Venture Funding Remains Robust Despite Macro Uncertainty

While liquid markets continued to chop this week, venture funding remained relatively robust with over 45 deals completed for a total of $574 million – a slight downtick from last week’s $600 million. Web3 projects raised $227 million, the most of any other category, with CeFi coming in second having raised $190 million. Metaverse/gaming projects were overlooked this week; however, Japanese game developer Akatsuki raised a $20 million fund that will be deployed over the coming months. Other fund launches include Binance Lab’s $500 million Web3 fund and Canonical Crypto’s $20 million infrastructure fund.

Most deal making continues to occur in early stages. Pre-Seed accounted for 17.6% of total deal count while Seed made up 47.1% this week. Last week Pre-Seed and Seed made up 17.9% and 42.9%, respectively.

Deal of the Week

Astra Protocol is a decentralized compliance solution for the growing Web3 economy. With the help of Astra, protocols can comply with government regulations while still maintaining decentralization. Astra raised $100 million from Republic in their Series A funding round, valuing Astra at $500 million. This investment comes after a successful $9 million raise in December which was also led by Republic, with participation from Fundamental Labs, NewTribe Capital, and DAO Maker, among others.

Why is This a Big Deal?

Not only is Astra’s raise the largest of the month, but it also comes at an opportune time. Regulators are increasingly focused on the crypto space due to investor losses in the Luna / UST collapse and the growing number of DeFi hacks. The inevitable regulation that is coming will create a large demand for compliant crypto protocols, especially among institutions that are looking to enter the crypto space. Astra gives a high-quality solution while maintaining decentralization. Astra’s goal is to leverage crypto and legal experts to build a decentralized compliance layer that includes KYC & AML capabilities. Astra offers legal assurance, dispute resolution, a legal framework, and regulatory compliance across a range of DeFi applications.

Deals & Fundraising

Deals & Fundraising

• Kroo, a mobile-only UK-based neo bank, raised $33 million in its latest Series B funding round which will be deployed for recruiting, expansion, and social causes. Over 60% of previous investors, reinvested in this round.  
• InfStones, a blockchain infrastructure provider, announced a new funding round of $66M led by SoftBank and GGV Capital, with participation from INCE Capital, 10T Fund, SNZ Holding, and A&T Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to over $100 million since inception.
• Walken, a move-to-earn and win-to-earn blockchain game, raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by Infinity Ventures Crypto and Shima Capital, with participation from Morningstar Ventures, Ghaf Capital Partners, Huobi Ventures, Dex Ventures, and others.
• Vendia, a platform designed to share operational data across applications, data stores, and cloud networks, has raised $30 million in its latest Series B funding round. The round was led by NewView Capital, with new investments from the Neythri Futures Fund, Operator Partners, and Lux Capital.
• Mondu, a Berlin-based a B2B buy-now-pay-later platform, has raised $43 million in its latest Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures with participation from FinTech Collective and Cherry Ventures.

Please see below for the full list of deals