Investors Capitalize on Security

Total funding this week was little changed on a week-over-week basis, with $286 million raised compared to $278 million last week. Infrastructure continued to lead funding, with an extension round from hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger ($109m) accounting for over one-third of total funding for the week. Ledger has benefited from implosions on centralized exchanges which led to an increasing demand for cold storage. They raised at the same valuation as their last round in 2021 ($1.4bn), an impressive feat given a tough fundraising environment where most start-ups are raising down rounds.

DeFi has continued funding momentum, seeing the third week in a row with more capital raised than the last, at $40 million this week. Web3 and NFTs funding pulled back this week, with $28 million raised compared to $90 million announced last week.

Deal of The Week

This week's deal of the week is EigenLabs, a staking protocol developer who raised $50M in a Series A round led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, and Coinbase Ventures, among others. EigenLabs is the developer behind EigenLayer, a restaking protocol that will allow users to "restake" tokens staked on Ethereum to secure protocols other than Ethereum in exc...