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- AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #12
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🗓️ Week of: March 19 - 25, 2023
Web3 Funding Snapshot
🚀 The Highlights
$529M raised across 27 announced rounds
Just when it seemed like everything was doom and gloom, last week saw the largest amount of funding flowing into Web3 so far in 2023. Looks like many companies were sitting on announcing their latest funding rounds given the banking debacle the past two weeks. Granted, last week's funding was largely skewed by crypto-influenced trading platform, eToro's $250M funding round, which was sort of anomaly and not your typical venture round. Notwithstanding, the average round size last week clocked in at >$12M, which is quite notable considering the underwhelming start of 2023 for Web3 funding. No surprise, Seed stage rounds and the infrastructure category dominate in deal flow for yet another week. On top of this total funding in Web3 is closing in on $3B for the year.
🏆 Largest Funding Round(s)
Change of format given the scale and unique nature of the announced rounds last week. Lets take a look at the top 3 deals of the week.
➡️ eToro, announced $250M in funding via an Advanced Investment Agreement (AIA) from ION Group, Social Leverage, SoftBank, and Spark Capital. The investment comes after the company's attempt to go public via a SPAC fell through in July 2022. Technically, eToro had secured the investment in early 2021. Under the AIA, investors paid in advance of shares which are allocated or converted up to 2 years should the SPAC transaction fail or the company fail to raise any additional capital. This latest round valued eToro at $3.5B, which is almost 3x less than its proposed valuation of $10.4B under the SPAC.
While eToro is a full-scope social trading and investment network, over 25% of its business comes from crypto trading, which is why this deal has been included
➡️ CCP Games, announced $40M in a new funding round led by a16z and including other investors such as Makers Fund, Bitkraft, Kingsway Capital, Hashed, and Nexon. The company is an independent game developer originally founded in 1997, best known for its massive multiplayer online (MMO) game, EVE Online. With the new funding, the company plans to launch a new blockchain-based game that will use smart-contract technology to create relationships between virtual worlds and players.
➡️ tomi, raised $40 million through a private token sale led by DWF Labs, with participation from Ticker Capital, Piha Equities, and other private investors. Tomi is a DAO-governed project that is building a fully decentralized alternative to the World Wide Web. The decentralized internet service, called tomiNet, utilizes a decentralized DNS, high-performance computing nodes, a multi-chain wallet, and an Onion routing browser. Its goal is to further decentralize digital assets and cloud services and provide the infrastructure for a censorship-resilient internet.
😎 Noteworthy Company
➡️ DWF Labs is a global digital asset market maker and a multi-stage Web3 investment firm. They focus on market making, secondary market investments, early-stage investments, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading services for Web3 companies, along with token listing and advisory services. In addition to investing primarily in tokens, the firm also offers consulting, cybersecurity, smart contract audits, treasury management, and business development opportunities to the projects in their portfolio. They aim to make an average of 5 investments per month, regardless of market conditions. Areas they invest include gamefi, metaverse, infrastructure, protocols, trading, and DeFi.
The investment firm is an affiliate of Digital Wave Finance (DWF), one of the world's largest high-frequency cryptocurrency trading firms. DWF trades in spot and derivatives markets across the top 40 cryptocurrency exchanges and DEXs, making them one of the top 5 traders by trading volumes in the world.
Why this matters?👉 DWF Labs has been one of the most active investors so far in 2023, which is why I wanted to highlight them and keep a close eye on them. They've deployed $135M+ across 9 deals based on the deals that have been announced and that I've tracked. However, if you look at their website, they report 41 investments since the start of this year 🤯 On top of this, their average check size is $10M+ 🤯🤯 Not to mention, they invest primarily in token projects, whose values tend to appreciate double digits following a DWF Labs investment 🤯🤯🤯
They seem too good to be true (or just setting money on fire). However, it looks like they timed the market correctly, deploying most of their capital following last year's market. Plus, they've built up a platform and team who appear to have a very systematic approach to all of their investments. Not to mention, they are positioning themselves well for the next cycle. All this said, I'm sure it won't be long before DWF Labs becomes the next giant in the industry and we'll certainly be following them closely in 2023 🚀
👀Observations, Trends & Themes
➡️ Wallets Continue on the Raise
Did you know that wallets and self-custody solutions have emerged as one of the most popular areas receiving funding in 2023? Since the start of this year, over $300M+ has already been invested in 28 companies building wallets and account management solutions. This represents approximately 8% of the total 2023 deal flow and over 25% of the funding rounds associated with the infrastructure category where wallets are attributed as a sub-category.
What's particularly noteworthy is that there are already hundreds of existing wallets catering to different digital assets, user types, and blockchain networks. One might assume that this segment is already saturated for any startup trying to enter the space. However, the data and funding indicate that it's still a hot category set for continued growth. Given that wallets serve as the main entry point for millions of users into Web3, the opportunity to be those users' primary gateway remains a hot pursuit for startups and their backers. Layer on the advancements made by the ERC-4337 standard, the fallout from FTX and now the recent banking crisis, wallets appear to back in style.
Funding Rounds
Top 15 Rounds
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All Rounds
Synthetix - Private Sale ($20M) | Decentralized platform that enables the creation and trading of synthetic assets and derivatives: https://synthetix.io/
Auros Global - Strategic ($17M) | Algorithmic trading and market making firm in the digital asset space: https://www.auros.global/
Pixelcraft Studios - Public Sale ($30M) | Creators behind the popular metaverse game Aavegotchi: https://www.aavegotchi.com/
Metatime - Seed ($11M) | Cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange catered to the Turkish market: https://metatime.com/en
MINTangible - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Platform that enables creates to declare intellectual property (IP) and digital rights protection on-chain for NFTs: https://mintangible.io/
OP3N - Series A ($28M) | Web3 Superapp that empowers artists to directly publish to, and engage with, their fans via exclusive token-gated access and experiences: https://www.op3n.world/
Carbonable - Seed ($1.2M) | Tokenization and investment platform for decarbonization project issued via NFTs and issued via the Starkware Layer 2 network: https://carbonable.io/
Gryfyn - Seed ($7.5M) | Joint venture between Animoca Brands and Hex Trust to provide a NFT-centric custodial wallet: https://gryfyn.io/
Crossover Markets - Seed ($6.4M) | Digital assets trading firm and developers of CROSSx, an execution-only cryptocurrency electronic communication network (ECN) for institutional participants: https://crossovermarkets.com/
CCP Games - Seed ($40M) | Independent game developer and creator of the sci-fi spacefaring massive multiplayer online (MMO) game, EVE Online, as well as other blockchain-based games: https://www.ccpgames.com/
Turnkey - Seed ($7.5M) | Private key infrastructure built for developers in Web3: https://www.turnkey.io/
tomi - Private Sale ($40M) | Decentralized internet network, offering its own servers, domain naming system, browser, and multi-chain digital wallet: https://tomi.com/
eToro - Advanced Investment Agreement ($250M) | Social investing and trading platform that includes traditional securities and digital assets: https://www.etoro.com/
Aspecta - Seed ($3.5M) | Transforms Web2 & Web3 footprints into AI-generated identity via Aspecta ID: https://aspecta.id/
Gamitronics - Strategic ($1.5M) | Developer of metaverse and digital marketing platform, PartyNite: https://gamitronics.com/
Bitkeep - Strategic ($30M) | Decentralized multi-chain self-custody wallet for digital assets: https://bitkeep.com/
LiquidStack - Series B (Not Disclosed) | Developer of two-phase liquid immersion cooling use for datacenters and high-density crypto mining: https://liquidstack.com/
SphereTrax - Seed ($250K) | Music licensing platform and marketplace of high-end soundtracks and songs: https://www.spheretrax.com/
ALT DRX - Seed ($3.6M) | Real estate tokenization platform and marketplace focused on the Indian market: https://altdrx.com/
Versa - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Multi-purpose account abstraction wallet optimized for mobile experience: https://versawallet.io/
PV01 - Seed ($9M) | Blockchain-enabled fixed income tokenization platform and secondary marketplace: https://www.pv0.one/
Radix - Private Sale ($10M) | Purpose-built DeFi programming environment and Layer 1 blockchain network: https://www.radixdlt.com/
Landvault - Series B+ (Not Disclosed) | Virtual real estate construction firm that helps brands build and grown within the metaverse: https://landvault.io/
Hadean - Series A+ ($5M) | Infrastructure platform geared for the metaverse development that enables the creation, curation, and delivery of connected immersive experiences: https://hadean.com/
NoCap Meta - Seed ($240K) | Web3 development solutions providers focusing on services to metaverse, tokenization, and other Web3 projects: https://nocapmeta.in/
Narwhal Finance - Seed ($1M) | Decentralized exchange (DEX) and perpetual trading platform built on the BNB Chain and Arbitrum networks: https://narwhal.finance/
Particle Network - Seed ($7M) | Full-stack, data-driven, and composable Web3 data and development platform in a single workflow: https://particle.network/
New Funds
Note: This Includes 3 newly announced funds mistakenly missed from Funding Round Up #11's coverage
Cool Resources
Crypto M&A Tracking created and shared by Architect Partners, a M&A and strategic financing advisory firm focused on crypto and fintech. Also be sure to check out their Insights page for other resources including a weekly Crypto Public Companies Snapshot.
About
AWeb3VC is a source for venture funding news, emerging startups and trends across Web3. I've been closely following cryptocurrencies and digital assets since 2013 and started working in space since 2018. Now I'm on a mission to build the most extensive venture ecosystem for BUIDLERS in Web3, starting first by tracking those BUIDLERS.