Crypto Fundraising weekly
Dates: 06 – 12, Mar 2023

This week's biggest funding round

Scroll raised $50M in a funding round from Polychain Capital, Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital Ventures (BCV), Moore Capital Management, Variant Fund, Newman Capital, IOSG Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners.

Scroll is an Ethereum Layer 2 network that uses zk-rollup technology to process transactions off Ethereum on its own network, reducing costs and increasing transaction speed. The network's zkEVM batches transactions and generates proof that they are legitimate, which is then broadcast to Ethereum for approval.

Pre-seed and Seed investment rounds

Matchday raised $21M in a Seed funding round from Play Time, Courtside Ventures, Greylock, Hack VC, Capricorn Investment Group, Horizons Ventures.

Matchday is a soccer-centric Web3 gaming startup. They have an official license from FIFA and FIFPRO, and allow users to collect player cards as NFTs to build their squad and compete in the game.

Cubist raised $7M in a Seed funding round from Polychain Capital*, dao5 (daofive), Polygon Ventures, Amplify Partners, Axelar Network, Blizzard.

Cubist is a developer tools and infrastructure company that provides a toolkit for building, testing, and deploying decentralized applications (dapps) in automated pipelines with strong security measures. With a few lines of configuration, developers can switch bridge providers and chains, spin up private testnets and funded test accounts, and perform simulation testing.

Proven raised $15.8M in a Seed funding round from Framework Ventures*, Balaji Srinivasan.

Proven is a startup that provides zero-knowledge proof technology for crypto firms to prove solvency without revealing their balance sheets. Their "Proof of Solvency" solution enables firms to show both assets and liabilities through cryptographic techniques, which could provide an alternative way of verifying proof of reserves.

Gyroscope raised $4.5M in a Seed funding round from Placeholder*, Galaxy Digital*, Maven 11 Capital, Archetype, Robot Ventures.

Gyroscope is a crypto startup building a decentralized stablecoin called GYD (gyro dollar), which has an "all-weather" reserve design intended to diversify risks in the DeFi ecosystem. The reserve is designed to be fully backed by collateral, diversify risks beyond just price risk, and maintain a sustainable system using autonomous pricing and a multi-market design to concentrate liquidity within the price quotes of the stablecoin.

ECSA raised $3M in a Pre-seed funding round from Y Combinator, Arca Fund.

ECSA is a platform that allows for easy conversion of Brazilian Real to BRLe, a fully collateralized stablecoin. The platform's APIs enable real-time swapping of BRLe to USDC, making it easy for investors and exchanges to access the BRLe yield without worrying about liquidity issues. BRLe is a stablecoin that is pegged to the value of the Brazilian Real and can be exchanged for 1 BRL at any time, with token holders earning yield equivalent to 100% of CDI.

Tweed raised $4M in a Seed funding round from Accel*, Communitas Capital Partners, Zero Knowledge Validator (ZKV).

Tweed is a startup that offers a white-label cryptocurrency wallet and payment solution, providing self-custodial key management, onramp and offramp connectivity, and wallet integration through their API for web2 platforms looking to add web3 features. Users can store both NFTs and tokens in their self-custodial wallets, and the SDK allows for platforms to customize their UI and user flows.

Tonstarter raised $1.5M in a Seed funding round from Kingsway Capital, Gate.io Labs, DWF Labs.

Tonstarter is a first TON-native launchpad incubated by First Stage Labs that enables crypto projects to raise capital in a decentralized, safe, and user-friendly environment. It is the main fundraising platform on TON and supports a wide range of projects across the TON ecosystem, including DeFi, DEX, non-custodial wallets, lending and borrowing protocols, gaming, and the metaverse.

Tensor raised $3M in a Seed funding round from Placeholder*, Solana Ventures, Alliance DAO (ex DeFi Alliance), Big Brain Holdings, Raj Gokal.

Tensor is a Solana-centric NFT trading platform that offers advanced functionalities like TradingView integration, collection-wide bids and market making orders

Other investment rounds

Mauve raised $15M in a  funding round from Coinbase Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Ethereal Ventures, BlueYard Capital, Balderton Capital, FinTech Collective.

Mauve is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that offers traditional finance-level compliance guarantees to reduce counterparty risk. The platform utilizes Violet's on-chain compliance infrastructure to issue privacy-preserving compliance credentials and multi-factor authentication for security and identity continuity. These credentials are composable across other applications, making Mauve a cornerstone for a broader compliant DeFi ecosystem that leverages Violet credentials.

Toku (ex WorkDAO) raised $20M in a  funding round from Blockchain Capital*, Protocol Labs, gmjp (good morning japan), Orange DAO, Orrick, Reverie, Quantstamp, Next Web Capital.

Toku is a token-based payroll and tax compliance solution that offers comprehensive services for employment and compensation, including a set of tailored solutions for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Toku's aim is to simplify the process of compensating employees and contractors with tokens globally while adhering to laws and regulations in 100 countries.

EtherMail raised $4M in a Series A  funding round from Draper Associates*, Tim Draper*, MS&AD Ventures.

EtherMail is a Web3 email solution that provides anonymous and encrypted wallet-to-wallet communication. It allows companies to send relevant content directly to asset holders based on blockchain-synced real-time information, while also rewarding users for reading relevant content in their inbox. EtherMail aims to redefine email for Web3, giving users full ownership, control, and sovereignty of their inbox, and implementing a paywall solution that uses its EMT token to protect users' inboxes.

Octo Gaming raised undisclosed amount in a Strategic  funding round from Moonrock Capital*.

Octo Gaming is a community-driven social gaming platform that allows users to monetize their time spent playing hyper-casual games on the Solana blockchain. It features a double reward system that offers tokens or real-life prizes to players and has already partnered with Solana blue-chip NFT collections to develop branded games that are integrated into the app. Octo's mission is to drive millions of gamers from web 2.0 to web 3.0 through their casual gaming hub.

Kresus raised $25M in a Series A  funding round from Liberty City Ventures*, Franklin Templeton, JetBlue Ventures.

Kresus is a Web3 mobile application that serves as a comprehensive toolkit for managing digital assets. Users can mint, manage, and store their assets safely and easily, regardless of their level of expertise in the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

Relai raised $4.5M in a  funding round from Ego Death Capital*, Fulgur Ventures, Timechain, Cabrit Capital, Lightning Ventures, Redalpine.

Relai is a bitcoin-only investment platform that allows small and medium-sized businesses to add bitcoin to their balance sheet. The platform is designed to be simple, intuitive, and secure, enabling anyone in Europe to access Bitcoin savings and investment easily.

* fund, that lead investment round