Infrastructure Continues To Attract Venture Capital
Key Takeaways
- Over $1.8 billion was raised through venture capital this week, with $928 million going towards 6 infrastructure projects to help build ecosystem functionality. Two new venture funds raised $435 million for future investments into a variety of crypto verticals. Centralized Finance (CeFi) brought in $433 million, NFT projects received $12.2 million, and a DeFi project raised $6 million. The bigger move in the NFT capital markets world came by way of Pluto Digital acquiring NFT Investments.
- Active investors this week include Animoca Brands, Multicoin, SoftBank, and Three Arrows Capital.
- Deal of the Week: Fireblocks raised $550 million, bringing its valuation up to $8 billion as the company begins expanding into DeFi investments and create a full product offering for Web3.
Venture Capital Deals
FTX US is the American branch of FTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, that services US residents in compliance with US-specific regulations. In a Series A funding round, the company raised $400 million to reach a valuation of $8 billion. Participants included Paradigm, Temasek, Multicoin Capital, and SoftBank, among many others. FTX US is planning to use the funding to increase brand recognition and educate potential crypto investors in order to become the largest exchange in the country, on top of expanding its product offerings through internal development and acquisitions. (FTX US Attains $8B Valuation in $400M Fundraise Including SoftBank, Temasek)
Project Galaxy is a Web3 user credential data aggregator that allows users to contribute and curate personal data in exchange for money when developers and applications query it. The platform raised $10 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital. Project Galaxy is hoping to decentralize monetization and control of personal data away from tech companies and give ownership back to the consumer. (Decentralized Data Sharing Network ‘Project Galaxy’ Raises $10M)
CoinTracker is a crypto tax software company that makes it easy for users to track liabilities and report earnings to the IRS. The company raised $100 million in a Series A round, reaching unicorn status with a $1.3 billion valuation. The round was led by Accel, with Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, and Inuit Ventures participating, among others. Because the IRS reporting guidelines are ever-changing when it comes to digital asset investments, CoinTracker makes it easy for American investors to keep up with the changes by handling all of the backend regulatory compliance. (Crypto Tax Software Firm CoinTracker Raises $100M to Help Traders Prep for IRS)
Dropp GG is an augmented reality (AR) NFT platform where users mint NFTs with a geo-tag so that the NFTs can create an experience that blends the metaverse with the physical world. The company closed an $8 million funding round with notable investors such as Three Arrows Capital, Animoca Brands, Alameda Research, and DeFinance Capital participating, among others. The idea is to create NFTs that are visible through AR, so that users get to experience the NFT in a real-world location, such as a music concert or a landscape outlook, enhancing the experience of the digital and physical worlds. (Dropp GG raises $8M to merge the metaverse with the physical world)
BCB Group is a financial services provider for blockchain-based platforms, offering payment services and foreign exchange custody services for clients such as Coinbase and Kraken. The company closed the largest Series A investment round for a UK startup, raising $60 million from Foundation Capital, Circle, Backed VC, and North Island Ventures, among others. The company will use the funds to build a DeFi yield farming product and create relationships in the US and Singapore for a more global footprint. BCB is also in the process of acquiring Sutor Bank in Germany to access high net worth crypto investors. (BCB Group raises a $60 million Series A round co-led by Foundation Capital)
Superdao is a platform for Web3 developers to more easily build and launch decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO). The project raised $10.5 million in a round led by SignalFire in order to improve its infrastructure and increase developers’ awareness of the opportunities that DAOs can create. At the moment, DAOs have a combined value of over $8 billion, but as the idea continues to gain familiarity and creative engagement from developers, it is expected that this ecosystem will balloon to a significant sector of the crypto market. (Superdao Raises $10.5 Million to Build an ‘All-in-One’ DAO Platform)
MyContainer is a crypto staking platform where users can stake their deposits on over 100 different Proof-of-Stake protocols. The company closed a $6 million seed round led by Mapleblock, Shima Capital, and Bybit. The funds will be used to hire along multiple lines of business, add to its bank-to-bank (B2B) product suite, and expand its footprint throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. MyContainer helps make a diversified staking portfolio easier to manage so that users can use one single wallet to stake across multiple blockchains. (Crypto staking platform MyCointainer raises $6M in seed round)
Blockdaemon is a crypto infrastructure platform that provides a suite of backend support services for projects, including node operations and staking as a service. The company raised $207 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Sapphire, with other participants including SoftBank, Galaxy Digital, and Boldstart Ventures, among others. The funding round brought the company’s valuation to $3.25 billion, up from $1.26 billion in September. The fresh capital will be used to create a new DeFi fund that will invest in projects that will help improve the infrastructure of the digital assets ecosystem, as well as partner with StakeWise to build institutional DeFi services. (Blockchain infrastructure firm Blockdaemon scores $3.25 billion post-money valuation in new fundraise)
TRLab is an NFT platform that curates and auctions NFT artwork for high end art investors looking to add investments into digital assets. The project raised $4.2 million from participants such as Animoca Brands, Bertlessmann Asia Investments, and Plutus Capital, among others. The fresh capital will be used to further build up its collection in order to create new offerings including multi-artist collections that follow along the same theme. (NFT Platform TRLab Raises $4.2M to Diversify Its Artwork Collection)
Domain Money is a crypto investment app with a focus on actively managed and curated investment plans. The project raised $33 million with Bessemer Ventures, Maveron, RRE Ventures, and notable individuals participating. The company is run by former executives from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Bridgewater, and Morgan Stanley, in order to offer users some of the best investment research and management in order to try to outperform typical crypto benchmarks like Bitcoin price. The company is using the funds to kickstart its app and draw investment and engineering talent to the project. (Ex-Goldman Sachs banker launches crypto app after $33M raise)
Crypto Capital Markets
NFT Investments is an NFT investing group that partners with creators and investors to provide an on-ramp for both supply and demand in the NFT marketplace. The company is publicly traded on London’s Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market. Pluto Digital is a crypto venture capital firm with a recent focus on investments in Web3 and NFT projects. Pluto is acquiring NFT Investments in a $130 million purchase of a 70.5% stake in the merged entity, bringing Pluto Digital into the public capital markets while expanding its NFT thesis and strategies to encompass those of NFT Investments. (Crypto VC Fund Pluto Digital to Go Public in Reverse Takeover of NFT Investments)
New Venture Capital Funds, Ecosystem Funds and Alliances
Blockchain Founders Fund (BFF), is a Singapore-based crypto VC firm that has a focus in Web3 and DeFi startups. The firm has raised a new $75 million fund, called the BFF II fund, with investors including NEO Global Capital and AppWorks, among others. The new fund has already been used to invest in FXDX, a decentralized derivatives exchange, as well as Breshna, a gaming startup. (Singapore VC Blockchain Founders Raises $75M for New Fund)
HashKey is the digital assets investing arm of Wangxiang Group with positions in major crypto projects like Polkadot, BlockFi, and Terra, among many others. The company is starting a new $360 million fund with no specific vertical that it will target, splitting its funds into venture equity in Asian startups, early-stage projects, and large capitalization tokens. (Hong Kong’s HashKey Group Raises $360M Blockchain Fund)
Fireblocks is primarily a crypto custody provider and is expanding into DeFi staking services with customers like CoinShares, Three Arrows Capital, and Galaxy Digital, among many others. The company closed a $550 million Series E round, boosting its valuation to $8 billion. The investment was led by D1 Capital Partners and Spark Capital, with participation from General Atlantic, Index Ventures, and Mammoth, among others.
Why is this a Big Deal
Fireblocks’ custody services allow some of the largest crypto investment companies to invest in projects that have helped develop and grow the entire digital asset ecosystem. Further, only 26% of US households currently have crypto investments but is growing exponentially, creating a need for financial institutions to accommodate the rapid rise in demand for crypto financial services, and Fireblocks is currently one of the leading providers of the tools for institutions to create regulatory-compliant products for their customers. Fireblocks currently has $45 billion in assets under custody and has helped transfer over $2 trillion to date, but the company is working to continue growing through expansion into other areas of crypto services. The new funds raised will be used primarily to invest in new DeFi projects that bring new and creative solutions and products to the financial world, expand its DeFi services to integrate with a wider array of blockchains (specifically mentioning Terra recently), double its workforce, and build new products for a full suite of Web3 investment opportunities. (Fireblocks raises $550 million in Series E funding, now valued at $8 billion)
