Moralis launched with an unfair advantage: its co-founder Ivan Liljeqvist had spent four years teaching blockchain development on YouTube to over a million subscribers. Most startups spend millions trying to reach developers. Moralis had them already. The Firebase-for-Web3 pitch worked perfectly in 2021 when DeFi and NFT projects were launching every week. The 2022 crypto winter killed many of those customers. Moralis survived by pivoting to a pure API business and doubling down on enterprise data — a tighter product for a tougher market.
Founded
2021
HQ
Stockholm, Sweden
Total Raised
$53 million
Founder
Ivan Liljeqvist and Filip Martinsson
Status
Private
Website
moralis.ioTHE ORIGIN STORY
Ivan Liljeqvist — known as Ivan on Tech on YouTube — had been teaching blockchain development to over a million subscribers since 2017. He and Filip Martinsson kept watching developers spend weeks setting up node infrastructure, authentication, and data indexing before they could build anything useful.
In 2021 they launched Moralis: a hosted backend platform that handled all the Web3 plumbing, so developers could go from idea to deployed dapp in hours instead of weeks. The pitch was literally Firebase but for Web3 — and in 2021, that was enough to raise funding fast.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Developer API platform. Freemium tier for small projects, usage-based billing for mid-market teams, and enterprise contracts for production applications.
Revenue is generated per API call — blockchain data queries, NFT metadata, token prices, transaction history, wallet authentication, and real-time event streams. The model scales with developer activity on-chain.
THE PRODUCTS
Moralis Web3 Data API — transaction history, token balances, NFT metadata, and price feeds across 30+ chains. Moralis Streams API — real-time blockchain event monitoring sent to webhooks.
Moralis Authentication API — Web3 login and wallet authentication for any application. Moralis RPC Nodes — managed node endpoints for direct chain access.
HOW THEY GREW
Ivan's YouTube channel was the distribution engine. Detailed tutorials, free code templates, and a generous free tier converted viewers into users.
The bottoms-up community growth was combined with an active Discord that became one of the largest Web3 developer communities online. Moralis then shifted to a more enterprise-focused motion after 2022, targeting companies building production Web3 products rather than individual hackers.
THE HARD PART
The 2022 crypto winter devastated the developer market Moralis was built to serve. NFT project launches fell 95%.
DeFi transaction volumes collapsed. Many Moralis customers shut down or went dark.
The company had to cut some features, rethink pricing, and reframe its story from Web3 Firebase to web3 data infrastructure — a more boring pitch with better retention from customers who are actually in production.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed
2021 · Led by Coinbase Ventures
$3M raised
Series A
2022 · Led by Jump Capital
$12M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, Alumni Ventures Group
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