Zcash Open Development Lab Raises $25M in Seed Funding

Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) has closed a $25 million seed funding round led by top-tier crypto investors including Paradigm, a16z crypto, Winklevoss Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Cypherpunk Technologies, Maelstrom, and Chapter One, along with individual investors Balaji Srinivasan, David Friedberg, Haseeb Qureshi, and others.

The raise signals investor confidence in Zcash's privacy-first positioning at a time when regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrency has intensified, the company said in the announcement on Monday. ZODL was founded by Josh Swihart, former CEO of Electric Coin Company (ECC), which previously controlled Zcash development.

ZODL's primary focus is developing Zodl as an open, self-custodial private financial platform designed to expand ecosystem interoperability through partnerships and bring shielded ZEC transactions to the global mainstream. The Zodl wallet, launched in 2024, has driven growth in the Zcash shielded pool by over 400% and facilitated more than $600 million in ZEC swaps since October 2025.

Earlier this year, the entire ECC team, including the product team behind the wallet, joined Zcash Open Development Lab, consolidating development resources under the new entity.

The funding will support engineering hires and expanded development efforts. Zcash protocol development remains a core part of ZODL's work, with the engineers who designed and maintained Zcash's most critical systems continuing that work, according to the announcement.