Patrick O’Grady, founder of Commonware, declined to name other participants in the fundraise for his startup, which develops open-source code to allow others to launch their own blockchains. O’Grady also declined to disclose the valuation for his firm following the Tempo-led raise, but said it was a “significant increase” over the valuation in Commonware’s seed round, which Pitchbook reports as $63 million.
“Usage and distribution is way more important than money as a startup,” he told Fortune. “If we can short circuit that process and have a deep relationship, multi-year relationship, with a great team, instead of raising maybe a traditional round from a venture fund, that was the opportunity that Tempo presented.”
“We think that they’re going to do just as good of a job, or better, showing off what Commonware can do than what we can do,” said O’Grady, the founder of Commonware, in reference to Tempo.
Founded in 2024, Commonware has only seven employees (including O’Grady) and four customers, but it’s already profitable, he said. It makes money through helping companies deploy as well as interface with its open-source software, and each customer on average generates more than $1 million in annual revenue. “We have now a bit of a backlog of people that want to work with us,” O’Grady added.
