Crypto Fundraising weekly
Dates: 09 – 15, Jul 2023

This week's biggest funding round

Sound.xyz raised $20M in a Series A funding round from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto)*, PTC Crypto (Palm Tree Crew), A Capital, Sound Ventures, Coop Records, Collab+Currency, Scalar Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Snoop Dogg, Archetype, Crush Ventures.

The Sound Protocol is an open-source framework that enables musicians, artists, and creators to efficiently create digital collectibles, emphasizing a collaborative music movement where users can directly support their favorite artists and stake their claim on early access, all powered by web3 technology.

Pre-seed and Seed investment rounds

Artela raised $6M in a Seed funding round from Shima Capital*, Ant Capital (a&t), Big Brain Holdings, SevenX Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Amino Capital.

Artela is a blockchain network that enables developers to create feature-rich decentralized applications (dApps) by incorporating user-defined native extensions. With its Artela Blockchain and Aspect Programming framework, Artela aims to go beyond traditional smart contracts and provide an extensible and scalable platform for pushing the boundaries of dApp functionality in the Web3 ecosystem.

lon Protocol raised $2M in a Pre-seed funding round from Portal Ventures*, SevenX Ventures*, Bankless Ventures, Hash Capital, Foresight Ventures, Smrti Lab, Maelstrom, Breed VC, Everstake Capital, Punk DAO, Builder Capital, Picks and Shovels (Picks & Shovels).

Ion Protocol is a decentralized lending platform that enables users to deposit Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) and staked asset-backed positions as collateral to mint a synthetic representation of ETH called "$allETH." It takes a validator-native approach to underwriting trust as a commodity, focusing on the creditworthiness of the underlying validator or operator collateral.

GET Protocol raised $4.5M in a Seed funding round from Flow Ventures*, Animoca Brands, Tezos Foundation, Red Beard Ventures, FunFair Ventures, Sebastian Borget.

Get Protocol is a blockchain-based ticketing solution that utilizes NFTs to reward fans and ensure secure and transparent ticketing for events. It has been successfully used by renowned artists and offers a seamless purchasing experience with integrated ticketing companies, while aiming to become the standard for NFT proof of access.

Aark Digital raised undisclosed amount in a Seed funding round from Delphi Digital*, OKX Ventures (ex OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Big Brain Holdings, Keyrock.

Aark Digital is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for professional traders that offers Leveraged LP and leverage trading of Super Long Tail Assets. It introduces features such as Single-sided LP and Leveraged LP, allowing liquidity providers to earn leveraged returns while minimizing directional risk. Aark Digital utilizes a new AMM architecture called PMM, which reflects real-world liquidity from top centralized exchanges, enhancing liquidity and enabling arbitrage opportunities for a wide range of asset pairs.Decentralized exchange on Arbitrum

Olympix raised $4.3M in a Seed funding round from Boldstart Ventures*, Robot Ventures, Shrug Capital.

Olympix is a Web3 cybersecurity software company offers a static analyzer that utilizes a proprietary Large Language Model (LLM) to identify vulnerabilities.

Giza raised $3M in a Pre-seed funding round from CoinFund*, Arrington Capital, Starkware, LambdaClass, TA Ventures.

Giza is developing a trustless protocol that decentralizes machine learning inference computation, providing guardrails powering the open economy of open-source AI. It enables AI developers to generate zero-knowledge proofs, ensuring transparency and trust in the deployment of verifiable ML models.

AwesomeQA raised $2.8M in a Seed funding round from North Island Ventures*, Coinbase Ventures, Uniswap Labs Ventures, Collab+Currency, Possible Ventures, Robot Ventures, Zero Knowledge Validator (ZKV), NxGen, Reverie.

AwesomeQA is an automated customer support firm that provides instant responses by leveraging documentation and past interactions. The company is building an AI-powered community management service for Web3 communities, offering support tools for automation on platforms like Discord and Telegram.

Ambient Finance (ex CrocSwap) raised $6.5M in a Seed funding round from BlockTower Capital*, Jane Street, Circle Ventures, Tensai Capital, Yunt Capital, Susa Ventures, Quantstamp, Hypotenuse Labs.

Ambient is a decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol that allows for two-sided AMMs combining concentrated and ambient constant-product liquidity on any arbitrary pair of blockchain assets. Ambient runs the entire DEX inside a single smart contract, where individual AMM pools are lightweight data structures instead of separate smart contracts.

Gondi raised $5.4M in a Seed funding round from Hack VC*, Foundation Capital*, Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, Archetype, FirstMark, Proof, 6th Man Ventures (6MV), Distributed Global, FJ Labs, Afore Capital, Third Kind Venture Capital (3kvc), FundersClub, 17Sigma, Myelin VC, ANIMO Ventures.

Gondi is a decentralized non-custodial NFT lending protocol engineered to create the most efficient NFT credit market. The protocol enables continuous underwriting, allowing for full and partial refinancing of all outstanding loans, creating a more dynamic and liquid space.

Narval raised $4M in a Seed funding round from BlockTower Capital*, a16z Crypto Startup School (CSS), Fabric Ventures, Bpifrance, Frst, Cherry Ventures, Motier Ventures, Sebastian Borget, Sandeep Nailwal.

Narval is a usage platform for Web3 wallets that provides organizations with a secure and customizable solution for managing and utilizing digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and NFTs. With its granular policy engine and custody orchestration, Narval enables organizations to control and protect their digital assets according to their specific needs and governance requirements, supporting various wallet types and custody models.

Other investment rounds

LunarCrush raised $5M in a Series A  funding round from Draper Round Table*, INCE Capital*, Draper Associates, WWVentures, TRGC, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Draper Goren Holm (DGH), Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, MoonPay, Emurgo Ventures, LBANK Labs, FunFair Ventures, TechStars.

LunarCrush is a social analytics and trading platform that leverages machine learning to analyze social media data and provide insights for making crypto investment decisions. Users can search, extract, and customize their own algorithms based on their interests and gain valuable signals from social media trends.

Alluvial raised $12M in a Series A  funding round from Ethereal Ventures*, Variant Fund*, Brevan Howard Digital, Avon Ventures, Nascent, A Capital, Robot Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, IOSG Ventures, Blockdaemon Ventures, Road Capital, IOBC Capital, Figment, Aglaé Ventures, Credibly Neutral, Anagram, Notation Capital, Ambush Capital.

Alluvial is an enterprise-grade liquid staking protocol that enables tokenholders to earn rewards from staked digital assets while maintaining their liquidity and usability across DeFi applications. With an API-first approach, Alluvial facilitates seamless integration of Liquid Collective's liquid staking capabilities into existing products and services of digital asset exchanges and custodians.

Crust Network raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from DWF Labs*.

Crust Network is a decentralized cloud storage provider that prioritizes decentralization, privacy, and data assurance. It supports multiple storage-layer protocols, such as IPFS, and exposes instant accessible on-chain storage functions to users. Crust Network has three main functions: NFT and Metaverse Metadata storage, personal file storage, and Website/dApp hosting.

Cloudburst raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from CoinFund*.

Cloudburst is a cybersecurity company specializing in threat intelligence and data API products that help identify and combat market manipulation and fraud in the cryptocurrency space. Their solutions provide real-time monitoring, powerful tools, and structured social metadata to track and detect fraudulent activities, specifically focusing on price manipulation and pump and dump schemes within the crypto market.

* fund, that lead investment round