Infrastructure Projects Raise Nearly $1B In A Week

Key Takeaways

• Venture capital went all-in on infrastructure projects this week, more than tripling investments into the crypto vertical at $942 million. The runner-up was NFT/metaverse projects, which raised $134.5 million over 7 projects that were mostly very early-stage funding rounds. CeFi and DeFi were relatively inactive, raising $40 million and $11 million, respectively. A mining infrastructure project raised $385 million in a mix of equity and debt, and three venture capital funds raised $711 million, one of which is a new entrant to the space.
• Active investors this week include a16z, Tiger Global, Alameda Research, and Morningstar Capital.
• Deal of the Week: Polygon secured a $450 million investment round after rolling out a zero-knowledge proofing mechanism to interact with Ethereum without broadcasting transaction details

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Venture Capital Deals

Aleo is a layer 2 zero-knowledge (ZK) applications platform that lets developers build products for users that can integrate with layer 1 chains like Ethereum without communicating personal information to those chains. The project raised $200 million in a Series B round led by Kora Management LP and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Other investors include a16z, Samsung Next, and Tiger Global, among others. The funding w...