WEC) says: “The question at the heart of this year’s World Employment Conference is: how will we mobilise the world’s talent to drive growth in an era of disruption?At a time of accelerating AI adoption, rapid demographic change and an uncertain global economic outlook, pressure on labour markets is intensifying. The issue is no longer simply shortages, but how effectively talent is developed, deployed and matched to where it is needed most.” As advocates for the private employment services industry, WEC brings together policymake
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom