AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #39

🗓️ Week of: Sept 24-30, 2023

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

$77M+ was raised across 14 funding rounds in Web3. Funding surprisingly dipped this week after an uptick earlier in September. The exact cause is unclear. However, the Federal Reserve's recent "Hawkish Hold" and activity in the bond markets might be influencing investors' perspectives on risk assets for the upcoming year, which could affect both the crypto markets and venture capital broadly. Nonetheless, the likely imminent approval of Ethereum Futures ETFs presents a bullish signal, potentially driving much-needed funds into the crypto markets. Rising crypto prices undoubtedly benefit Web3 venture.

🏆 Largest Funding Round

➡️ Supra (aka. SupraOracles) announced $24M in funding across various private investment rounds. Investors included, Animoca Brands, Coinbase Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Hashed, Huobi Ventures, No Limit Holdings, Prosus Ventures, Republic Crypto, Shima Capital, Signum Capital, SMO Capital, Sound Ventures, FiveT Fintech, HashKey Capital, UOB Venture, Valor Equity Partners, BCW, Razer, and Sublime Ventures.

Supra is building a low-latency interoperability infrastructure for Web3. At its core, the company is developing a cross-chain oracle and a “bridgeless” communication network using a consensus algorithm called "Moonshot Consensus." This algorithm aims for rapid finality times and heightened security. Supra's ultimate objective is to offer a comprehensive cross-chain oracle for developers, merging real-world data with both public and private blockchains to create interoperable smart contracts.

Its current products include:

• Supra Oracles: Cross-chain data feeds with real-time refresh rates for price feeds and more.

• Supra VRF: A verifiable randomness function (VRF) designed to generate bias and tamper-resistant randomness within Smart Contracts.

• IntraLayer: An integrated stack of cross-chain products aiming to unify blockchains, ranging from L1s and L2s to private blockchains and legacy systems.

Why this matters?👉Data oracles are fundamental to powering decentralized apps, especially in DeFi, where they are crucial. Chainlink has long dominated the market. However, recently there has been a rise in alternative oracle solutions, such as Supra and Redstone, which go beyond data feeds to offer cross-chain communications. What sets Supra apart is its low-latency oracles, designed with security in mind. This could lead to widespread adoption among DEXs and other DeFi applications that rely on real-time price feeds.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ Blockchain Capital (aka. BCAP) is among the earliest and most active venture investors in the blockchain industry, having partnered with some of the top founders in crypto since its beginning. The firm exclusively invests in blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, allocating funds to both equity and crypto assets as a multi-stage investor. Some of its most notable investments that have led to exits include Coinbase, Chain, and Authy, bolstered by a portfolio of over 100 different companies.

The venture firm was founded in 2013 by Bart Stephens and Bradford Stephen and is based in San Francisco. It has since raised over $1.1B in capital across more than six funds and boasts limited partners (LPs) such as Visa, Paypal, and Sanabil (the venture arm of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund).

Recently, Blockchain Capital announced it had raised $580M for two new investment funds, including the company’s sixth early-stage fund and an opportunity fund.

Why this matters?👉ockchain Capital embodies Web3 VC. And now with $580M in fresh capital, the firm is poised to have an even more significant impact on the industry. This is excellent news for early-stage companies seeking funding, especially since this new capital is already being allocated. Furthermore, their opportunity fund aims to target later-stage crypto companies that are in dire need of funding. Overall, this development is a positive sign for the sector. Seeing a leading VC secure larger LP commitments, despite the broader macroeconomic challenges and rising interest rates, sends an incredibly bullish signal for both the industry and Web3 venture.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

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

All Rounds

Pimlico - Seed ($1.6M) | Infrastructure platform for building for ERC-4337 smart accounts and wallets: https://www.pimlico.io/

Cygnetise - Seed+ ($3.1M) | Applies blockchain technology to transform the process of Authorized Signatory Management (ASM): https://www.cygnetise.com/

Avantis - Seed ($4M) | Oracle-based synthetic derivatives protocol and trading platform for crypto and real world assets: https://www.avantisfi.com/

LeverFi - Private Sale ($2M) | Permissionless on-chain leveraged trading protocol: https://www.leverfi.io/

AnchorWatch - Seed ($3M) | Property and causality (P&C) insurance provider specializing in Bitcoin and developer of cold storage custody solutions: https://www.anchorwatch.com/

Fhenix - Seed ($7M) | Blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption to bring Computation Over Encrypted Data to EVM based smart contracts: https://www.fhenix.io/

KYAX - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Digital asset reporting and transaction reconciliation software: https://kyax.com/

Rated Labs - Series A ($12.9M) | Web3 infrastructure project catered to node operators developing an Ethereum network explore, data API, and oracle: https://www.rated.network/

Zunami Protocol - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Stablecoin yield aggregator streamlining interaction with DeFi: https://www.zunami.io/

Bril Finance - Seed ($3M) | DeFi tool that actively optimises and manages portfolio strategies in a secure, non-custodial manner: https://www.bril.finance/

Restake Finance - Seed ($500K) | Protocol enabling modular liquid staking for EigenLayer: https://www.restakefinance.com/

0xScope (aka. Scopescan) - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Web3 analytics platform and protocol used to standardize web2 & web3 data through a decentralized knowledge graph: https://0xscope.com/

IYK - Seed ($16.8M) | Bridges physical and digital worlds by using Near-Field Communication (NFC) and blockchain technology to tokenize physical items and IRL experiences: https://www.iyk.app/

Supra - Private Sale ($24M) | Developer of low-latency interoperability infrastructure and cross-chain data oracle services: https://supraoracles.com/

New Funds

No new announced funds this week.

🙌 Cool Resources

Insights from Jeff Dorman, Chief Investment Officer at Arca, on what it's like to run a crypto fund for the past 5 years

🐕 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.