Initia raises $2.5 million in under 2 hours on Cobie's Echo at $250 million token valuation

Initia, a blockchain project that announced a $14 million Series A funding round on Wednesday, raised an additional $2.5 million in under two hours on Thursday via Echo, the angel investor platform founded by well-known crypto trader Jordan Fish, also known as Cobie, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told The Block.The fundraise on Echo was conducted through a token purchase agreement, unlike Initia's Series A, which was structured as a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) with token warrants, the sources said. Notably, Initia's Echo round took place at a $250 million valuation, 28.57% lower than the $350 million valuation for the Series A, the sources added.Initia co-founder Ezaan Mangalji, who goes by "Zon," and Cobie both confirmed Initia's fundraising on Echo to The Block but declined to comment on specific details of the raise.Launched in beta in April, the Echo platform allows crypto projects focused on decentralization to raise funds from a broader audience from the start, helping to avoid concentrated venture capital ownership.Zon said that while crypto has always been about public ownership, the past year has seen many projects with high insider supply, high fully diluted valuations and low float that harm community users. He added that community engagement is important for a sustainable ecosystem and that inclusivity should be prioritized, which is why Initia raised funds via Echo.He added that Initia has consistently made a "very conscious" effort to keep insider supply low, raising only what is necessary to launch and "selling only 15% cumulatively to early contributors."As The Block reported earlier this week, Initia is developing two main products: a Layer 1 blockchain and a platform for interwoven optimistic rollups. The products are designed for "a rollup-centric future," Zon said at the time.Initia's $2.5 million raise on Echo in under two hours is notable, particularly given the $5,000 maximum investment per person, indicating at least 500 participants, the sources said, adding that around 800 individuals joined the round.Initia's fundraise was the first opportunity available to thousands on Echo as part of the platform's largest group, The Echonomist, according to one of the sources, who noted that previous fundraising efforts were conducted through smaller groups.Initia's fundraise on Echo is also the largest to date for a single group allocation, according to the source. They noted that Layer 1 blockchain developer Monad Labs has raised the highest total amount on Echo — $3 million — but that was divided among different groups and rounds."Echo has raised ~$20 million for lots of different startups and new token projects," Cobie told The Block. "I'm pretty pleased with how it's going, and with the founders (like Zonny!) and group leads who see the value of fairer fundraising structures, as well as reducing centralization as early as possible in their lifecycle. Echo still sucks tbh [to be honest] and everything is still broken cos [because] we just launched a few months ago — but it's slowly getting better and I am thankful to the founders and users who are patient as we try and build something. I wish our users would stop emailing us about things though. Cheers Yogie, have a good one," he added, emphasizing to include his full quote along with the cheers.The Funding newsletter:Stay updated on the latest crypto funding news and trends with my bimonthly newsletter, The Funding. It's free. Sign uphere!