Shield, a blockchain security company focused on protecting users from online scams, raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding from Kraken Ventures, Eterna Capital, Alchemy, Moonpay and other investors.

The Los Angeles-based company was co-founded last year by former Facebook product development specialist Luis Carchi, Y-Combinator alumni Isaiah Udotong and former McKinsey business analyst Emmanuel Udotong. 

Carchi, the company’s chief technology officer, is an immigrant from Ecuador. He is active in the web3 and e-commerce spaces. Isaiah Udotong has experience in the startup community and in 2017 co-founded Releaf along with his brother, Emmanuel. Releaf is a developer of software and hardware used by food-processing factories in Africa. Emmanuel Udotong entered the blockchain industry following his time at McKinsey

Shield is currently part of an accelerator program owned by Andreessen Horowitz.

Shield is looking to help companies adopt comprehensive security measures to prevent crypto exploits and increase user trust across the blockchain ecosystem.

The form of security being developed by Shield involves automated protections against what the company calls “frequently neglected attack vectors.” Shield’s security stack currently protects more than 350,000 users and works with clients such as Fox Sports, NFT marketplace Rarible and membership management platform Guild.xyz. 

In a 2021 blockchain survey published by Deloitte, the firm found that a majority of respondents believed blockchain could help reduce risks for organizations or projects, particularly those in financial services.