Last week, there were a total of 18 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with the total amount showing some recovery compared to the previous two weeks | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

Organizer: Xiangxiang Xi, ChainCatcher

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, during the period from March 27 to April 2, 2023, there were a total of 18 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately 261.7 million USD. The number of financing events remained basically the same as the previous week, but the total amount increased significantly, showing a recovery compared to the previous two weeks, with many large financing events.

From the perspective of sector distribution, infrastructure, DeFi, and social entertainment were the popular sectors last week. There were a total of 6 infrastructure projects, raising a cumulative amount of 228.5 million USD; 4 DeFi projects, raising approximately 16.8 million USD; and 2 social entertainment projects, raising approximately 7.5 million USD.

In terms of financing rounds and scales, early-stage projects accounted for the largest proportion, with 6 financing events belonging to seed rounds. The three projects with the largest financing scales were the hardware wallet Ledger (100 million euros), the Ethereum restaking market EigenLayer (50 million USD), and the AI and machine learning-based blockchain platform Fetch.ai (40 million USD).

(Last week's projects with financing scales between 10 million and 200 million USD, data source: Rootdata)

I. Infrastructure

1. Crypto infrastructure company Conduit completes 7 million USD seed round financing, led by Paradigm

Crypto infrastructure startup Conduit announced the completion of a 7 million USD seed round financing, led by Paradigm. Conduit provides custody services to help developers easily and quickly deploy their applications to Optimism.

It is reported that Conduit and the Optimism Foundation will work together to support developers in launching applications on-chain and transitioning to its upcoming Superchain blockchain network. (Source link)

2. Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer completes 50 million USD Series A financing, led by Blockchain Capital

The developer of the Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, EigenLabs, completed a 50 million USD Series A financing, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Bixin Ventures, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, and Coinbase Ventures.

According to the crypto data platform RootData, EigenLabs had previously completed a 14.5 million USD seed round financing, co-led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures. (Source link)

3. Decentralized collaborative AI platform FedML announces completion of 6 million USD seed and pre-seed financing, led by Camford Capital

Decentralized collaborative AI platform FedML announced the completion of 6 million USD in seed and pre-seed financing, led by Camford Capital, with participation from Plug and Play Ventures, AimTop Ventures, Acequia Capital, LDV Partners, and others.

According to the data platform Rootdata, FedML is a decentralized collaborative machine learning platform for decentralized and collaborative AI at any scale, anywhere. More specifically, FedML provides an MLOps ecosystem that can train, deploy, monitor, and continuously improve machine learning models while collaborating on aggregated data, models, and computing resources in a privacy-preserving manner. (Source link)

4. Hardware wallet Ledger completes 100 million EUR financing at a valuation of 1.3 billion EUR

According to Bloomberg, hardware wallet Ledger completed a financing of 100 million EUR (approximately 109 million USD), with a valuation of 1.3 billion EUR in this round. New investors True Global Ventures, Cité Gestion SPV, Digital Finance Group, and VaynerFund, along with existing investors 10T, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, and Cathay Innovation participated, with Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE acting as the exclusive placement agent and Jones Day serving as legal advisor. (Source link)

5. Cross-chain bridge aggregator LI.FI completes 17.5 million USD Series A financing, led by CoinFund and Superscrypt

Cross-chain bridge aggregator LI.FI announced the completion of 17.5 million USD in Series A financing, co-led by CoinFund and Superscrypt, with participation from Bloccelerate, L1 Digital, Circle, Factor, Perridon, Theta Capital, Three Point Capital, Abra, and nearly 20 angel investors.

It is reported that the new funds raised in this round will be used to drive LI.FI's development in more blockchain, DEX, cross-chain bridge, and other areas, while strengthening its sales, business development, marketing, and other capabilities to support token and order flow trading. (Source link)

II. DeFi

1. Derivatives protocol Cega completes 5 million USD seed round extension financing, led by Dragonfly Capital

Derivatives protocol Cega completed a new round of 5 million USD seed round extension financing, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Pantera Capital and Robot Ventures. The funds will be used to launch new products on Ethereum, including leveraged options, while existing products will continue to be offered on Solana. Additionally, Cega will launch a new market-making entity called Tras Mobian next week, focusing on standard and exotic cryptocurrency derivatives.

According to RootData, Cega completed a 4.3 million USD seed round financing last March, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, and Solana Ventures. (Source link)

2. Aptos ecosystem DeFi protocol Econia Labs completes 6.5 million USD seed round financing, led by Dragonfly

Aptos ecosystem DeFi infrastructure protocol Econia Labs completed 6.5 million USD in seed round financing, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Lightspeed Faction, Wintermute Ventures, Hudson River Trading, Aptos Labs, and Flow Traders.

It is reported that Econia Labs aims to develop a backend protocol that provides order book trading and supports integration with DeFi applications offering a range of trading options, such as spot trading or leveraged derivatives. The protocol is developed in collaboration between Econia Labs and the Aptos team. (Source link)

3. Blockchain-based trade finance protocol Polytrade completes 3.8 million USD seed financing, led by Polygon Ventures

Blockchain-based trade finance protocol Polytrade completed 3.8 million USD in seed round financing, led by Alpha Wave, Matrix Partners, Polygon Ventures, and CoinSwitch Ventures, with other investors including Singularity Ventures and GTM Ventures. The company previously received support from Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and QuickSwap co-founder Sameep Singhania.

It is reported that Polytrade's initial module includes a financing department that brings real-world revenue into Web3, aiming to provide working capital financing and invoices for SMEs and large enterprises. The company is open to the retail market but primarily focuses on institutional participants and aims to expand into Latin America, the US, and European markets. (Source link)

4. Nautilus ecosystem DEX project PoseiSwap completes 1.5 million USD financing, led by Zebec Labs

PoseiSwap announced the completion of 1.5 million USD in strategic financing, led by Zebec Labs, with participation from Eclipse and Notifi Network. The funds will be used to accelerate product development.

It is reported that PoseiSwap is the first DEX on the Nautilus Chain, which announced its voting plan on March 27. Nautilus is a Layer 3 chain that helps scale L1 chains by batching transactions, thereby separating the consensus and execution layers. (Source link)

III. Social Entertainment

1. Web3 social platform SO-COL announces completion of 4.5 million USD financing

According to The Block, the Web3 social platform So-Col, created by Irene Zhao, has secured 4.5 million USD in investment.

Additionally, the crypto data platform RootData shows that SO-COL completed 1.75 million USD in financing last February, co-led by DeFiance Capital and Animoca Brands, with participation from Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Global Founders Capital, Double Peak Group, Antifund, Genblock Capital, and Kronos Research. Subsequently, SO-COL announced in May last year that it was seeking to raise funds at a valuation of 100 million USD, but did not disclose the progress.

It is reported that SO-COL aims to become a decentralized alternative to Discord, Snapshot, and OnlyFans. (Source link)

2. Music NFT trading platform Muverse completes 6 million USD seed round financing, with participation from Syndicate Capital and others

Music NFT trading platform Muverse announced the completion of 6 million USD in seed round financing, with participation from early investors Syndicate Capital, Knights Templar Capital, Zonff Partners, AvatarDAO, Sun Artland Ltd, and BN Blue Fox Limited.

The funds from this financing will be used to expand the platform's features and services, accelerate user acquisition, and enhance user experience. The platform is developing its second phase of products, which will include a music NFT exchange, NFT fragmentation features, and AMM pools for its F-NFT / MCT trading.

Muverse is a platform that enables free trading of music NFTs globally, allowing music artists, investors, and fans from around the world to participate in frictionless transactions. The platform offers users rich, gamified interactions, investment, and revenue scenarios, including a rhythm game that combines revenue models and an NFT exchange that provides ample liquidity for users. (Source link)

IV. NFT

1. Web3 art platform Ensemble completes 1 million USD financing, led by Collab+Currency

Web3 art platform Ensemble announced the completion of 1 million USD in seed round financing, led by Collab+Currency, with participation from Lattice and Builder Capital. Angel investors include Block0 co-founder Manu Andorra and individual investor Ben Roy.

It is reported that Ensemble aims to provide artists with a platform to sell works such as creative manuscripts, allowing artists to earn income by selling storyboards, artistic research, and design drafts from the creative process and sharing experiences with users. (Source link)

V. Others

1. Metaverse construction developer LandVault completes 3 million USD Series B extension financing, with participation from The Sandbox and others

According to The Block, metaverse construction developer LandVault completed 3 million USD in Series B extension financing, with participation from The Sandbox, Gemini Frontier Fund, HodlCo, and hedge fund Kingsway Capital.

Previously, ChainCatcher reported that LandVault announced the completion of a new round of financing of 37 million USD, led by The Sandbox, SoftBank, and Kingsway Capital, with participation from HodlCo, Gemini Frontier Fund, and others. (Source link)