Crypto Fundraising weekly
Dates: 28 Jan – 03 Feb 2024

This week's biggest funding round

Portal raised $34M in a Seed funding round from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, OKX Ventures (ex OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Gate Ventures.

Portal is a Bitcoin-based decentralized exchange (DEX) and wallet, offering Layer 2 atomic swaps for cryptocurrencies across blockchains. With a focus on trust minimization and security, Portal eliminates the need for wrapped tokens or intermediaries for staking, providing users with a fully non-custodial experience for cross-chain transactions.

Pre-seed and Seed investment rounds

Velar raised $3.5M in a Seed funding round from Black Edge Capital, Coin Merge Strategy (CMS), Bitcoin Startup Lab, Genesis Block Ventures Capital (GBV), Cypher Capital, Trust Machines, Samara Asset Group, Mapleblock Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Kyros Ventures, MH Ventures, Transform Capital, Gossamer Capital, Comma3 Ventures, Rocinante Research, PAKA, Candaq Fintech Group, Banter Capital, Centauri Digital Asset Group, Market Across, BlockBuilders.

Velar is a DeFi Liquidity Protocol on Bitcoin, aiming to unlock Bitcoin's potential by offering a suite of sophisticated DeFi products. Velar Artha, the world's first Decentralized Perpetual Derivatives Exchange (PerpDEX) on Bitcoin, facilitates trustless trading of perpetual derivatives with up to 20x leverage, using BTC as collateral. Velar Dharma, the foundational component, serves as the platform for Velar's decentralized ecosystem, providing core DeFi functionalities on Bitcoin and launching its mainnet within weeks.

Clusters raised $9M in a Seed funding round from Collab+Currency, Arrington Capital, Electric Capital, Bloccelerate, Mask Network, Arca Fund, PTC Crypto (Palm Tree Crew), Variant Fund.

Clusters is a crosschain name service, addressing issues like address fragmentation and wallet management complexity across multiple blockchains. By unifying the blockchain world with a multi-chain name service, Clusters simplifies domain name preemption and offers a cohesive solution for users across various blockchains and wallets.

Pixelmon Labs raised $8M in a Seed funding round from Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, Foresight Ventures, Amber Group, Ray Chan, Robbie Ferguson.

Pixelmon Labs is the company responsible for the decentralized gaming brand Pixelmon, which features mythical creatures. It operates as a subsidiary under the Web3 venture capital LiquidX Studios, with a focus on developing multiple games and implementing the Mon Protocol, an intellectual property fractionalization system that distributes ownership of trademarkable game characters among NFT holders.

Reboot World raised $2.5M in a Seed funding round from ZMT Capital, Signum Capital, PAKA.

Reboot World is a decentralized, generative metaverse project that aims to redefine virtual world interactions and economy. It leverages blockchain technology to enable a dynamic and user-driven environment where creativity and participation are rewarded. This metaverse is designed to be an evolving platform that supports a wide range of activities, including gaming, social interactions, and digital asset creation and trading, fostering a community-driven ecosystem. Modularism Powered by EigenLayer. Integrated with Solana, Arbitrum and all EVMs.

Ithaca Protocol raised $2.5M in a Pre-seed funding round from Cumberland (DRW)*, Wintermute*, Room40 Ventures, Ghaf Capital Partners, Andrew Keys, Stan Miroshnik, Georgios Vlachos.

Ithaka is a non-custodial composable option protocol with a mission to establish permissionless cross-chain infrastructure for optimal risk sharing across time and event horizons. The protocol enables the instant deployment of liquidity self-enhancing, complete, and composable options, structured products, and lending markets on any underlying asset, forming the Ithaca Ecosystem with features such as an Option Trading Protocol, Algorithmic Market Maker, Collateral Optimization Engine, cross-chain interoperability powered by Axelar, and upcoming additions like a market-clearing consistent margin lending and liquidation mechanism, as well as Decentralized Protocol Governance.

YAC (Yet Another Company) raised $1M in a Pre-seed funding round from LambdaClass*, C² Ventures, Gagra Ventures, Fred.

YAC (Yet Another Company) aims to create accessible financial products for every internet user by leveraging Ethereum's technology, emphasizing cryptography and distributed systems. The focus is on building secure, transparent, scalable, and inclusive financial markets. YAC's projects, including Yet Another Bridge (YAB) and Aligned Layer, address challenges within the Ethereum ecosystem, offering innovative solutions like an intent-based bridge connecting Ethereum Layer 2s and a versatile proving system for L2s and bridges.

Portal raised $34M in a Seed funding round from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, OKX Ventures (ex OKEx Blockdream Ventures), Gate Ventures.

Portal is a Bitcoin-based decentralized exchange (DEX) and wallet, offering Layer 2 atomic swaps for cryptocurrencies across blockchains. With a focus on trust minimization and security, Portal eliminates the need for wrapped tokens or intermediaries for staking, providing users with a fully non-custodial experience for cross-chain transactions.

BBOX raised $2.7M in a Pre-seed funding round from Hashed*, Arrington Capital*, ConsenSys, Coin Merge Strategy (CMS), Flow Traders, Manifold, Mask Network, Laser Digital, Arcane Group, Draper Dragon, Formless Capital, Vessel Capital, Aulis Ventures, Press Start Capital, OnePiece Labs, Keone Hon, Hongbo Tang.

BBOX is a perpetual futures DEX with the capability to rapidly launch new markets for even smaller-cap tokens. It optimizes the trading experience and provides liquidity providers with enhanced yield opportunities. Leveraging breakthroughs like dynamic AMMs, multi-asset signaling, and OEV capturing, BBOX delivers unmatched front-running resistance and capital efficiency.

Doubler raised undisclosed amount in a Seed funding round from Youbi Capital*, Bixin Ventures, Mask Network, Comma3 Ventures, Pivot Labs, Continue Capital, Sanyuan Labs, Waterdrip Capital, DWF Ventures, Gate Labs, Formless Capital, Momentum Capital, CatcherVC.

Doubler is an open financial strategy tool operating on smart contracts, utilizing the "martingale" strategy to optimize cryptocurrency asset investment strategies and minimize risks. The protocol aggregates market liquidity, allowing users to create fund pools and engage in collaborative risk-sharing within a community-driven environment, all without incurring additional costs for both initiators and participants.

Gevulot raised $6M in a Seed funding round from Variant Fund*, RockawayX, Volt Capital, Staking Facilities, Marc Boiron, Shumo Chu, Calvin Liu, Mo Dong, George Lambeth.

Gevulot is a Layer 1 blockchain focused on zero-knowledge proofs, providing a platform for deploying proof systems as on-chain programs. It stands out by utilizing ZK proofs to enhance privacy, scalability, and compatibility, with a unique approach where blocks primarily consist of proofs rather than conventional smart contract state transitions. Gevulot's developer-focused network (devnet) enables the deployment of prover or verifier programs on-chain, offering a low-lift and simple experience for users interested in the innovative applications of zero-knowledge proofs.

Vermilion Studios (Forgotten Playland) raised $7M in a Seed funding round from Merit Circle, The Spartan Group, C² Ventures, Paper Ventures.

Vermilion Studios introduces Forgotten Playland, a free-to-play social party game set in an abandoned attic where players can explore, socialize, and engage in imaginative and competitive mini-games with their customizable Plushies. The game features a dynamic Social Hub as the central gathering place, deep customization options for Plushies, and various entertaining mini-games like Bump-A-Ball, promising a unique and interactive gaming experience.

PublicAI raised $2M in a Seed funding round from IOBC Capital, Foresight Ventures, Solana Foundation, Everstate Capital.

PublicAI is a Web3 AI Data Infrastructure and a decentralized marketplace for AI data annotations. It leverages blockchain technology to create a trustless and cross-border labor market, enabling global collaboration on tasks such as data annotation, and aims to address ethical concerns in AI training, data contamination, and domain expertise through its innovative decentralized platform.

Infrared raised $2.5M in a Seed funding round from Synergis Capital*, NGC Ventures (NEO Global Capital), Tribe Capital, CitizenX Crypto Ventures, Shima Capital, dao5 (daofive), Signum Capital, Ouroboros Capital, Decima, Oak Grove Ventures, DoraHacks, Tenzor Capital, MrBlock, DCF God, Alex Shin, Albert Chon, Charles Lu, SpadaBoom.

Infrared is the premier application of the Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism within the Berachain ecosystem. With a focus on reimagining liquid staking and incorporating unique soulbound elements of BGT, Infrared aims to streamline the BGT-staking process, providing a user-friendly interface and maximizing value capture through infrastructure-level PoL vaults and the creation of the BGT native Liquidity Staking Token (LST). The platform offers incentives for liquidity providers, allowing them to earn trading fees, native emissions, and claim liquid BGT via iBGT while imposing minimal fees and distributing performance fees to $IRED holders.

Other investment rounds

Bowled raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Sky Mavis, Big Brain Holdings, Jump Crypto, Impossible Finance, SnapFingers DAO, Assembly Partners, Yield Guild Games (YGG), Evos eSports, Caballeros Capital.

Bowled is a Singapore-based sports tech company specializing in GameFi platforms at the intersection of sports, gaming, and blockchain. Their flagship venture, Bowled.io, focuses on cricket, providing social gaming experiences and plans to expand into other sports through collaborations with global IP holders, using advanced technology infrastructure.

SoulLand raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Foresight Ventures, Redline Dao, Zonff Partners, MEXC Ventures, Stratified Capital, Basics Capital, Onemax Capital.

SoulLand is a gamified social subscription platform

MON Protocol raised undisclosed amount in a Strategic  funding round from Delphi Digital, Foresight Ventures, Animoca Ventures, Sfermion, Mechanism Capital, The Spartan Group, Amber Group, Merit Circle, Bitscale Capital, Newman Capital, Formless Capital, Cypher Capital, Mask Network, Bing Ventures, Yat Siu, 9GAGCEO, Robbie Ferguson, Kun Gao.

IP Governance protocol

Stride raised $4M in a Strategic  funding round from DBA*, 1confirmation, Road Capital, Modular Capital, Imperator, Chorus One.

Stride is a Cosmos liquid staking protocol that offers liquid staking for Cosmos Hub’s ATOM token and aims to support multiple Cosmos assets.

Allora raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Polychain Capital, Framework Ventures, Blockchain Capital, CoinFund, Delphi Digital, dao5 (daofive), Distributed Global.

Allora is a self-improving decentralized AI network that empowers applications with smarter, more secure AI through a network of machine learning models, utilizing cryptographic primitives for trustless access. It enables developers to build decentralized AI applications, allows ML model creators to monetize and contribute to the network's collective intelligence, and features novel cryptoeconomic mechanisms to reward positive model contributions, ensuring security and reliability.

Cube Exchange raised $12M in a Series A  funding round from 6th Man Ventures (6MV)*, GSR Markets LTD, ParaFi Capital, SIG DTI (a Susquehanna International Group Company), Everstake Capital, WWVentures.

Cube Exchange is a hybrid crypto trading platform that merges traditional and DeFi features for fast, secure, and user-friendly trading. It provides rapid order execution, institutional-grade security, and accessibility for crypto traders.

KIP Protocol raised undisclosed amount in a Strategic  funding round from Animoca Ventures*, CSP DAO, B.ARMY, Spicy Capital, SkyVision Capital, Purechain Capital, MQdao.

KIP Protocol serves as the decentralized foundation for AI models, applications, and data owners to securely transact and monetize in the Web3 environment. It empowers users to protect and monetize their valuable knowledge and data as Knowledge Assets, ensuring ownership rights are maintained even in interactions with AI.

NAVI Protocol raised $2M in a  funding round from OKX Ventures (ex OKEx Blockdream Ventures)*, dao5 (daofive)*, Hashed*, Mysten Labs, Comma3 Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Cetus Protocol, GeekCartel, Nomad Capital, Arche Fund (Coin98 Ventures), ViaBTC Capital, Gate Labs, Maverick Protocol, Assembly Partners, Hailstone Ventures, BENQI, LBANK Labs.

NAVI Protocol is a Native One-Stop Liquidity Protocol on Sui, empowering users to participate as liquidity providers or borrowers within the Sui Ecosystem. With features like Automatic Leverage Vaults and Isolation Mode, NAVI allows users to leverage assets and access novel trading opportunities with minimized risks, focusing on providing essential DeFi infrastructure in the rapidly evolving Sui Ecosystem.

Zeepr raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Cincubator*.

Zeepr is an AI Oracle-based decentralized perpetual protocol that enables users to trade a diverse range of mainstream financial assets using various cryptocurrencies as collaterals. Supporting both U-margined linear contracts and COIN-margined inverse contracts, Zeepr offers features such as stop-loss and take-profit, providing traders with a nearly centralized experience while ensuring complete on-chain operation.

Squid raised $4M in a Strategic  funding round from Polychain Capital*, Nomad Capital, North Island Ventures (NIV), Maelstrom, Chorus One, Department of XYZ, Breed VC, Binary Builders, Typhon Ventures, Distributed Global, Fabric Ventures, Node Capital, Chapter One, Nazare Ventures.

Squid is the cross-chain swap and liquidity routing protocol on Axelar Network.

Nibiru raised undisclosed amount in a Strategic  funding round from Oddiyana Ventures*.

Nibiru is a decentralized finance (DeFi) hub, proof-of-stake blockchain and a member of a family of interconnected blockchains that comprise the Cosmos Ecosystem. It offers leveraged derivatives trading, spot trading, staking, and bonded liquidity provision across 40 blockchains. Nibiru also plans to launch its fractional-algorithmic stablecoin, NUSD, collateralized by USDC and NIBI.

Yooldo raised $1.5M in a  funding round from Hyperithm, Doublejump Tokyo, Manta Network, Klaytn, Bedrock Capital, Neopin, Planetarium, VistaLabs, Presto Labs, Edimus Capital, Oasys, Immutable, Aptos Network, BNB Chain Fund.

Yooldo is a multiverse Play-to-Earn (P2E) game platform inspired by classic Korean fiction, offering a metaverse space for gamers to build their careers. The platform aims to create a sustainable P2E ecosystem with enjoyable experiences, social, and financial benefits. It has a partnership with the Cyber Galz NFT project, featuring the 'Trouble Punk: Cyber Galz' game, a casual action game with battle-royale elements, allowing players to engage in various game modes and events within the Yooldo ecosystem.

Hivello raised $1.5M in a  funding round from Blockchange Ventures, Cypher Capital, MH Ventures, Primal Capital, Contango Digital Assets, Candaq Fintech Group, NGC Ventures (NEO Global Capital), Blockchain Founders Fund, IDG Capital.

Hivello is a decentralized physical infrastructure network that allows users to contribute spare resources from devices like computers, routers, modems, and storage nodes to mine DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) protocols for Web3 applications. Led by pioneers in blockchain payment solutions, Hivello aims to democratize access to decentralized services globally, reshaping infrastructure and leveraging expertise in the DePIN space to address the evolving needs of blockchain-based applications.

Puffer Finance raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Binance Labs Fund*.

Puffer Finance is a decentralized protocol that enables anti-slashing and at-home staking on Ethereum by utilizing a low bond requirement and introducing Secure-Signer, a remote-signing tool that prevents slashable offenses. Puffer aims to diversify the validator set and reduce centralization in Ethereum's proof-of-stake network while addressing the challenges faced by solo validators. It provides a permissionless staking pool and tools to enhance the safety and viability of at-home staking.

Mesh (ex Front Finance) raised $6.5M in a  funding round from PayPal Ventures*.

Mesh is a startup developing a service that enables customers to easily transfer and manage digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, across various platforms. It provides a secure and direct wallet-to-wallet transfer solution without storing users' personal information or credentials. Mesh aims to make digital transactions more secure, compliant, and user-friendly by offering interoperability for businesses and users across the digital landscape.

GG raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Delphi Digital, Gmoney, Cozomo de’ Medici, Will Price, ChiefingZa, Cooper Turley, Jon Itzler, Jim Chang.

GG is the augmented reality (AR) crypto game on Solana, blending crypto, gaming, and AR technologies. Players can race to win SOL by finding and collecting GBoxes in their city or betting on friends online, with the opportunity to earn rewards and participate in the growing ARC gaming ecosystem on Solana.

TProtocol raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from Summer Ventures, Matrixport Ventures, Spark Digital Capital.

TProtocol is a DeFi-native protocol that utilizes T-Bills as its underlying asset, offering DeFi-composable on-chain T-Bill tokens. These tokens serve as a source of risk-free real yield in the DeFi ecosystem, providing permissionless interest-bearing assets backed by reverse repo and Treasury with short durations. The protocol's focus on Real World Assets (RWA) like T-Bills introduces a new dimension to decentralized finance, combining traditional financial instruments with blockchain technology for increased accessibility and efficiency.

BitSmiley raised undisclosed amount in a  funding round from OKX Ventures (ex OKEx Blockdream Ventures)*, ABCDE Capital*, Coin Merge Strategy (CMS), Foresight Ventures, LK Venture, Delphi Digital, Waterdrip Capital, Blockchain Founders Fund, ArkStream Capital, 7UpDAO, Cryptogram Venture (CGV), Momentum Capital, Candaq Fintech Group, Comma3 Ventures, Particle, Silvermine Capital, Rich Shorten.

bitSmiley is a protocol within the Bitcoin blockchain, featuring a decentralized stablecoin, a trustless lending platform, and a derivatives protocol under the Fintegra framework. Its flagship product, bitUSD, is a BTC-based over-collateralized stablecoin that promotes stable value alignment and transparency on the Bitcoin blockchain, while bitSmiley's broader ecosystem includes bitLending for peer-to-peer lending and a Credit Default Swaps (CDS) segment to redefine financial derivatives in the Bitcoin DeFi landscape.

* fund, that lead investment round