AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #3

🗓️ Week of: January 15-21, 2023

Funding Snapshot

The Highlights

🚀 This week saw an impressive $248M+ in total funding across 38 announced rounds, marking the first week of 2023 in which over $100M was raised 🙌 Additionally, 3 new funds were announced, totaling $650M+ in capital. Infrastructure continues to be the category attracting the most funding, with $100 million+ raised across 17 companies. With room for much-needed improvements across the Web3 tech-stack, it's likely that we'll see continued funding in this segment as VCs double down on "picks and shovels" investment themes in 2023. However, it's also worth noting that when combining the total funding for the NFTs and Gaming segments, over $108 million was raised with a16z leading 2 of the rounds. Perhaps this is an early signal that investments into digital collectibles and the Metaverse will remain strong in 2023.

🏆 Plai Labs, a next-generation social platform that combines Web3 and generative AI technology, raised $32M in Seed funding from a16z, making it the largest funding round of the week. Plai, short for "play with AI", aims to offer the ultimate online social experience. Founded by Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb, who previously founded both MySpace and Jam City, Plai Labs' first entertainment experience is Champions Ascension, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). In the game players can port existing NFT characters, go on adventures, battle other users, trade items and build their own custom spaces. Additionally, they're building an AI protocol platform which will enable user-generated content, in-game matchmaking and 2D/3D asset renderings. The ultimate goal of Plai Labs is to lower the barriers to entry for new Web3 users through entertainment, social engagement, and digital ownership.

😎 The world of Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof technology is rapidly evolving and showing no signs of slowing down. This week alone, $40M in funding went into 3 companies all working to enhance the seamless adoption of ZK proofs across the Web3 tech stack. In 2022, billions of $$$ went into startups and crypto projects leveraging ZK proof technology. One of the key advantages of ZK proofs is that they enhance blockchain technology by providing privacy-enhanced transactions and verifiable computing that offer better scaling solutions. For a good background on ZK proofs, check out this Medium article.

👀 Electric Capital's 2022 Developer Report and Alchemy's Q4 2022 Web3 Development Report have just been released. The key takeaway is that despite crypto crashes, developer activity in the Web3 space continues to rise. The number of monthly active developers in Web3 has grown by 5% year-over-year, reaching +23,000, which is a 297% increase from the last crypto cycle in 2018. Furthermore, 72% of these developers are working outside of the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystems, with other ecosystems like Solana, NEAR, Polygon, Osmosis, Hedera, Optimism, and Arbitrum seeing up to 50% year-over-year growth in their developer communities. This is an exciting trend that suggests #BUIDLERSEASON is in full swing and that the Web3 ecosystem is thriving despite market fluctuations. Be sure to check out these reports for yourself!

Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

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

All Rounds

Sortium - Seed ($7.75M) | Entertainment tech company combining AI and Web3 to generate game content that is tokenized: https://www.sortium.com/

AutoFarm – Strategic ($5M) | Multi-chain DEX and yield aggregator protocol that leverages AI/ML to automate investment strategies: https://autofarm.network

Creata - Series A ($10M) | User-generated content metaverse engine enabling creators to create and distribute games: https://createra.fun/?

FilSwan - Private Sale ($3M) | Storage and computing infrastructure layer for Web3: https://filswan.com/

Cerchia - Seed ($1.4M) | Marketplace for direct risk transfer between buyers and sellers of insurance: https://cerchia.io/

SYKY - Series A ($9.5M) | Web3 luxury fashion platform building digital, physical, and augmented fashion: https://syky.com/

Trusta Labs - Seed ($3M) | Web3 security infrastructure offering AI tools to prevent sybil attacks: https://www.trustalabs.ai/

Parfin - Seed ($15M) | Modular platform for secure digital asset custody, trading, and asset management: https://parfin.io/en/

Diva - Seed ($3.5M) | Non-custodial Ethereum Liquid Staking Derivative (LSD) protocol powered by Distributed Validator Technology (DVT): https://divalabs.org/

Carry1st - Series B ($27M) | Mobile game developer and content publisher focused on African consumers: https://www.carry1st.com

Obol Labs - Series A ($12.5M) | Developer of proof-of-stake infrastructure for public blockchain networks focused on Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) and Multi-Operator Validation (MOV) middleware solutions: https://obol.tech/

Elxir - Seed ($2.1M) | Automated market maker protocol across centralized and decentralized exchanges: https://elixir.finance/

Intella X - Private Sale ($12M) | Web3 gaming platform built in partnership between game studio Neowiz and Polygon: https://intellax.io/

Sleepagotchi - Seed ($3.5M) | Game that rewards users for meeting sleep goals with digital collectibles and tokens: https://sleepagotchi.com/

WeaveDB - Seed ($900K) | Decentralized NoSQL database built on Arweave: https://weavedb.dev/

Bunzz - Seed ($4.5M) | Graphical user interface (GUI) based smart contract development platform for DApp developers: https://www.bunzz.dev/

Authic Labs - Seed (Not Disclosed) | No-code NFT marketplace solution enabling brands to create and sell NFTs: https://authic.io/

BitOoda - Series A (Not Disclosed) | Digital assets financial services platform providing over-the-counter brokerage, structured derivatives, and other investment banking services including research and consulting: https://www.bitooda.io/

Collective Shift - Seed ($1M) | Crypto media and investor community offering research, analysis, and insights: https://collectiveshift.io/

Crurated - Seed ($7.2M) | Membership-based wine community that uses blockchain technology to authenticate bottles of wine on-chain from the producer: https://crurated.com/

Upside.coop - Seed ($4.6M) | Digital cooperative platform that enables organizations to share ownership with their communities, clients, and partners: https://upside.coop/

Blue – Seed ($3.3M) | Developer of know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) identity verification products for users on DeFi protocols: https://www.blue.fi/

Metahood - Seed ($3M) | Metaverse real estate discovery and marketplace platform: https://metahood.xyz/

Virtualtech Frontier – Seed (Not Disclosed) | Metaverse and virtual spaces development company building an Integrated Virtual World Platform (IVWP) called Mitoworld: https://virtualtechfrontier.com/

Plai Labs - Seed ($32M) | Social platform that leverages web3 and generative AI technology to offer the ultimate online social experience: https://plailabs.com/

Davos Protocol - Seed ($500K) | Over-collateralized stable asset lending protocol on Polygon: https://davos.xyz/

Oligate - Seed ($4M) | Platform enabling on-chain issuance of bonds, commercial paper, and other debt securities: https://www.obligate.com/

Ulvetanna - Seed ($15M) | Developer of hardware to increase the efficiency of Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof generation: https://www.ulvetanna.io/

Neopets - Seed ($4M) | A Web3 virtual pet game based on the original Neopets classic: https://www.neopetsmeta.io/

Gateway - Seed ($4.2M) | Decentralized protocol for creating, consuming, and displaying verifiable credentials: https://www.mygateway.xyz/#

Cypher - Seed ($4.3M) | Non-custodial multi-chain wallet supporting EVM and Cosmos based assets that also includes a built-in bridge: https://www.cypherwallet.io/

=nil; Foundation – Other ($22M) | Developer of, Proof Market, a trustless data accessibility protocol, enables layer 1 and 2 blockchains and protocols to generate zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on demand for seamless data-sharing without reliance on centralized intermediaries: https://nil.foundation/

Mask - Strategic ($5M) | Enables users of Web2 platforms to send cryptocurrencies, interact with decentralized applications, and share encrypted content: https://mask.io/

SphereOne - Seed ($2.5M) | Payment rails to allow users to pay with any token across any chain, with any crypto wallet: https://sphereone.xyz/

Koinos Group - Seed ($500K) | General purpose blockchain that enables developers to create free-to-use decentralized applications using any programming language: https://koinos.group/

Hyper Oracle - Seed ($3M) | Developer of fully decentralized middleware infrastructure that leverages zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technologies: https://www.hyperoracle.io/

Architect - Seed ($5M) | Developer of institutional-grade trading infrastructure across global digital asset markets: https://www.architect.xyz/

HashPort - Series C ($7M) | Blockchain solutions provider focused on smart contract auditing, wallet management, and NFT issuance, management, and marketplace: https://hashport.io/

New Funds

Hashkey Group - HashKey FinTech Investment Fund III ($500M)

Escape Velocity - Fund 1 ($25M)

Deal Box - Deal Box Ventures ($125M)

Cool Resources

Check out Pantera Capital's Portfolio Compensation Survey, released in December 2022. The survey examined 15 Web3 startups that were geographically distributed, with 5-115+ employees, and across Seed and Series B stages. The average base engineering salary was $144,892, with a median of $150,000. The report also included salary benchmarks in other functional including business development, finance, marketing, and product. This information is certainly valuable for Web3 startups looking to define or refine their compensation packages or for VCs looking to advise their portfolio companies.

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.