Web3 email solution EtherMail received $4 million from veteran venture investor Tim Draper, well-known for backing household names, including Hotmail — the company EtherMail is trying to disrupt.

The pre-Series A round is led by Draper and his venture firm, Draper Associates. He will also join the startup's advisory board, the company said in a release.

MS&AD Ventures, backed by insurance conglomerate MS&AD Insurance Group, also participated in the raise.

Founded in 2021, EtherMail wants to enable encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication — where users will get rewarded for reading emails from companies. The startup is implementing a paywall solution that uses its EMT token to help protect users' inboxes by asking companies to pay for the right to invade them.