Georgios Vlachos earned bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science at MIT. After graduating he joined the founding team of Algorand, where he worked on its consensus protocol and other core components.
In 2020 he co-founded Axelar with Sergey Gorbunov. Axelar is a proof-of-stake network that carries messages and assets between blockchains. Vlachos is a director at the Axelar Foundation.
Axelar raised a $3.75m seed round in 2020, a $25m Series A in July 2021 and a $35m Series B in February 2022. The Series B was led by Dragonfly and Polychain and valued the company at $1bn.
Cross-chain bridges were the target of major hacks in 2021 and 2022, which shaped the market Axelar works in.