Alchemy, an infrastructure company for Web3 developers that was valued at $10.2 billion last year, has acquired Satsuma, a blockchain data indexing platform. As part of the deal, Satsuma will merge with Alchemy and operate as Alchemy Subgraphs, Alchemy said Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition comes amid bearish crypto market conditions, but Alchemy product manager Mike Garland told The Block that the deal has nothing to do with the bear market. “The Satsuma acquisition at this time has nothing to do with the bear market,” he said. “Their team built a phenomenal product and a rapidly growing, rabid user base that reminded us of the early days at Alchemy. Bringing the Satsuma team and technology together in Alchemy was the obvious next step in continuing to solve the biggest pain points for developers.”
Satsuma is Alchemy’s second acquisition after ChainShot, an education platform for web3 developers, which it acquired in August 2022.
What is Satsuma?
As a blockchain data indexing platform, Satsuma helps developers build apps faster by extracting and transforming blockchain data.
Building a successful app on top of blockchains is difficult, Alchemy said. Suppose someone wants to calculate the total value of a decentralized financial protocol. In that case, they need to set up a system to collect and organize transactions in their database. They will also have to ensure that the data remains accurate even as the blockchain changes, and they will have to bear the ongoing costs of managing this data.
Satsuma allows developers to build custom data sharing interfaces faster and significantly reduce indexing time. All web3 developers – including those building DeFi, gaming, NFT and metaverse applications – can benefit from Satsuma, Alchemy added.
Founded in March 2022, Satsuma announced a $5 million seed funding round in April this year, co-led by Initialized Capital and Archetype. There are currently six full-time employees working for Satsuma, and all will join Alchemy, Garland said.
“Than [Li] and I started Satsuma because we saw an opportunity to make blockchain indexing easier for those building the decentralized internet,” Jonathan Kau, co-founder and CEO of Satsuma, told The Block. “We are excited to join forces with Alchemy to accelerate our development, impact the web3 ecosystem and vertically integrate our products.”