Payments, Infrastructure, and New VC Funds

Key Takeaways

• Payments companies raised $145 million, infrastructure companies raised $433 million, and new venture capital funds raised over $2.0 billion this week
  
• Most active investors this week include DCG, Fenbushi, Dragonfly Capital, and Borderless Capital
  
• Deal of the Week: MoonPay a payments company raises $400 million at $.34 billion valuation to help link traditional payments companies to crypto

Venture Capital Deals

Elliptic provides blockchain analytics, training, and certification for crypto businesses, financial institutions, and regulators. Elliptic helps manage financial crime risk and achieve regulatory compliance. The Company raised $60 million in a Series C funding round. The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners with SoftBank Vision Fund 2, AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, SBI Group, Octopus Ventures, SignalFire and Paladin Capital Group also participating. Elliptic was named one of the most cutting-edge technological innovations by the World Economic Forum. (Elliptic raises $60M to advance crypto analytics service).

Celsius Network is a crypto lending platform where users can store funds and earn interest on their holdings. Celsius raised $400 million at a $3+ billion valuation. The round was led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) and WestCap. This latest round showcases investors’ optimism in the digital assets lending space despite U.S. regulators’ broader crackdown on crypto lending in the United States. (Crypto Lender Celsius Network Raises $400M in Bid to Reassure Regulators).

ConsenSys is a blockchain software company that provides a suite of software offerings such as Infure, a service that facilitates the development and deployment of apps native to Ethereum, and Metamask, a DeFi wallet with 10+ million active monthly users. ConsenSys is looking to raise new capital at a $3 billion valuation. In April 2021, the Company raised $65 million from investors that included JPMorgan, Mastercard, UBS AG, Protocol Labs, Maker Foundation, Fenbushi, the LAO, and Alameda Research. (ConsenSys Reportedly Raising Funding at $3B Valuation).

Ejara is a cryptocurrency investing platform based out of Cameroon. The Company offers non-custodial wallets for users to securely buy, sell, exchange, and store their digital assets. Ejara has raised $2 million in their latest investment round which was led by Anthemis Group and CoinShares Ventures with Mercy Corps Ventures, Ledger, and Blockworks participating. African cryptocurrency adoption has sharply increased, and investors are betting big on exchanges. A direct competitor to Ejara, Yellow Card crypto exchange raised $15 million last month as demand for digital assets in Africa continues to grow. (Cameroon’s Ejara Raises $2 Million to Bring Non-Custodial Crypto Investing to Francophone Africa)

Makor Group is a brokerage and investment banking company that has experienced large demand for crypto business. Makor Group offers 24-hour trading from its global offices in London, Paris, New York, Tel Aviv, Geneva, and Singapore. Recently, the Company has raised $17 million in a Series A fundraise valuing the company at $200 million. Part of the funds will be used to expand Enigma Securities, Makor’s crypto brokerage subsidiary. Enigma has seen monthly trading volumes exceed $2 billion so far in 2021. Additionally, Makor is creating strategic partnerships with Algorand, Alan Howard, and several notable U.S.-based asset managers. The British billionaire, Alan Howard has been active in the digital assets and blockchain space having invested in Copper, Bullish Global, Bottlepay, Ledn,10T fund by Dan Tapiero, and One River Digital Asset Management. (Makor Group Announces Series A Raise at $200 Valuation).

DareNFT is a universal NFT 2.0 protocol for digital assets. DareNFT allows owners to receive royalties from NFT derivatives revenue and supports a co-ownership model and a multi-chain NFT leasing model to increase market liquidity. DareNFT recently closed a $2.4 million private funding round from investors that include Kyber Network, AU21 Capital, Basics Capital, Magnus Capital, Momentum 6, X21 Digital, Cosmos Gaming Hub, OneSoft, LuaVentures, Moonwhale Ventures, and Kardia Ventures, in addition to a few other strategic venture funds. NFTs have been a hot crypto sector recently, with sales surging to $10.7 billion in Q3 2021. (DareNFT closes private and strategic funding round with $2.4M from VCs and other investors).

Pontoon Finance is a cross-chain mirroring protocol bringing liquidity to the Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) industry via trustless bridges that facilitate transactions across chains. Pontoon successfully fundraised $3.2 million. Investors include Amesten Capital, X21, Morning Star Ventures, Black Edge Capital, Draper Dragon Funds, Ex Network, and GenBlock. The DeFi space has been one of the most active sectors within digital assets in the last year, with major DeFi protocols continuing to grow their TVL. (Pontoon Finance Raise $3.2 Million in Funding with Testnet Version Ready for Launch).

Gelato Network is an Ethereum smart contract automation network built to address liquidity and volatility issues with cryptocurrency trading. Gelato raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Dragonfly Capital with ParaFi Capital, Nascent, IDEO CoLab Ventures, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov participating in the round. The network currently supports Ethereum, Polygon, and Fantom and is expected to support BSC, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche soon. (Gelato Raises $11M as Smart Contract Automation Market Heats Up).

Aurora is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (“EVM”) project developed by the NEAR Protocol, delivering a turn-key solution for developers to operate their apps on an Ethereum-compatible, high-throughput, scalable and future-safe platform, with low transaction costs for their users. The project raised $12 million, the round was led by Pantera Capital and Electric Capital. EVM is crucial to ensure trustless mechanisms without having any central administrator. EVM keeps each node systematically isolated from others in order to avoid security risks. (Aurora raises $12M in debut funding to scale Ethereum ecosystem).

SheeldMarket is an EU-registered crypto prime broker in France that offers fast, direct, and secure access to digital assets via a single trading platform. The Company raised $10 million in a Series A funding round let by VC firm Atomico. Investors that participated in the round include Semantic Ventures, Pascal Gauthier, and Alexis Bonillo. SheeldMarket will use the funds to grow its platform and offer access to derivatives trading and permissioned DeFi protocols. The French government has shown support to foster DeFi innovation. The French Parliament has been working on a new bill, the Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation (“PACTE Bill”) which aims to encourage growth and transform the role of companies in France. Digital assets and blockchain companies are included in this new bill. (Paris startup aims to become go-to broker for financial firms trading cryptocurrency).

DeHorizon is a community-powered game metaverse that falls in the Play-to-Earn (“P2E”) category. The project wants to empower players to control their own assets and private information and grant governance voting rights by allowing the platform to be managed by a decentralized autonomous community (“DAO”). DeHorizon has completed an $8.5 million Pre-A funding. The round was led by Sfermion, Dragonfly Capital, and Everest Ventures Group with participation from Animoca Brands, Yield Guild Games, Mechanism Capital, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Infinity Venture Crypto, Akatsuki Inc, BitScale, Republic Realm, Youbi Capital, Bybit, The Lao, LD Capital, Momentum 6, Dialectic, Stable Node, Kardia Ventures, among others. P2E has become the hottest area in crypto recently, with Axie Infinity leading the charts. (DeHorizon Raises $8.5M Pre-A Round Led By Sfermion, Dragonfly Capital and Everest Ventures Group).

Stader Labs is working on becoming a staking aggregator in order to bring staking solutions to a centralized platform. Stader Labs looks to provide conventional staking, liquid staking, and derivatives to hedge the price risk of staked assets. Via a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (“SAFT”) sale, Stader Labs raised $4 million. The capital raise was led by Pantera Capital with participation from Jump Capital, Huobi Ventures, TerraForm Labs, Coinbase Ventures, True Ventures, Solana Foundation, Near Foundation and others. (Crypto staking platform Stader Labs raises $4 million in seed funding).

Tinyman is an automated market maker (“AMM) on the Algorand blockchain. The Company raised $2.5 million from investors including Borderless Capital, Arrington Capital, The LAO, Genesis Capital, Digital Currency Group, BlockTower Capital, and GoldenTree Asset Management, among others. SkyBridge raised $100 million for an Algorand fund ($250 million) in September. (DeFi for the Small Guy: Algorand-Based Tinyman Raises $2.5M ahead of DEX Launch).

Movii is a Colombian fintech company that offers digital wallet services and a payment infrastructure network to over two million users. Movii has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round led by Square and Hard Yaka. The Company is also contemplating an additional capital raise before the end of 2021. Global VC investments in fintech reached a new record with $52.3 billion deployed in 1H21, more than doubling the total amount invested in 2H20 of $22.5 billion. Investors continue to view the fintech space as attractive, driving valuations to record highs, and contributing to the rise of unicorns in the fintech space. (Colombian Fintech Movii Raises $15M in Series B Round).

Derived Finance is a decentralized, multi-chain protocol that provides clients access to stocks, commodities, forex, and digital assets on a unified platform with ample liquidity and no slippage. The Company raised $3.3 million in funding from investors including GSR, AU21, Poolz, Nabais Capital, Dweb3, Occamfi, and others. The platform seeks to become the bridge between traditional and digital financial markets. (Derived Finance Successfully Completed $3.3M Funding Round).

Bitfy is Latin America’s first non-custodial, multi-purpose digital assets wallet. Dash Investment Foundation (“DIF”) joined the crypto organization $DASH to lead a $150,000 Series A funding round to advance the cryptocurrency payments industry in South America. Bitfy has a strategic partnership with Cielo, Brazil’s largest credit card operator and payment processing company. Users with the Bitfy wallet can already pay with digital assets. Brazil has experienced large investments in the digital assets and blockchain space this year. Mercado Bitcoin the Brazilian crypto exchange raised $40 million earlier this year. Brazil has been a crypto-friendly country, having approved BTC and ETH ETFs a few months ago. (DASH invests in Bitfy and expands market in South America).

TradingView is a cloud-based charting platform and social network used by over 30 million traders and investors globally. Tiger Global has led the Company’s latest $298 million investment round, valuing the Company at $3 billion. The platform has seen a sharp increase in new accounts in the last 18 months. According to data from Alexa.com, TradingView is in the top 100 most engaging websites globally on the internet and has paying customers in over 180 countries worldwide Similar platforms that offer services like TradingView include FinViz, Binance, CoinmarketCap, Stockcharts, Barchart and Forexfactor. (TradingView completes new funding round with $3B valuation).

Arcana Network is a decentralized storage, non-custodial key management, and data privacy platform for Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machine (“EVM”) compatible app developers. The Company raised $2.3 million led by Republic Crypto and Woodstock Fund, with participation from Digital Currency Group, Hyperedge, Fenbushi Capital, LD Capital and Paradigm Shift. (Blockchain Startup Arcana Raises $2.3M from Republic Crypto, Woodstock, DCG, Sahil Lavingia and Others).

Token Sales

Chingari is a short-video sharing platform from India. The platform is considered a direct competitor to TikTok. The Company has raised $19 million in crypto tokens such as Tether. Investors that participated in the round include Republic Crypto, Galaxy Digital, Alameda Research, Solana Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Kraken, Blackpine, NGC, Coinfund, LD Capital, Borderless Capital, AU21, Cultur3 Capital, Long Term Ventures, Afton Capital, and CSP DAO. The funds will be used to launch their own digital currency $GARI. The video app has been downloaded more than 78 million times and is in the quest to allow creators monetize on their content. (Indian TikTok competitor Chingari raises $19 million to develop a ‘social token’).

Futureswap is a decentralized exchange for trading perpetual swaps. The service on the exchange gives traders the ability to go long or short on a crypto asset with leverage and no expiry date required. Futureswap offers leverage up to 30 times. Futureswap has raised $12 million via a token sale and a Series A funding round. Co-leaders in the deal were Ribbit Capital, Framework Ventures, True Ventures, and Placeholder, who each had a $2 million participation. The perpetual swap trading product was first introduced in 2016 by crypto exchange BitMEX and have become a popular instrument used by traders. (Decentralized exchange Futureswap raises $12 million from Ribbit Capital and others).

New Venture Funds

Nelnet Renewable Energy supports solar and emerging clean technologies through tax equity investing, its tax co-investing platform, a community solar subscription, and campus solar development solutions. Nelnet has entered a joint venture partnership with Ripple with a $44 million environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) investment. The funds will be deployed to drive the adoption of environmentally conscious solar energy initiatives across the United States. As of 2020, more than 230,000 Americans worked in the solar industry at more than 9,500 companies throughout all 50 states. Last year, the solar industry generated more than $25 billion of private investments in the American economy according to research from SEIA and Wood Mackenzie. (Ripple and Nelnet launch $44M fund for carbon-negative crypto-industry).

Binance, the crypto exchange giant has launched a $1 billion fund to boost adoption of Binance Smart Chain (“BSC”) and the overall blockchain industry. Out of the total, $500 million will be invested across gaming, metaverse, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and financial services, $300 million will be deployed on its Builder Program, and the remainder of the fund will go into their Most Valuable Builder Program that incubates decentralized applications and infrastructure projects that want to build on Binance Smart Chain. (Binance launches $1 billion growth fund for Binance Smart Chain).

Huobi Ventures has partnered with financial services platform Republic. Together, the companies plan to launch a blockchain and digital assets cross-border accelerator program to connect startups to global investors. Houbi has committed $30 million to the accelerator program and will provide solutions for launching digital assets, advisory services and early-stage incubation under Republic’s crypto business. Huobi has created and launched several funds dedicated to blockchain technology, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible Huobi Eco Chain (HECO) public chain and non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). Republic Crypto has a seed fund with $60 million in capital and has deployed ~20% of the fund. (Huobi Ventures, Republic Team Up to Fund Crypto Startups).

Crypto Venture Capital firm Paradigm is looking to raise a new fund between $1.25 billion to $1.50 billion and will close on November 12, 2021. The Venture Capital space has seen an accelerated inflow of funds in 2021. In just the first six months of the year, VC had deployed more than $17 billion in the digital assets and blockchain industry, more than tripling during the same period in 2020. Each month, new crypto funds emerge, as this year alone we’ve seen major funds created by a16z, Binance, 10T, Jump Capital, Pantera Capital, among others. (Coinbase Co-Founder’s Venture Firm Raising $1.5B Fund, Document Shows).

Crypto Capital Markets

Greenidge Generation (NASDAQ:GREE) is the first and only carbon neutral, vertically integrated power generator and bitcoin miner of scale in the United States. The Company sold $50 million of 8.5% notes due 2026. The Company has given the underwriters the option to purchase up to an additional $5.2 million aggregate principal number of Notes. Greenidge currently operates one facility in upstate New York and expects to expand operations to a second location in South Carolina. Greenidge Generation merged with Support.com in September of this year. (Greenidge Generation Announces Note Underwriters Will Exercise Option to Purchase Additional Notes).

Stronghold Digital is a Bitcoin mining company that runs operations through the reclamation of coal refuse sites across Pennsylvania. The Company’s combined capacity is 165MW. Stronghold Digital has filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for an initial public offering (“IPO”) worth ~$100 million under the ticker “SDIG” with price shares expected to be between $16 – $18. Part of the proceeds from the offering will be dedicated to purchasing an additional 55,800 crypto miners. Coal refuse is classified by Pennsylvania as a Tier II alternative energy resource, same as large-scale hydropower. (Stronghold Digital Mining Firm to Raise $100M in Targeted IPO).

Deal of the Week

MoonPay is a digital assets payments infrastructure platform with an on-and-off-ramp suite that allows users to convert between fiat and digital assets using all major payment methods including credit card, debit, local bank transfers and additional payment channels. The Company has successfully raised $400 million at a $3.4 billion valuation. Tiger Global and Coatue Management co-led the investment round.

Why is this a Big Deal?

MoonPay has over five million users and provides access to over 80 digital assets. The digital assets payment landscape has seen major disruptions, partnerships, and investments in the last 18 months.

Traditional payment companies are under pressure to innovate and offer digital assets solutions and have begun to acquire companies to remain competitive. Earlier in June, Visa and PayPal joined VC Blockchain Capital’s $300 million fund to compete in the space. Additionally, Visa has partnered with over 50 crypto companies to allow clients to spend digital currencies. According to data released by Visa, more than $1 billion was spent on crypto-linked Visa cards in the first six months of 2021. Another major partnership in the payments industry this year was Binance and Alchemy Pay, who partnered to enable P2P crypto payments at over 2 million global merchants through its payments application Binance Pay. (Crypto payment startup MoonPay valued at $3.4 billion after first funding round).