Venture Capital news-Page 5
Web3 infrastructure firm ChainSafe raises $18.75M as attention shifts to GameFi
Canadian Web3 infrastructure company ChainSafe has closed an $18.75 million funding round that was backed by prominent industry venture firms, putting the company on track to expand operations at a time when demand for blockchain infrastructure and gaming services was on the rise. The Series A round was led by venture firm Round13 with additional participation from NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Sfermion, Jsquare, ConsenSys, Digital Finance Group and Fenbushi Capital. ChainSafe said the funding would go toward supporting the growth and adoption of Web3 technology. ChainSafe’s founding team met at an Ethereum meetup in Toronto in 2017. Later that year, …
Business / Oct. 18, 2022
Uniswap Labs raises $165M as attention shifts to NFTs, Web3
Decentralized exchange Uniswap Labs has raised $165 million in a Series B funding round that had participation from some of blockchain's biggest venture firms, putting the company on track to expand into other crypto-focused domains. The funding round was led by Polychain Capital with additiona participation from several existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Variant and SV Angel. The funding round confirms earlier reporting from Cointelegraph that Uniswap was looking to raise between $100 million and $200 million. Uniswap said the funding would go toward expanding its existing product offerings and improving the user experience through new web applications, developer …
Business / Oct. 13, 2022
nxyz raises $40M to enable faster blockchain indexing
nxyz, a Web3 platform enabling data infrastructure for blockchains, secured $40 million in Series A funding led by venture firm Paradigm with additional participation from Coinbase Ventures, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. Angel investors also participated, including Balaji Srinivasan, Jaynti Kanani, Jing Wang, Packy McCormick, Surojit Chatterjee and Ryan Selkis. According to nxyz, the funds raised will be used to expand the company’s team, build support across emerging use cases, and expand across different chains. The company will focus on expanding its team globally, across engineering and partnerships, and also onboard several more blockchains in the upcoming months. The Web3 …
Business / Oct. 12, 2022
Skyweaver's parent company secures $40M in Series A funding
Horizon Blockchain Games, the developer behind the Skyweaver game, has raised $40 million in Series A funding, the company disclosed on Oct. 4. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, with additional participation from Polygon, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Xsolla, The Sandbox’s co-founder Sebastien Borget, Sky Mavis and Axie Infinity co-founder Aleks Larsen, among other investors. With the funds, Horizon plans to invest in Web3 products and scale its operations. Specifically, the company wants to grow its developer stack and smart wallet Sequence, expand the content and reach of the nonfungible token (NFT) turn-based card game …
Nft / Oct. 5, 2022
a16z leads $40M raise for decentralized knowledge protocol
Decentralized knowledge protocol Golden has closed a $40 million funding round led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, with additional participation from Protocol Labs, OpenSea Ventures and the founders of Solana, Dropbox, Postmates and Twitch, among others. In addition to leading the Series B funding round, Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner Ali Yahya will join Golden’s board alongside a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen. The funding gives Golden additional resources to continue building its protocol, which is designed to standardize the discovery and verification of knowledge in the era of Web3. Specifically, Golden is developing a decentralized interface that incentivizes collecting and …
Business / Oct. 3, 2022
Blockchain interoperability goes beyond moving data from point A to B — Axelar CEO Sergey Gorbunov
Cross-chain communication between blockchains is more than just moving data from point A to B, but how it can connect applications and users for enhanced experiences and fewer gas fees in Web3, outlined Sergey Gorbunov, Axelar Network co-founder and CEO, speaking to Cointelegraph's business editor Sam Bourgi on Sept. 28 at Converge22, in San Francisco. As the crypto industry has developed over the past few years, blockchain interoperability has seen a surge in demand, attracting venture capital and welcoming players, such as Axelar, which reached unicorn status in February. According to Gorbunov, the company, founded in 2020, started with a …
Adoption / Sept. 30, 2022
Solana tech developer Coral raises $20M, plans to launch 'xNFT' protocol
Solana ecosystem developer Coral has closed a $20 million investment round backed by some of crypto’s biggest venture funds, setting the stage for launching its new interactive wallet later this month. The investment round was co-led by FTX Ventures and Jump Capital with additional participation from Multicoin Capital, Anagram, K5 Global and other investors, Coral announced Wednesday. Coral said it would use the funds to build internal capacity and launch its flagship product, Backpack. Backpack is said to be an interactive wallet that delivers “crypto-native experiences” through so-called executable nonfungible tokens, or xNFTs. Coral describes xNFTs as analogous to mini-programs …
Business / Sept. 28, 2022
Crypto-focused MPC developer raises $40M
Multi-party computation (MPC) developer MPCH Labs has concluded a Series A funding round totaling $40 million ahead of the planned launch of its Fraction digital asset operating platform later this year. The funding round was led by Liberty City Ventures, the same venture studio that incubated MPCH Labs, with additional participation fro QCP Capital, Global Coin Research, Polygon Studios, Quantstamp, LedgerPrime, Animoca and others. To-date, MPCH Labs has raised $50 million in venture financing. The funding will be used to further develop MPCH Labs’ first product, Fraction, an operating platform that enables institutions to securely safeguard their digital assets. Fraction …
Business / Sept. 27, 2022
Pantera Capital's CEO suggests Blockchain growth will continue despite economic turmoil
The economic landscape may seem dire at the moment, but it's unlikely to affect blockchain development, according to Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead. In an interview for Real Vision on Thursday, the venture capitalist said that he believes blockchain technology will perform based on its own fundamentals, regardless of the conditions indicated by traditional risk metrics: "Like any disruptive thing, like Apple or Amazon stock, there are short periods of time where it's correlated with the S&P 500 or whatever risk metric you want to use. But over the last 20 years, it's done its own thing. And that's what …
Blockchain / Sept. 23, 2022
Crypto bug bounty platform Immunefi raises $24M led by Framework Ventures
Web3 bug bounty and security services platform Immunefi has closed a $24 million Series A funding round, putting the company on track to scale its in-house capacity amid widespread vulnerabilities in the blockchain industry. The funding round was led by the San Francisco-based venture firm Framework Ventures, with additional participation from Electric Capital, Polygon Ventures, Samsung Next, P2P Capital and others. Immunefi said the capital would be used to hire staff as it scales to meet the growing demand for blockchain security and bug bounty services. Immunefi claims to have paid out $60 million in total bounties since its inception …
Business / Sept. 22, 2022
Japanese banking giant Nomura launches digital ecosystem VC arm
Nomura, one of the largest investment banks in Japan, has established a venture capital arm aimed at investing in companies focusing on crypto and blockchain. In a Wednesday announcement, Nomura said the business, named Laser Digital, will “provide new value in the area of digital assets” for clients under the Switzerland-based holding company Laser Digital Holdings AG. The investment bank said it chose Switzerland based on its “robust regulatory regime for digital assets and blockchain projects” in addition to potentially recruiting talent. “Staying at the forefront of digital innovation is a key priority for Nomura,” said president and group CEO …
Business / Sept. 21, 2022
The impact of the Wintermute hack could have been worse than 3AC, Voyager and Celsius — Here is why
Most crypto investors have probably never heard of Wintermute Trading before the Sept. 20 $160 million hack, but that does not reduce their significance within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The London-based algorithmic trading and crypto lending firm also provides liquidity to some of the largest exchanges and blockchain projects. As a crypto-native trading firm, meaning digital assets have been the core since its inception in July 2017, Wintermute’s expertise in the sector is attested by $25 million in funding from global venture capital investors like Fidelity Investments, Pantera Capital and Blockchain.com Ventures. Lending and venture capital firms have limited impact on …
Bitcoin / Sept. 21, 2022