South Korean blockchain infrastructure startup Onbloc has secured a USD 4.33 million (KRW 6.1 billion) investment from the U.S.-based blockchain firm New Tendermint. The investment recognizes Onbloc’s technical contributions to Gno.land, a next-generation smart contract platform led by Cosmos and Tendermint co-founder Jae Kwon. This marks New Tendermint’s second investment in Onbloc, following Kwon’s initial angel investment in late 2022.

Gno.land is designed to lower the entry barrier for developers with Gnolang, a lightweight and efficient smart contract language based on Go. By doing so, it aims to attract the global Go developer community into the Web3 ecosystem. The platform emphasizes enhanced security, efficiency, and reusability of smart contracts, enabling developers to easily write, verify, and reuse code.

Gno.land is not merely a blockchain—it positions itself as the world’s first multi-user operating system based on a programming language, allowing collaborative programming at scale.

Founded in 2022, Onbloc has been instrumental in building the tools and infrastructure necessary to realize Gno.land’s foundational philosophy. The company has developed key decentralized services such as the Adena wallet, GnoScan block explorer, and GnoSwap DEX(Decentralized Exchange), while also leading community initiatives like the multi-node testnet.

Currently, Gno.land is preparing for its mainnet launch with Testnet 6, and Onbloc’s suite of services is expected to go live alongside it.

Jae Kwon, CEO of New Tendermint, stated, “Tendermint transformed how developers think about consensus. Now, Gno.land will revolutionize how we program. One day, we won’t remember a time before Gno.land. CEO Shin Dong-won and Onbloc have been vital to building this ecosystem, and we look forward to deeper collaboration as our key partner in Korea.”

Onbloc CEO Shin Dong-won commented, “We’re thrilled that both the innovation of Gno.land and our technical capabilities have been recognized. This partnership will help us strengthen core products and expand our team in smart contract and blockchain core development.” He added, “We’re committed to hitting key roadmap milestones and accelerating the growth of the GnoVM-centric ecosystem.”

Onbloc plans to continue close collaboration with the Gno.land team by expanding core products, supporting developers, and nurturing the community to help millions of developers transition into Web3.