The NEAR Foundation launched an independent entity called Nuffle Labs, which secured $13 million in strategic funding.

Nuffle Labs builds out NEAR's Data Availability Layer (NEAR DA), the NEAR Fast Finality Layer (NFFL) and other products in the NEAR modular product suite. The firm's funding came from a strategic grant from the NEAR Foundation and an Electric Capital-led investment, according to a release shared with The Block.

Additional funding came from Canonical Crypto, Fabric Ventures, Robot Ventures, Caladan, Lyrik Ventures and angel investors including Jordi Alexander from Selini, Bowen Wang from NEAR, Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer, Sam Kazemian from Frax Sandeep Nailwal from Polygon.

"As an independent entity, Nuffle Labs will now be able to make agile decisions, ensuring that …