AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #43

🗓️ Week of: Oct 22-28, 2023

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

$358M+ was raised across 32 funding rounds in Web3. It's satisfying to see funding begin to rebound. Though this week was predominantly driven by Crusoe’s $200M debt financing deal, traditional venture deals have also increased over the month. Infrastructure and financial services (i.e., CeFi), persist as the primary sectors attracting the most capital in 2023. However, gaming has shown a recent uptick in funding, suggesting Web3 gaming may be making a comeback. It's also worth noting the rise in Series A rounds in the past month. This could be indicative that companies are achieving some meaningful traction despite the challenges of 2023, and importantly, they're keeping investors engaged.

We mustn't forget that this week also marked one of the largest rallies for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market this year. This surge, seemingly driven largely by speculation surrounding looming Bitcoin Spot ETF approvals, has reintroduced billions into the crypto markets in just a few days. A significant portion of this capital may soon find itself in other pockets of Web3, especially if the current crypto market rally maintains its momentum. As seen in prior market cycles, rising prices indeed correlate positively with Web3 venture.

🏆 Largest Funding Round

Note - Deal highlighted as the largest venture style raise this week

➡️ Blockaid announced $33M in funding. While made in one announcement, the funds were raised in two distinct rounds: $6M Seed and $27M Series A. The Seed round included investment from Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Cyberstarts. The Series A round was co-led by Ribbit Capital and Variant and saw participation from the original seed investors.

Blockaid is a Web3 security company focused on mitigating the risks associated with the emerging decentralized web landscape. The company provides security tools for Web3 builders to safeguard users from malicious threats like fraud, phishing, and hacks. Using its advanced architecture, Blockaid collects and analyzes vast amounts of data through scanning, simulating, and validating DApps and transactions across the internet. The efficacy of their model grows as it processes more transactions and interacts with various DApps.

In just six months, Blockaid has examined over 450M transactions, detected and countered 1.2M malicious ones, and safeguarded assets exceeding $500M in value. Blockaid's has already been integrated into prominent Web3 platforms and wallets, including MetaMask, OpenSea, Rainbow, and Zerion.

Why this matters?👉 Web3 security boasts a vast addressable market. It holds the potential to impact every Web3 user and application while continuously evolving in response to each new hack, exploit, and scam that emerges. Historically, security solutions have existed as separate applications tailored to crypto end-users. However, a rising class of companies, like Blockaid, is focusing on developers, offering security solutions that can be seamlessly integrated within their applications. This GTM approach appears to be working as demonstrated in product market fit and traction Blockaid was able to achieve between their Seed and Series A.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ Triple-A is a cryptocurrency payment gateway that enables businesses to pay and get paid in crypto without handling crypto. From API to no-code solutions, the company's white-label payment services are crafted to integrate seamlessly into their customers' existing operations, ensuring both security and compliance. As a money service business, Triple-A is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as well in the EU by Banque de France and is registered with the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

More than 20,000 businesses trust Triple-A’s payment solutions, including prominent merchants like Farfetch, Charles and Keith, Singapore Red Cross, Razer, Reap, and iStudio, Singapore's largest Apple product reseller. As a tribute to this traction, the company recently secured $10M in Series A financing. Leading the funding round were repeat investors Peak XV Partners (previously known as Sequoia India & South East Asia), joined by Shorooq Partners, a premier technology investor in MENA.

Why this matters?👉Payment processors and gateways are among the most battle-tested business models in Web3. What sets Triple-A apart is its traction, primarily driven by its presence in the Asian market. While other US-based crypto payment processors faced challenges during crypto's winter, Triple-A expanded its merchant base and saw growth in total transactions processed. This success is likely due to the notably high adoption of crypto in Asia, both among consumers and businesses. Moreover, when it comes to adoption, Triple-A has established itself as one of the industry's leading thought leaders, particularly through its "Global Crypto Ownership Data," which is featured in this week's Cool Resources.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

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

All Rounds

Blockaid - Seed ($6M) | Web3 security tools geared to stop malicious transactions and protecting web3 users from scams, phishing, and hacks: https://www.blockaid.io/

Blockaid - Series A ($27M) | Web3 security tools geared to stop malicious transactions and protecting web3 users from scams, phishing, and hacks: https://www.blockaid.io/

Ctrl Alt - Seed ($2.7M) | Fractional investment platform for alternative assets: https://www.ctrl-alt.co/

BRLA Digital - Seed ($600K) | Cross-border and cryptocurrency payment infrastructure geared for Brazilian companies: https://www.brla.digital/

Port3 Network - Private Sale (Not Disclosed) | Protocol to aggregate and standardize both off-chain and on-chain data in order to build a social data layer for Web3 that is universally accessible: https://port3.io/

PADS Financial - Seed ($2.2M) | Canadian online mortgage platform leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology: https://www.padsfinancial.com/

Crusoe - Debt ($200M) | Builder and operator of clean computing infrastructure used to power artificial intelligence, crypto, and other high performance computing applications: https://www.crusoeenergy.com/

smlXL - Seed ($13.4 M) | Developer of the instrumented Ethereum Virtual Machine (iEVM), a proprietary EVM client implementation geared towards simulating and instrumenting blockchains: https://smlxl.io/

Noble - Seed ($3.3M) | Appchain built for native asset issuance in Cosmos and the boundless Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) ecosystem: https://nobleassets.xyz/

Hytopia - Seed ($3M) | Metaverse platform that offers Minecraft-inspired game creation toolkit: https://hytopia.com/

Integral - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Financial management and accounting software for Web3 teams: https://integral.xyz/

Virtual Labs - Seed ($1.2M) | Zero knowledge (ZK) state channel infrastructure enabling Virtual Rollups: https://www.virtual.tech/

TonUP - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Launchpad for assets on The Open Network (TON): https://tonup.io/

PRINT3R - Seed ($500K) | Decentralized spot and perpetual exchange built on Base: https://www.print3r.xyz/

Access Labs - Seed ($1.2M) | Web3 native monetization layer for all digital content creators: https://www.accessprotocol.co/

Rymedi - Series A ($9M) | Blockchain-based healthcare data platform: https://rymedi.com/

Nocturne - Seed ($6M) | Protocol enabling private accounts on Ethereum: https://nocturnelabs.xyz/

CyberConnect - Private Sale (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized social network protocol that allows developers to build social applications that connect users in a fairer, more direct environment: https://cyberconnect.me/

Sharpnel (aka. Neon Machine) - Series A ($20M) | Blockchain-enabled first-person shooter (FPS) game: https://www.shrapnel.com/

Atani - Seed ($6M) | All-in-one crypto trading platform and provides access to multiple tokens across other exchanges: https://atani.com/

Cube Exchange - Seed ($9M) | Hybrid trading platform fusing TradFi with blockchain technology: https://www.cube.exchange/

Triple-A - Series A ($10M) | Stablecoin and blockchain-based payments gateway: https://triple-a.io/

Micapass - Seed ($300K) | On-chain anti-money laundering compliance solution designed for DeFi protocols: https://www.micapass.com/

Aera - Private Sale ($8M) | Autonomous on-chain treasury management for decentralized organizations : https://www.aera.finance/

De.fi - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | DeFi portfolio tracker and crypto wallet antivirus app: https://de.fi/

Anboto Labs - Seed ($3M) | Algorithmic trade execution platform integrated across CeFi and DeFi exchanges: https://anboto.xyz/

STIX - Seed ($2.7M) | OTC platform for the secondary market trading of illiquid digital assets: https://stix.co/

Rulematch - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Digital asset trading solution provider geared to financial institutions: https://rulematch.com/

Memeland - Public Sale ($15.7M) | MEME creativity studio and community platform: https://www.memeland.com/

Moonveil - Seed ($5.4M) | Game studio and developer of Astrark, an immersive tower defense strategy game: https://www.moonveil.gg/

P12 - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Graphical User Interface (GUI) engine for on-chain Web3 games: https://p12.network/

Baseland - Seed ($2.5M) | Platform enabling individuals to obtain citizen by investment (CBI) and subsidiary of The Network State Company: https://baseflow.xyz/

New Funds

No new funds announced this week

🙌 Cool Resources

🐕 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.