The team behind Shiba Inu, one of the most popularly traded memecoins in the world, just closed a new $12 million funding round featuring investments from some of the largest crypto backers in the space, including Web3 power player Animoca Brands and Cypher Capital.

In an exclusive interview with TheStreet Crypto and Coinage founder Zack Guzman on the sidelines of Token2049 in Dubai, Lead Dev Shytoshi Kusama explained how the round would help open doors for the existing Shiba Inu community.

“Having new friends when you move tactically against other [memecoins] like DOGE, and other projects like Cardano and XRP, the ability to prove yourself and have new validation is extremely important,” he said in an exclusive interview. “This is like everything we do for the community – we’re not going to go out and buy Lambos, we’re going to go out and finalize what we want to do.”

Kusama, who was interviewed under his pseudonym and off-camera in the interview above to protect his security, said the the new funding was acquired through Shiba’s Panema corporation, Shiba Inu Mint S.A., via the sale of a new $TREAT utility token and will primarily be used to develop Shiba’s new blockchain, to ensure Shibarium becomes “the meme center of the world,” and to expand security and regulatory compliance.