Blockchain Developer Alchemy Enters Europe With Its Biggest Acquisition Yet, Bware

Key Takeaways

• Alchemy has acquired the Romanian blockchain startup Bware Labs.
• The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
• Alchemy and Bware are both focused on building Web3 infrastructure and tooling.

Alchemy has acquired  the Romanian blockchain infrastructure startup Bware Labs to enhance its product portfolio and help bolster its presence in Europe.

Although financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, reports suggest it is Alchemy’s biggest acquisition to date.

While still operating out of Romania, Bware’s employees will “seamlessly integrate” across Alchemy’s product teams, and its products will be incorporated into Alchemy’s platform in the coming months.

Blockchain Developers Join Forces

Between them, Alchemy and Bware offer extensive Web3 development tools, including various blockchain APIs, validator services, faucet connections, SDKs, and data platforms.

Bware is most well known for its Blast API, an application programming interface that lets developers connect to 101 networks and 48 chains.

Following the acquisition, Blast will be incorporated into Alchemy’s already extensive API range, which includes specialized platforms for the different functions required by decentralized application developers, including data aggregation, indexing, transactions, and testing.

In addition to benefiting from Bware’s technology, the deal will help Alchemy gain a foothold in Europe, expanding its business outside of the American market.

Alchemy Expands in Europe

Founded by a pair of Stanford researchers in 2017, Alchemy is headquartered in San Francisco and is heavily skewed toward the US market, counting the likes of OpenSea, Circle, and Worldcoin among its customers. 

In a statement announcing the Bware deal, alchemy said, “Bware gives us a turnkey presence in Europe and other markets abroad. This allows us to work closer with even projects and developers and bolster our legendary 24/7 customer support in time zones around the world.”

“Expanding into Europe also gives us access to an even broader (and rapidly growing) web3 talent pool,” it added.

Web3 Infrastructure Matures

Alchemy’s popularity, with some of the biggest names in crypto, reflects the massive demand for blockchain infrastructure, which it has helped to fill. 

As co-founder and CTO Joe Lau put it  in 2019, the lack of tooling and infrastructure when he set about building the platform meant Web3 development was like “trying to build skyscrapers with picks and shovels.”

Lau and his fellow co-founder Nikil Viswanathan experienced firsthand how challenging this could be when they initially set about creating a blockchain analytics platform.

Without the various APIs and SDKs that Web2 developers have at their disposal, the two Alchemy co-founders had to build everything from scratch.

Having put in the work to do this, they eventually abandoned their original concept and focused on developing the tooling the space so desperately needed.

In a similar vein, Bware emerged out of its founders’ dissatisfaction with existing blockchain APIs.

Specifically, Infura’s Ethereum API held a near-monopoly prior to Blast arriving on the scene. 

When Infura crashed in 2020, it caused chaos for crypto traders as platforms, including Binance, were forced to suspend ETH and ERC-20 transactions.

The incident inspired  Bware co-founder Flavian Manea to design a decentralized alternative that would have less chance of failing and could provide an additional revenue stream to node owners.

Ultimately, Alchemy and Bware’s respective origin stories share a common thread. Both companies grew out of frustration with existing solutions (or lack thereof) that inhibit Web3 growth and innovation.

About the Author

James Morales

Although his background is in crypto and FinTech news, these days, James likes to roam across CCN’s editorial breadth, focusing mostly on digital technology. Having always been fascinated by the latest innovations, he uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.

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