Web 3 can be complicated for newcomers to the crypto space; blockchain transaction platform Biconomy is trying to change that.

Biconomy announced Wednesday that it has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Huobi Innovation Labs, CoinFund and other crypto investment firms. 

The platform’s blockchain-agnostic relayer network, which includes software development kits (SDKs) and application programming interfaces (APIs), is designed to help developers build decentralized apps (dapps) that are simpler and more user-friendly. 

According to Biconomy’s CEO, Ahmed Al-Balaghi, the steps required to interact with dapps – creating a crypto wallet, purchasing and transferring tokens, managing gas fees – is enough to put off many first-timers. 

Biconomy’s goal, Al-Balaghi says, is to make dapps more user-friendly by removing the “friction points” that end-users find frustrating, which in turn increases user retention and helps bring new users into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.  

Since its launch in 2019, Biconomy has processed over 3.6 million transactions and currently has over 200 dapp integrations in the pipeline. Al-Balaghi said Biconomy has seen three major verticals arise in its dapp portfolio: DeFi, gaming and NFT applications. 

Biconomy will use some of the funds to decentralize its relayer network, including preparing for the launch of its native token, BICO.

Al-Balaghi told CoinDesk that the BICO token will be both a staking and governance token. A public sale is planned for Q4 of this year.