AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #26 / #27

🗓️ Week(s) of:

June 25 - July 1, 2023 & July 2-8, 2023

Also be sure to follow me on Twitter @aweb3vc 🚀

(See "Funding Rounds" section for the complete list of deals)

$575M+ was raised across 50 funding rounds in Web3 over the past 2 weeks. My apologies, I needed to take a break last week. Thus edition will combine the funding data over this time period.

Despite enduring numerous trials and tribulations in 2023, Web3 saw the second highest amount of capital deployment in the final week of June. This surge pushed total funding for the year above $6B, just halfway through the year. Admittedly, this increase was primarily driven by Islamic Coin's

$200M mega funding round, and funding in the last week did taper off, likely due to the U.S. holiday. However, a series of later-stage deals also came to fruition, signaling enduring promise for venture-backed crypto companies, even though most of these deals were extensions of previous funding rounds. This trend has held strong even as crypto markets continue to demonstrate resilience, partially owing to the renewed institutional narrative sparked by a wave of Bitcoin spot ETF applications. Simultaneously, other components of Web3 are grappling with challenges, as the NFT market takes a nosedive and regulatory headwinds persist.

All in all, as we conclude the second half of 2023, we find ourselves in a "not as bad as we thought" situation, with numerous promising signals on the horizon.

Funding Round Up #26 (June 25-July 1)

Funding Round Up #27 (July 2-8)

🏆 Largest Funding Round

➡️ Islamic Coin raised $200M in funding from European alternative investment manager, Alpha Blue Ocean, via their venture arm, ABO Digital. The project is Shariah-compliant cryptocurrency and ecosystem based on the principles of Islamic finance and built on its proprietary HAQQ Blockchain.

Why this matters?👉Islam, being the world's second-largest religion with nearly 2 billion followers, upholds core financial principles under Shariah law, including the prohibition of paying or charging interest. Owing to the deflationary nature of cryptocurrencies, Islamic Coin provides a modern form of currency that remains compliant with Islamic laws. If 3-4% of the online Muslim community were to hold Islamic Coin, it could potentially grow into the scale of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the Middle East, with the UAE emerging as a potential global crypto hub, is witnessing continued growth in cryptocurrency adoption. Given these factors and the substantial capital already invested in Islamic Coin, this is certainly a project worth watching closely.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ One Trading is a European licensed digital asset exchange tailored for advanced traders, finance professionals, and institutions. The company initially operated under Bitpanda, one of Europe's largest retail-oriented cryptocurrency exchanges, and was previously branded as Bitpanda Pro. As of June 2023, One Trading spun out from Bitpanda, forming a standalone company, and raised $32M in a Series A round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures alongside MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures.

One Trading plans to operate as a MiFID Trading Venue, complementing its existing VASP license, which enables the platform to offer capital efficient spot and derivative products to all types of customers. The full-scale MiFID license will further permit One Trading to list financial instruments and design new products from the ground up with proper vetting, transparency, and customer protection in mind. Moreover, One Trading's platform offers access to electronic OTC trading with instant settlement, facilitated by a user-friendly interface and the market's fastest retail-facing spot exchange, backed by institutional-grade security and post-trade settlement capabilities.

Why this matters?👉 In the wake of FTX's collapse, a void persists for institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly outside of the U.S. With an existing user base inherited from Bitpanda, One Trading demonstrates promise in catering to institutional crypto investors in Europe, especially with backing from key market makers such as Keyrock and Wintermute. Also, with the EU's new Market in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA), the company is strategically positioning itself as a regulated trading venue, making it increasingly appealing to institutional investors.

👀 Observations, Trends & Themes

➡️ Crypto Unicorn Valuations Slump

Coming as no surprise, valuations across the industry are down, especially amongst some of the most prominent crypto unicorns. Thanks to some recent secondary market data now have data to reinforce this assertion.

Though the discounts in valuations might initially appear bleak, these figures present a more accurate reflection of the companies' valuations and growth trajectories following the reset of 2021-22. In many instances, these are still commendable companies and could grow into their prior valuations overtime. Nonetheless, emerging funds seeking to build their portfolios might find this an opportune time to acquire shares on the secondary market.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

Want access to our complete dataset or propose an update? Contact: [email protected]

All Rounds

Tegro - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Web3 gaming assets marketplace for players, traders, and institutional investors: https://tegro.com/

PWN - Seed ($2M) | Peer-to-peer lending protocol on Ethereum and Polygon that allows users to borrow and lend using any token as collateral: https://pwn.xyz/ 

Velo Labs - Private Sale ($10M) | Blockchain based financial protocol enabling digital credit issuance and borderless asset transfer for businesses: https://www.velo.org/ 

SPYCE.5 - Seed ($1.1M) | Web3 infrastructure, data, and digital identity as a service: https://spyce5.com/ 

AvatarLife - Seed ($1.5M) | Metaverse platform for creating casual games and experiences: https://www.avatarlife.com/ 

Shutter - Seed ($2.4M) | Open-source project for preventing front-running, malicious MEV, and censorship on Ethereum using a threshold cryptography-based distributed key generation (DKG) protocol: https://shutter.network/ 

Hut 8 - Debt ($50M) | Cryptocurrency mining and blockchain infrastructure provider established through an exclusive partnership with Bitfury: https://hut8.io/ 

Pixion Games - Seed+ ($5.5M) | Multiplayer game developer and creator of Fableborne, an isometric play-to-own multiplayer game, blending RPG and base building genres: https://fableborne.com/ 

Delysium - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Real open-world, AI-powered, player-owned Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) game: https://www.delysium.com/ 

Mazzuma - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Web3 smart contract code generator enabled by AI to generate code from natural language prompts: https://mazzuma.com/ 

Mythical Games - Series C+ ($37M) | Next-generation game technology studio at the intersection of blockchain and games: https://mythicalgames.com/ 

Maverick Protocol - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Infrastructure for decentralized finance powered by a Dynamic Distribution Automated Market Maker (AMM): https://www.mav.xyz/ 

ShelterZoom - Series A+ ($5M) | Blockchain-based document management solutions that securely tokenizes content and enables organizations to securely track and revoke access to sensitive data: https://shelterzoom.com/ 

Avantis - Series A ($2.8M) | Developer of the SANGA platform, a digital asset tokenization platform for issuing real-world land title deeds into NFT related digital land assets

Brahma - Seed+ ($2.5M) | Non-custodial protocol that activates and manages liquidity across chains and DApps: https://www.brahma.fi/ 

Conflux Network - Private Sale ($18M) | Layer 1 blockchain network that uses a consensus protocol known as Tree-Graph, which is a hybrid of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanisms: https://confluxnetwork.org/ 

Startale Labs - Strategic ($3.5M) | Web3 R&D and incubation developer: https://startale.org/ 

One Trading (fka. Bitpanda Pro) - Series A ($32.7M) | European digital asset exchange made for advance traders, finance professionals and institutions (fromerly known as Bitpanda Pro): https://onetrading.com/ 

Oxbridge Re - Private Sale ($2.4M) | Reinsurance firm offering solutions primarily to property and casualty insurers in the Gulf Coast region of the United States; Also developer of asset-backed tokenized reinsurance securities: https://oxbridgere.com/ 

Hook Protocol - Seed ($3M) | NFT-native call options protocol that enables anyone to create, buy, and sell options on ERC-721 assets: https://hook.xyz/ 

Islamic Coin - Private Sale ($200M) | Shariah-compliant cryptocurrency and ecosystem based on the principles of Islamic finance and built on the HAQQ Blockchain: https://islamiccoin.net/ 

Superstate - Seed ($4M) | Developer of regulated financial products enabled by blockchain networks: https://superstate.co/ 

BullBear AI - Strategic ($1M) | Predictive AI platform for crypto bull and bear markets: https://bull-bear.ai/ 

AlloyX - Seed ($2M) | Decentralized protocol for providing crypto loans to real-world businesses: https://alloyx.xyz/ 

Mind Network - Seed ($2.5M) | Decentralized zero trust data lake built using Adaptative Fully Homomorphic Encryption (AFHE) to secure user data, smart contracts, and AI on Web3: https://mindnetwork.xyz/ 

Smarter Contracts - Seed ($1.1M) | Developers of Pulse a data-privacy and consent management platform that combines blockchain and machine learning: https://smartercontracts.co.uk/ 

Outdid - Seed ($2.5M) | End-to-end private ID verification solution that leverages Zero Knowledge (ZK) Proofs: https://www.outdid.io/

OneDegree - Series B+ ($27M) | Multi-line digital insurance business that offers protection for pet, e-commerce, home, critical illness and digital assets for individuals and businesses: https://www.onedegree.hk/en-us 

Readiitel - Seed ($2M) | Web3-enabled internet service provider: https://readii.xyz/ 

Rypplzz - Seed ($3M) | Geospatial mapping software that creates "smart" airspace that can be used by advertisers in the metaverse: https://rypplzz.com/ 

Fineqia - Private Placement ($0.4M) | Digital asset investment firm that invests in early and growth stage technology companies and also provides a platform to support and manage the issuance of debt securities: https://fineqia.com/ 

Anzu - Series B ($48M) | In-game advertising platform that brings real-world brand ads to video gaming, esports, and gaming metaverses: https://www.anzu.io/ 

Neon Link - Private Sale ($1M) | Web3 gaming-focused network, dedicated to equipping game developers with the tools and environment to create games: https://www.neonlink.io/ 

Bitkub - Strategic ($17.8M) | Leading digital asset exchange in Thailand: https://www.bitkub.com/ 

Ola - Seed ($3M) | Zero Knowledge Virtual Machine (ZKVM)-based, privacy-focused Layer 2 platform: https://ola.web3.com/ 

Bequest Finance - Seed ($2.8M) | Non-custodial digital asset management solution, designed to address the challenges in the trusts and estates industry: https://www.bequest.finance/ 

Skrmiish - Seed ($0.7M) | Play-to-Earn app that enables gamers to earn cash in every match they play across AAA games: https://www.skrmiish.gg/ 

Wynd Network - Seed ($1M) | Decentralized web proxy network: https://wynd.network/ 

Web3Go - Seed ($4M) | Data Intelligence Network (DIN) offering a suite of AI-native digital asset tools and real-time data infrastructure: https://web3go.xyz/ 

SuperSight - Seed ($1M) | Crypto-specific Large Language Models (LLMs) built streamline the crypto data discovery process: https://supersight.xyz/

VersiFi - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Partner-powered digital asset prime services platform: https://www.versifi.io/ 

Hello - Seed ($0.2M) | Open-source, encrypted, user-controlled decentralized storage software: https://joinhello.app/ 

Aspecta - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Transforms Web2 & Web3 footprints into AI-generated identity via Aspecta ID: https://aspecta.id/ 

Bluesky - Seed ($8M) | Decentralized protocol for public conversations and an associated social networking service built using the AT Protocol: https://blueskyweb.xyz/ 

Magic Square - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Web3 App Store that empowers users to discover and access decentralized applications and games: https://magicsquare.io/ 

CryptoQuant (Team Blackbird) - Series A ($6.5M) | On-chain and analytics tools for crypto markets with top analysts' actionable insights: https://cryptoquant.com/ 

Gigaspace - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Collaborative metaverse that unites web3 communities under a single celestial sky: https://www.gigaspace.io/ 

GEODNET - Private Sale ($1.5M) | Decentralized network of space weather mining stations that report influence of the sun’s solar winds on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals: https://geodnet.com/ 

Veloce Media Group - Private Sale ($50M) | Decentralized racing, gaming and lifestyle media platform: https://www.velocemediagroup.com/ 

Shardeum - Private Sale ($5.4M) | EVM-based, linearly scalable blockchain Layer 1 blockchain that provides low gas fees while maintaining decentralization and security through dynamic state sharding: https://shardeum.org/ 

New Funds

Hash3 - Venture Fund 1 ($29M)

🙌 Cool Resources

SuperSight is building crypto-specific Large Language Models (LLMs) to streamline the crypto data discovery process. SuperSight bridges this gap, providing one-click search across both on-chain and off-chain sources.

🐕 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.in