AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #68

🗓️ Week of: Apr 14-20, 2024

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

Happy halving! $144M+ was raised across 36 funding rounds in Web3. Despite a roller-coaster ride in the broader crypto markets, deal flow remained consistent with only a slight dip in total capital raised. The week also coincided with Token2049 in Dubai, which provided ideal timing for many of this week’s announced deals. Additionally, the Bitcoin halving has been completed, setting a new phase for the supply dynamics of the largest cryptocurrency. This will likely affect the broader crypto markets in the months ahead and simultaneously provide a catalyst for the funding environment in Web3 venture. However, these developments will likely hinge on macro factors, specifically inflation in the US and globally, which could continue to drag on the crypto markets and venture capital if we don’t see signs of improvements.

Diving in, DeFi leads the week as the largest category receiving funding, composed of a diverse mix of projects. These range from tokenization (Centrifuge) to liquid restaking (Puffer and YieldNest), as well as new asset-backed stablecoins (Usual and Lambda Finance). Additionally, base protocols, specifically Layer 2s, continue to provide persistent deal flow, with another three funding rounds including Merlin Chain, another Bitcoin Layer 2

🏆 Largest Funding Round

➡️ Puffer announced an $18M Series A funding round led by Electric Capital and BH Digital, reportedly valuing the project at $200M. Other notable investors in the round included Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Lemniscap, Franklin Templeton, Avon Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, ConsenSys, Animoca Brands, and GSR, among other venture and angel investors. This round follows a $5.5M Seed round that closed in August 2023 and a strategic round from earlier this year.

Puffer is a decentralized native liquid restaking protocol (nLRP) built on Eigenlayer via an activity validated service (AVS) and is designed to enhance the accessibility and efficiency of Ethereum's Proof of Stake (PoS) system. With as little as 2 ETH, anyone to become a node operator (NoOp) and allows users to run Ethereum validators and leverage features such as anti-slashing hardware and autonomous MEV strategies. This protocol supports liquid staking where stakers can also stake any amount of ETH and receive pufETH tokens, which grow in value through a combination of staking and restaking rewards.

Why this matters?👉 With over $14B in total value locked (TVL), restaking has quickly grown into the fifth-largest category of decentralized finance based on TVL. This growth is largely attributable to the launch of EigenLayer earlier this year, which enables third-party platforms, including Puffer, to easily deposit ETH into the restaking protocol while providing derivative liquid (re)staked tokens. Within this segment, Puffer has already become the second-largest liquid restaking protocol with over $1B in TVL.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ Centrifuge is a blockchain-based protocol designed to bridge real-world assets (RWAs) with decentralized finance (DeFi) by tokenizing these assets and facilitating borrowing against them. The core of Centrifuge's technology involves converting off-chain assets and data into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing individual, verifiable claims on underlying assets, allowing them to be financed without intermediaries. The assets can then be pooled together and securitized by issuer into liquidity pools, which can be integrated into leading DeFi protocols like Maker and Aave.

Supporting the platform, Centrifuge operates on a purpose-built Layer-1 proof-of-stake and EVM-compatible blockchain, Centrifuge Chain. It utilizes the Substrate framework, making it compatible with the Polkadot network, which enhances interoperability with other blockchain systems. The Centrifuge App provides an interface for issuers to manage their asset pools and draw financing from tokenized assets, and for investors to invest in real-world assets (RWAs). Centrifuge's Liquidity Pools are sets of smart contracts accessible on any EVM network. Additionally, each pool is legally structured as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), with legal ownership of the assets transferred to the SPV and bankruptcy remote from the asset originator. The platform also incorporates a decentralized governance model, allowing token holders to vote on significant protocol decisions and upgrades.

Centrifuge was founded in 2017 with the mission to solve inefficiencies in the financial system with blockchain technology. In 2021 it integrated the first real-world asset pool with MakerDAO and in 2022 it worked with BlockTower to bring the first institutional credit fund fully on-chain. Recently, Centrifuge announced a $15M Series A led by ParaFi and Greenfield alongside other notable investors including Circle Ventures, IOSG Ventures, Arrington Capital, the Spartan Group, and Wintermute.

Why this matters?👉 Tokenization represents one of the greatest opportunities for DeFi, aiming to tap into an addressable market worth trillions of dollars. Like many other tokenization platforms, Centrifuge offers novel solutions to bring off-chain assets on-chain. However, through its technological infrastructure and corresponding legal structuring, Centrifuge enables robust decentralized financing for tokenized assets, which ultimately provides issuers of RWAs a more productive use of their assets on-chain and liquidity.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

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All Rounds

Cspro - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Regulated issuance, subscription, distribution platform for security tokens and other tokenized real-world assets (RWAs): https://hk.cspro.io/

Yet Another Company (aka. Aligned Layer) - Seed ($2.6M) | Developers of Yet Another Bridge and Aligned Layer focusing on providing bridging Ethereum Layer 2 networks using zero-knowledge (ZK) based Storage Proofs: https://alignedlayer.com/

Interence Labs - Seed ($2.3M) | Open source AI infrastructure leveraging zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs and liquid staking-backed proof of inference: https://inferencelabs.com/

Avalon Corp - Seed+ ($10.0M) | Web3 gaming studio developing an interoperable gaming platform for the metaverse: https://playavalon.com/

YieldNest - Seed ($5.2M) | Liquid restaking protocol built on EigenLayer: https://www.yieldnest.finance/

RWA Inc - Private Sale ($1.2M) | Tokenization platform and marketplace for real-world assets (RWA): https://www.rwa.inc/

Puffer - Series A ($18.0M) | Anti-slashing liquid staking protocol built on EigenLayer: https://www.puffer.fi/

Sending Labs - Seed+ ($7.5M) | Web3 native communications protocol supporting a fully decentralized private community chat app: https://sending.me/

Crypto Valley Exchange (aka. CVEX) - Seed ($7.0M) | Decentralized trading platform for options and futures designed with on-chain portfolio risk management: https://cvex.xyz/

Saakuru - Private Sale ($2.4M) | Consumer-centric Layer 2 protocol with zero transaction fees: https://saakuru.com/

GEODNET - Private Sale ($2.0M) | 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/

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

Homium - Series A ($10.0M) | Fully digital lender leveraging blockchain to underwrite tokenized home equity lines of credit (HELOC): https://www.homium.io/

Joba Network - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Decentralized marketplace for blockchain and AI related jobs enabled by an on-chain identity and reputation layer: https://www.joba.network/

Plena Finance - Private Sale ($5.0M) | Multi-chain, self-custodial wallet that supports account abstraction and offers encrypted news and insights: https://www.plena.finance/

Centrifuge - Series A ($15.0M) | decentralized real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform and asset finance protocol: https://centrifuge.io/

NEBRA - Seed ($4.5M) | Zero-knowledge (ZK) proof research organization and developer of universal proof aggregator (UPA) service to scale ZK proof verification: https://www.nebra.one/

Merlin Chain (aka. Bitmap) - Seed+ (Not Disclosed) | Bitcoin Layer 2 solution created by Bitmap Tech that integrates a zero-knowledge (ZK) based rollup: https://merlinchain.io/

Aark - Seed ($6.0M) | The "leverage-everything" perpetuals decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Arbitrum: https://aark.digital/

Usual - Seed ($7.0M) | Developer of USD0, a stablecoin protocol collateralized and backed by real-world assets (RWA): https://usual.money/

Ord.io - Seed ($2.0M) | Bitcoin ordinals and runes explorer and marketplace: https://www.ord.io/

fantasy.top - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Social trading card game built on Blast of crypto Tiwtter influencers: https://www.fantasy.top/

Zeko - Seed ($3.0M) | Layer 2 zero knowledge (ZK) based rollup designed for zero-knowledge applications (zkApps), settled by the Mina Protocol: https://zeko.io/

Merlin Starter - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Native launchpad for the Merlin Chain, Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem: https://merlinstarter.com/

Runes DEX - Seed ($2.0M) | Decentralized exchange and automated market maker (AMM) protocol for runes on Bitcoin: https://www.runesdex.com/

Thruster - Seed ($7.5M) | Decentralized exchange protocol built on Blast offering custom liquidity solutions: https://www.thruster.finance/

FilmChain - Seed+ ($3.0M) | End-to-end fintech payments platform for creative industries and rights holders leveraging blockchain technology: https://filmchain.co/

Circle of Games - Strategic ($1.0M) | Web3 multi-gaming and reqards platform: https://circleofgames.com/

HQLAx - Series C (Not Disclosed) | Distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform for collateral mobility and management focusing on the securities finance and repo markets: https://www.hqla-x.com/

Superlogic - Seed+ ($7.6M) | Enterprise-grade integrated commerce and loyalty system using first-party data and enabled by AI and blockchain technologies: https://www.superlogic.com/

Lambda Finance - Seed ($1.8M) | Developer of BTCUSD, a Bitcoin-backed USD stablecoin: https://lambda.finance/

Skynet Trading - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Algorithmic trading and investment firm in the digital assets market: https://skynettrading.com/

Klaytn - Private Sale ($1.0M) | Highly optimized, BFT-based public Layer 1 blockchain originally developed by Kakao focused on the metaverse, gaming, and the creator economy: https://www.klaytn.foundation/

SatScreener - Seed ($0.5M) | Real-time data aggregator for Bitcoin ecosystem based assets: https://www.satscreener.com/home

TeleportDAO - Private Sale ($9.9M) | Trust-minimized interoperability protocol that serves as a light-client bridge between blockchains : https://teleportdao.xyz/

TradeTogether - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Digital asset investment platform offering personalized investment strategies: https://www.tradetogether.com/

New Funds

No new funds this week.

🙌 Cool Resources

SatScreener, data aggregator for Bitcoin ecosystem based-assets including, BRC-20 tokens, Runes, Ordinals, and others

🐕 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.