AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #54

🗓️ Week of: Jan 7-13, 2024

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

$149M+ was raised across 31 funding rounds in Web3. While deal flow is off to a decent start to ring in the new year, I have unfortunately been dealing with an unexpected stomach bug and have been sick for the past couple of days 🤢… Hence, this is coming out a day later than usual 😓

That said, while I keep this edition brief, let's toast to the exciting start of 2024. After a nearly decade-long saga, Bitcoin spot ETFs in the U.S. have finally received approval from the SEC and are already trading, attracting close to a billion dollars in inflows in just their first few days. While the long-term impact of these investment vehicles on the broader market remains to be seen, institutional custodian platforms like Coinbase and trading venues such as FalconX seem poised to benefit, along with the ETF issuers themselves. Additionally, Circle has confidentially filed an S-1, indicating their intention to go public in the U.S., sparking speculation that other crypto firms might also consider going public later this year. Indeed, if this trend continues, the Web3 venture stands to gain significantly as more exits and public comps could loom on the horizon.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

Want access to our complete dataset or propose an update? Contact: [email protected] … I may not respond right away and still working on a way to easily share the data. However, drop me a line and I’ll make sure you get first access as soon as its available to share.

All Rounds

TrendX - Seed ($1M) | AI-driven Web3 trend tracking and intelligent trading platform: https://app.trendx.tech/

Rocket3 - Seed ($1.2M) | Platform that helps users conveniently complete on-chain transactions while minimizing gas fees: https://rocket3.xyz/

Argo Blockchain - Private Placement ($10M) | Global data center business that provides a powerful and efficient platform for cryptocurrency mining operations: https://argoblockchain.com/

Saros Finance - Private Sale ($3.8M) | Solana-based unified suite of DeFi products : https://www.saros.finance/

Maalexi - Seed+ ($3M) | Cross-border trade platform for agribusinesses: https://www.maalexi.com/

OORT - Private Sale (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized cloud for privacy and cost savings, integrating global compute and storage resources: https://www.oortech.com/

Ta-da - Seed+ ($3.5M) | AI data marketplace for human in the loop processes: https://ta-da.io/

Polyhedra Network - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Interoperability, privacy, and scalability platform that uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology to develop applications including, a ZK bridge (zkBridge), a ZK decentralized identity solution (zkDID) and a scalability solution using a large-scale distributed proof generation network (ParaPlonk): https://polyhedra.network/

Altitude - Seed ($4M) | Automated DeFi loan management platform: https://www.altitude.fi/

Umoja - Seed ($2M) | Digital asset hedging protocol to minimize cryptocurrency exposure risk from market losses: https://umoja.finance/

ArenaX Labs (aka. AI Arena) - Seed+ ($6M) | Web3 game studio and developer of AI Arena an AI-powered player-versus-player (PVP) fighting game: https://www.arenaxlabs.com/

Fiona - Series A+ ($15M) | Regulated custodian for crypto assets, servicing professional investors with custody and staking: https://www.finoa.io/

Entangle - Seed ($4M) | Customizable messaging infrastructure for interoperable cross-chain data: https://entangle.fi/

Ringfence - Seed ($1.5M) | Generative AI content monetization platform: https://ringfence.ai/

Fizen - Seed ($480K) | Cross-border payment gateway and crypto payment processing platform: https://fizen.io/

Tune.FM - Private Sale ($20M) | Web3 decentralized music streaming platform with an integrated music NFT marketplace: https://tune.fm/

Convergence - Private Sale ($1.8M) | Governance protocol layer deployed on top of various DeFi protocols: https://cvg.finance/

Agrotoken - Seed+ ($12.5M) | Global tokenization infrastructure for agrocommodities: https://agrotoken.com/

Kasu - Seed ($3M) | Real World Asset (RWA) business lending protocol: https://kasu.finance/

NoahArk Tech Group - Strategic ($2.4M) | Decentralized finance protocol built of the EOS ecosystem: https://noahark.io/

eesee - Seed ($1.1M) | Gamified social marketplace for digital assets: https://eesee.io/

eesee - Private Sale ($1.8M) | Gamified social marketplace for digital assets: https://eesee.io/

Magic Square - Public Sale ($24M) | Web3 App Store that empowers users to discover and access decentralized applications and games: https://magicsquare.io/

Orbiter Finance - Series A (Not Disclosed) | ZK-tech based decentralized cross-rollup bridge for transferring the Ethereumnative assets: https://www.orbiter.finance/

Bitfinity - Private Sale ($7M) | EVM-compatible Bitcoin Layer 2 network based on the Internet Computer protocol: https://bitfinity.network/

Karrier One - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Carrier-grade decentralized mobile network that connects smart phones and users using blockchain: https://karrier.one/

Pontem Network - Seed ($6M) | Product development studio building products with Move on Aptos and other Layer 1 blockchain networks: https://pontem.network/

Particle - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized leverage trading protocol for any types of digital assets: https://www.particle.trade/

MAP Protocol - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Layer 2 protocol for Bitcoin enabling peer-to-peer cross-chain interoperability: https://www.mapprotocol.io/

BeWater - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Web3 open innovation platform and community: https://bewater.xyz/

SkyArk Studio - Seed+ ($15M) | Game studio and developer of role-playing game (RPG) series with interoperable NFTs: https://www.skyarkchronicles.com/

New Funds

No new funds this week.

🙌 Cool Resources

ThirdWeb Consumer Crypto Report 2023

🐕 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 the 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.