Venture Capital Is Bullish On All Fronts
Key Takeaways
- Venture capital firms took a shotgun approach to investing this week, raising just over $1 billion in total for investments across the crypto space, focusing heavily on NFTs, Infrastructure, and Centralized Finance (CeFi) projects. NFT projects raised $240 million, infrastructure saw $239 million, CeFi raked in $324 million, and DeFi and Metaverse raised $33 million and $45 million, respectively. Acquisition activity was also high, with OpenSea and BitMEX eyeing other companies’ capabilities to enhance their own platforms and product offerings.
- Active investors this week include Animoca Brands, Three Arrows Capital, and Tiger Capital
- Deal of the Week: Rain Financial raised $110 million to kickstart a global expansion roadmap beyond MENA, leveraging institutional relationships to bring new institutional capital into crypto.
Venture Capital Deals
Lukka is an accounting and data software company that services active crypto funds, having processed a total of $2.1 trillion in transactions at the time of reporting. The company reached unicorn status after raising $110 million in a Series E round that valued the company at $1.3 billion. The funding was led by Marshall Wace with Soros Fund Management, Liberty City Ventures, and S&P Global participating, among others. Lukka is planning to use the funds to realize a global expansion roadmap. The company builds blockchain and tokenized asset data for data valuations, tax solutions, and data analysis. (Crypto-focused software firm Lukka raises $110M, reaches $1.3B valuation)
Coinhouse is a French centralized crypto exchange that was the first crypto company registered with France’s Financial Markets Authority (AMF). The company closed a $17 million Series B funding round led by True Global Ventures, with participation from ConsenSys. The company is using the funds to increase its product offerings with a focus on corporate and institutional services, as well as expanding to other European countries in an effort to grow from a trading platform into a cryptobank. (French Crypto Platform Coinhouse Raises $17M to Fuel European Expansion)
nCore Games is an Indian mobile game developer that built FAU-G, one of the more popular mobile games in India. nCore closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands and Galaxy Interactive, with Polygon and Hyperedge Capital also participating. The company will use the funds to launch Web3 gaming projects and an NFT collection. The Indian gaming market has struggled with bringing in revenues on the scale of Western developers, but nCore believes the metaverse and Play-to-Earn (P2E) can change that by sharing ownership with the players. (Indian Gaming Firm nCore Games Raises $10M for Web 3 Offerings: Report)
Chingari is an Indian short-video platform that aims to replace TikTok after TikTok was banned in India. The platforms raised $15 million in a strategic investment round led by Republic Capital and OKEx. The platform has garnered 35 million users, with a goal to reach 200 million by end of year with this funding through growing its market outside of non-metro Indian cities. Chingari incentivizes content creators to join the platform with the ability to create NFTs and own GARI, the platform’s native token, on top of any traditional income streams like brand ambassadorships. (Indian TikTok Rival Chingari Raises $15M Round Led by Republic Capital: Report)
NGRAVE is a cryptocurrency hardware wallet to help users secure their holdings. The company raised $6 million in a seed funding round with Woodstock Fund, Morningstar Ventures, and DFG Group participating, among others. Hardware wallets, also known as cold wallets, store users’ private keys offline allowing for a greater level of security compared to digital wallets. (NGRAVE crypto wallet raises $6 million)
The Graph ($GRT) is a blockchain data indexer that allows developers to query data from 26 different blockchains. The company raised a $50 million funding round led by Tiger Capital with participation from FinTech Collective, Fenbushi Capital, Reciprocal Ventures, and Blockwall Digital Assets Fund. The Graph likens its blockchain services with what Google does for the internet, precipitates data from a wide variety of sources into one, simple interface. Users of the platform include Uniswap, Synthetix, Decentraland, and Livepeer, among many others. (‘Google for Blockchains’ The Graph Raises $50M Led by Tiger Global)
Autograph is a sports and entertainment NFT platform where celebrities such as Simone Biles and Tiger Woods create and sell their own NFTs. The platform closed a $170 million Series B funding round led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Katie Haun and 01A, among others. Autograph uses NFTs to create a direct connection between celebrities and their fans, removing middlemen who have traditionally capitalized off of that relationship. (NFT platform Autograph raises $170 million in Series B funding)
Carry1st is an African gaming marketplace serving underbanked communities by integrating a wide selection of payment methods to bring them international gaming and entertainment content. The company finished a $20 million Series A round led by a16z with Google and Avenir participating as well. The funds will be used to further develop the company’s infrastructure for better usability and crypto integration. (a16z leads $20 million investment into African gaming startup Carry1st)
Shakepay is a Canadian crypto broker-dealer that allows users to trade, send, and earn Bitcoin. The company closed a $35 million Series A funding round led by QED Investors, with participants including Golden Ventures and Broadhaven, among others. The company recently tested a prepaid card that allows users to earn cashback in Bitcoin, and the capital influx will be used to roll this project out, as well as improve the company’s infrastructure and management team. (Shakepay Raises $35M to Help Canadians Buy, Sell and Earn Bitcoin)
BlockFills is a digital asset platform for market making, trading, and prime brokerage. The company raised $37 million in a Series A round with participants including Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, CME Ventures, and Simplex Ventures, among others. This round will help fund the company’s global expansion, as well as help roll out new products for institutional companies to participate effectively in the digital asset market. (BlockFills raises $37 million to support global expansion)
Hubble Protocol is a Solana-based DeFi project that creates a structure to provide interest-free loans that stakes borrowers’ collateral in order to earn yield for both the lenders and borrowers. The project raised $10 million in a pre-launch funding round led by DCG and Three Arrows Capital. Other investors include Crypto.com, ParaFi, Delphi Digital, and Jump Capital, among many others. The protocol is scheduled to launch on the mainnet next week, with the roadmap that includes active hiring and new product development. (Hubble Protocol On Solana Raised $10 Million Ahead Of Mainnet Launch)
Byte Trading is a crypto market maker that specializes in the derivatives market. The company raised $7 million from Redalpine in a seed round in order to reshape its board of directors, expand its engineering team, and add operability on more exchanges. The company differentiates its market-making strategy by incorporating investor sentiment forces on top of just order book data in order to better understand the outsized impact that retail investors have in digital asset markets. (Crypto market maker Byte Trading raises $7 million in seed funding)
Metaplex is a Solana-based NFT marketplace that provides investors with fast and cheap NFT trading. The platform raised $46 million in a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) sale to venture capital investors including Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, and Animoca Brands, with many individual investors participating. Metaplex will use the capital to launch a governance token and support projects that will help developers more easily interact with and grow the Metaplex platform. (Solana project Metaplex Foundation raises $46 million in SAFT sale)
iTrust Capital is a crypto IRA service provider that works with Coinbase Custody and Fireblocks to custody tax-deferred investments for its customers. iTrust closed a $125 million Series A round that valued the company at $1.3 billion, making it a new crypto unicorn. The funding was led by Left Lane Capital. iTrust will use the funds to begin acquiring projects and expanding its product offerings to include staking options for investors to earn yield off of governance token purchases, as well as grow its domestic userbase. (Crypto IRA platform iTrustCapital raises $125 million in Series A funding)
POAP, an acronym for Proof-of-Attendance Protocol, is an event badge protocol where event organizers can create and distribute event badges as NFTs. The project raised $10 million in a seed round led by Archetype and Sapphire Sport LLC, with Collab Currency, Red Beard Ventures, and Delphi Digital participating, among others. Similar to event collectibles and collector pins, POAPs can be sold at events, with digitization allowing for increased usability for organizers to create raffles, chat rooms, etc. for POAP owners. (Ethereum NFT Badge App POAP Raises $10M to Fund Development)
Cyber is a startup that lets artists and users build their own virtual showrooms to showcase their NFT collections. The company finished a $6.7 million funding round led by Variant, with Three Arrows Capital, TCG , and many notable members of the NFT community taking part in the raise. The company plans to use the capital for hiring more talent to grow its product’s capabilities. Cyber recently rolled out a portal function for users to visit others’ showrooms, which the company hopes will lead to a new form of social media platform. (Metaverse startup Cyber has raised $6.7 million from a bevy of big-name NFT investors)
Stader Labs is a crypto staking platform that will automatically stake users’ funds in a suit of Staking-as-a-Service products. The project closed a private sale for $12.5 million led by Three Arrows Capital, valuing the project at $450 million. The Stader infrastructure is being built such that it can be integrated into banking platforms, so that banks can offer staking products for their customers across a variety of layer 1 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocols. (Stader Labs Raises $12M in Strategic Sale as It Builds ‘Staking as a Service’ Business)
Voltage is a cloud-based hosting service platform for users to easily create their own Bitcoin and Lightning Network nodes to take full ownership of their Bitcoin. The company closed a $6 million seed round led by Trammell Venture Partners, with Craft Ventures, Tenzing.vc, and Stillmark, among others, participating as well. The funds will be used for hiring and building new tech infrastructure for the platform. When operating a node, users participate directly in the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network, whereas transacting from a wallet requires sending information to a node to then broadcast the transaction to the network, creating a peer-to-middleman-to-peer transaction. Voltage aims to simplify the process of spinning up and operating a Bitcoin node. (Bitcoin Company Voltage Raises $6M In Seed Round)
STEPN is a move-to-earn NFT gaming project that incentivizes users to be physically active to earn rewards in the form of the protocol’s native token. The company raised $5 million in a seed round via a SAFT sale led by Sequoia Capital and Folius Ventures, with participation from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, and 6th Man Ventures, among many others. Users purchase sneaker NFTs that allow them to earn tokens over certain exercise time thresholds every day. (Solana-based ‘move-to-earn’ startup STEPN raises $5 million in SAFT sale)
Aleph.im is a decentralized data storage and computing platform that is trying to decentralize the cloud technology services market. The company raised $10 million in a funding round led by Stratos Technologies, with participation from Zee Prime Capital, NOIA Capital, and Theia Investment Group, among many others. The funds will be used to rollout upgrades and expansions to the network’s infrastructure, as well as hiring with a focus on engineering. Though blockchain platforms operate on a decentralized ledger system, the dApps that are built on them often require centralized computing resources, called middleware, to interact with those chains. Aleph offers developers the ability to decentralize that middleware for an end-to-end decentralized economy. (Decentralized Cloud Service Aleph.im Raises $10M)
Crypto Capital Markets
Dharma Labs is a digital asset infrastructure group that focuses on making easy-to-use interfaces that allow for seamless on-boarding into crypto. The company has an app where users can deposit fiat currencies and directly purchase a wide variety of tokens on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap. OpenSea is acquiring Dharma in order to integrate its infrastructure and software developer experience to improve the user experience on OpenSea, increase the platform’s reliability, and expand multi-chain compatibility for an exhaustive collection to NFTs for users to purchase. (Opensea Acquires Dharma Labs, Co-Founder Is Named New CTO)
BitMEX is a European, centralized digital asset exchange that focuses on derivatives trading. The company is acquiring Bankhaus von der Heydt, one of the oldest banks in Europe, which has been creating a full suite of digital asset products and services for its customers in Central Europe. BitMEX will work to add Bankhaus’ expertise and products into its own platform, as well as grow its European footprint into Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. (BitMEX Will Acquire Bankhaus von der Heydt: Report)
pStake ($PSTAKE) is a Cosmos-based liquid staking protocol that allows users to deposit staked tokens in liquidity pools on exchanges. The protocol finished a CoinList token sale for $10 million, selling out within an hour. pStake is using the funds to build support for more Proof-of-Stake (PoS) platforms such as Solana and Terra. When a users stakes ATOM on the pStake protocol, it creates a new token called stkATOM, which can then be lent out to liquidity pools on Sushiswap for others to swap directly into earning staking rewards in the Cosmos protocol. ($PSTAKE Raises $10 Million in its Public Token Sale on CoinList)
Agoric ($BLD) is a Cosmos-based protocol that uses JavaScript as a smart contract coding language as opposed to Rust, Solidity, or a few other common languages used by crypto developers. The protocol closed a $50 million token sale in order to attract Java developers to crypto, who typically have not been participating in the space. Current projects on the roadmap include creating a stablecoin for the platform, as well as applications that will create an Agoric economic ecosystem. (Agoric Raises $50M in CoinList Token Sale to Bring JavaScript Developers Into Crypto)
New Venture Capital Funds, Ecosystem Funds and Alliances
Secret Network ($SCRT) is a privacy-focused layer 1 blockchain that protects the personal data of its users. The protocol raised a $400 million investment fund that will use $225 million for strategic support of ecosystem developers, and $175 million for a project accelerator pool. Alameda Research, CoinFund, and Arrington Capital helped provide capital for the fund, among many others. Investors are hoping this fund will build SCRT into a self-sustaining and dynamic developer atmosphere. (Privacy-Focused Blockchain Secret Network Announces $400M in Funding)
Blossom Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in fintech and digital assets projects. The firm raised a $432 million fund, with one third of the funds being allocated towards crypto investments. The lead investors in the fund were Coatue and Tiger Capital, with Paradigm, Thrive, and NEA participating. Some of Blossom’s notable crypto investments include early buy-ins with 1inch and Moonpay, both reaching unicorn status soon afterwards. (European VC Blossom Capital Raises $432M Fund For Tech, Crypto Investments)
Animoca Brands is an active venture capital investor in the crypto community, covering the whole gambit from gaming to NFTs to layer 1s to DeFi. The firm is creating a $359 million fund backed by Liberty City Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Soros Fund Management, and Gemini Frontier Fund, among many others. The new fund will be focused on NFTs and projects that will help ramp up metaverse adoption. (Blockchain Firm Animoca Brands Raises $358 Million to Enhance Web3 and the Metaverse)
Deal of the Week
Rain Financial is a cryptocurrency exchange with over 185,000 active users that have traded over $1.9 billion through the platform at the time of reporting. The company closed a $110 million Series B round led by Paradigm and Kleiner Perkins to fund global expansion initiatives, hiring, and platform enhancements. Other participants include Coinbase Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and MEVP, among others.
Why is this a Big Deal
Rain Financial is a Bahrain-based exchange that services the Middle East and North Africa and was the first digital asset service provider to be licensed in the Middle East. This position has given the company a significant first mover advantage in the region and has been leveraging that advantage to cultivate relationships with regulatory and financial institutions that built a significant crypto market in MENA. The company is working to position itself as the primary on-ramp for the $4 trillion capital market in the region through its ability to work directly with and educate some of the more influential regional institutions. This funding round that raised $110 million is over 18 times larger than its $6 million Series A round a year ago, highlighting the growth that the MENA crypto market, as well as Rain’s position in that market, experienced in 2021. The new capital inflows will be directed towards operations in Pakistan and other surrounding countries on a roadmap to expand its operations to a global reach. (Paradigm Leads $110M Investment in Bahrain’s First Licensed Crypto Brokerage)
