Last week, there were a total of 29 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, with a significant increase in the number of financing deals compared to the previous period | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

Organizer: Xiangxiang Xi, ChainCatcher

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, during the period from April 3 to April 9, 2023, there were a total of 29 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately $264.05 million. The number of financing events saw a significant month-on-month increase, while the total amount remained relatively stable.

From the perspective of track distribution, infrastructure, DeFi, and CeFi were the popular tracks last week. There were a total of 7 infrastructure projects, with cumulative financing of $151.5 million; 3 DeFi projects, with cumulative financing of approximately $33.95 million; and 3 CeFi projects, with cumulative financing of approximately $24.4 million.

In terms of financing rounds and scales, early-stage projects accounted for the largest share, with 13 financing rounds belonging to seed rounds. The three projects with the largest financing scales were the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero ($120 million), the decentralized institutional-grade value transfer protocol M^ZERO ($22.5 million), and the metaverse platform RACA aimed at game studios ($16 million).

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

1. Infrastructure

1. LayerZero completes $120 million Series B financing at a valuation of $3 billion, with participation from a16z, IOBC Capital, and others

Cross-chain communication protocol LayerZero announced the completion of $120 million in Series B financing, with a valuation of $3 billion, with participation from a16z, Sequoia Capital, IOBC Capital, BOND, Christie's, and Circle Ventures. Additionally, LayerZero stated that it would consider a governance token airdrop after the protocol's development is complete, but this is not expected to happen soon.

According to crypto data platform RootData, LayerZero announced last March that it completed $135 million in financing at a valuation of $1 billion, with participation from a16z, Sequoia Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and others. (Source link)

2. Layer2 cross-chain computing platform Coinweb completes $2 million financing, with participation from SAVA Investment Management

Layer 2 cross-chain computing platform Coinweb completed $2 million in financing, with licensed fund management company SAVA Investment Management, registered in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands, purchasing 6% of the total supply of CWEB tokens.

It is reported that Coinweb is used to run decentralized applications across multiple different blockchains. Coinweb launched the cross-chain tokenization platform LinkMint and the native marketplace DeconX in 2022, with Coinweb Labs responsible for building third-party projects and incubating new projects on the Coinweb protocol. (Source link)

3. Opside completes $4 million seed round financing, led by Web3.com Ventures

The three-layer architecture ZK-RaaS platform Opside announced the completion of $4 million in seed round financing, led by Web3.com Ventures. The funds from this round will be used to accelerate Opside's development, expand the team, and scale operations.

Opside will focus on innovations in its ZK-RaaS & PoS+PoW hybrid consensus mechanism to fill the existing market gap in ZK-RaaS solutions. Opside will also soon launch a new round of Pre-alpha Testnet testing, completing the preliminary construction of the three-layer architecture and ecological projects and starting testnet activities.

Opside is a three-layer architecture ZK-RaaS (zkRollup-as-a-Service) platform that provides general & customized ZK-Rollups SDK (software development kit) to meet developers' needs for deploying dApps on Opside Layer3 without the need to maintain any infrastructure (such as computing power, etc.). (Source link)

4. Web3 data indexing platform Satsuma completes $5 million seed financing, led by Initialization Capital and Archetype

Web3 data indexing platform Satsuma announced the completion of $5 million in seed round financing, led by Initialization Capital and Archetype, with participation from OpenSea, Y Combinator, Homebrew, South Park Commons, and others.

It is reported that Satsuma was established in March last year. The project uses The Graph's open-source technology to query and index on-chain data. Satsuma is not a decentralized protocol but a business entity operating on a SaaS model. Satsuma helps developers gain deeper insights into on-chain data, making it easier to search and analyze on-chain data. (Source link)

5. Modular blockchain Astria completes $5.5 million seed round financing, led by Maven 11

Modular blockchain Astria completed $5.5 million in seed round financing, led by Maven 11, with participation from 1kx, Delphi Capital, and Figment Capital. The funds from this round will be used to develop its shared Sequencer network. The Sequencer is responsible for coordinating transactions on Layer2 rollups, while Astria aims to enable anyone to deploy their own censorship-resistant rollup without relying on a centralized Sequencer. (Source link)

6. ZK startup Polyhedra Network completes $15 million financing, led by Polychain

California Berkeley-based ZK infrastructure startup Polyhedra Network completed $15 million in Pre-Series A financing, led by Polychain Capital. Polyhedra Network is building a system focused on blockchain interoperability, scalability, and privacy, including zkBridge to facilitate cross-chain asset and data transfers.

According to crypto data platform RootData, Polyhedra Network announced in February this year that it completed $10 million in financing, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Animoca Brands, Dao5, ABCDE, Sparkle Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, DHVC, OMA3, Galxe, SPACE ID, and others. (Source link)

2. DeFi

1. Aptos stablecoin application Thala raises $2.955 million through its Launchpad platform IDO

Aptos ecosystem stablecoin application Thala publicly sold THL tokens on its Launchpad, with its LBP pool closing today at 7 AM, ultimately raising $2.955 million through the IDO.

Additionally, Thala officially launched on the Aptos mainnet today at 8 AM Beijing time. (Source link)

2. DeFi platform M^ZERO completes $22.5 million financing, led by Pantera Capital

DeFi platform M^ZERO completed $22.5 million in seed round financing, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Road Capital, AirTree, Standard Crypto, SALT Fund, ParaFi Capital, Distributed Capital, Kraynos Capital, Earlybird, and Mouro Capital.

M^ZERO Labs CEO Luca Prosperi stated, "M^ZERO aims to achieve institutional value transfer and create a neutral infrastructure for payment liquidity. You can think of M^ZERO as an infrastructure overlay on Ethereum, where large asset and liquidity providers from around the world can exchange value, and builders can create solutions." (Source link)

3. DeFi protocol Nibiru Chain completes $8.5 million seed financing at a $100 million valuation, led by Republic Capital and others

DeFi protocol Nibiru Chain announced the completion of $8.5 million in seed round financing, with a valuation of $100 million, co-led by Tribe Capital, Republic Capital, NGC Ventures, and Original Capital. The funds from this round will help establish the technology stack, team, and community.

It is reported that Nibiru has an automated smart contract application technology stack and aims to provide the user-friendliness of CEX without off-chain settlement, full custody of funds, or external clearing agents. (Source link)

3. CeFi

1. Dutch cryptocurrency exchange Finst completes $4.4 million seed financing, led by Deribit's parent company

Dutch cryptocurrency exchange Finst announced the completion of $4.4 million in seed round financing, led by Sentillia, the parent company of Deribit.

It is reported that Finst will use the funds from this round to expand its product line to drive its international expansion plans. Finst's trading platform debuted earlier this year and has since attracted "thousands of active users" in the Netherlands by offering cryptocurrency trading at an average fee 82% lower than the eight trading platforms registered with the Dutch Central Bank. (Source link)

4. Gaming

1. Web3 gaming ecosystem RACA receives $16 million investment from DWF Labs

Web3 gaming ecosystem RACA (Radio Caca) received a $16 million investment from DWF Labs, which includes the purchase of RACA tokens. The funds raised will help RACA advance its goals for its Web3 gaming ecosystem.

It is reported that RACA was established in 2021 and initially served as the NFT manager for Elon Musk's mother, Maye Musk. It has since launched R3 gaming infrastructure, SimCity-style sandbox game USM.WORLD, social party game Looki Looki Jazzi, cross-game DID wallet JAZ, and NFT marketplace. (Source link)

2. Game social metaverse platform Yuliverse completes seed round financing, led by LIF

Mobile metaverse platform Yuliverse, which combines gaming and social elements, announced the completion of seed round financing led by LIF, with participation from Archerman Capital, Animoca Ventures, TKX, Hummingbird Capital, and Lionrock.

According to RootData, Yuliverse is an alternative reality metaverse parallel to the real world, bringing players a new lifestyle. It is also a game-based social application. Yuliverse currently features thousands of fantasy storylines. By participating in role-playing, players can earn $ARG and $ART by completing tasks. (Source link)

5. Tools & Information Services

1. Crypto token research platform Kryptview completes $1.5 million Pre-seed financing, with participation from KuCoin and others

Crypto token research platform Kryptview completed $1.5 million in Pre-seed financing, with participation from KuCoin, Bitpanda, GSR, and Serafund.

It is reported that Kryptview provides users with advanced search and filtering tools, allowing them to easily find specific information about crypto tokens, such as the proportion of women in the team, whether the team has been doxxed, the project's headquarters location, and whether the project has released a white paper, aiming to bring clarity, transparency, and structure to the available data on cryptocurrencies. (Source link)

2. Crypto payroll management company Franklin completes $2.9 million seed round financing, led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and CMT Digital

Crypto payroll management company Franklin completed $2.9 million in seed round financing, led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and CMT Digital. Franklin provides a tool for companies worldwide, including those in the U.S., to pay employees and contractors in cryptocurrency.

It is reported that Franklin is built on the Ethereum mainnet and the scaling solution Polygon, providing automated payroll expenditure and tax reporting tools for a range of cryptocurrencies. (Source link)

3. ENS marketplace ENS Vision announces completion of $2 million seed financing, led by 1confirmation

ENS marketplace ENS Vision announced the completion of $2 million in seed round financing, led by 1confirmation, with funds to be used for further developing its ecosystem and products. (Source link)

6. Others

1. Web3 co-ownership platform Lore completes $4 million strategic financing, led by Multicoin Capital

San Francisco-based Web3 co-ownership platform Lore completed $4 million in strategic financing, led by Multicoin Capital, with other investors including Seed Club Ventures, North Island Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Zeneca, Mischief Ventures, Sfermion, CMT Digital, Patricio Worthalter, Spice Capital, and Sublime Venture.

It is reported that Lore has raised a total of $7.15 million to date. This funding will support new use cases and expand to other blockchains beyond Ethereum, starting with Polygon and Solana. (Source link)

2. Decentralized real-time communication network Huddle01 completes $2.8 million seed round financing, with participation from Longhash Ventures and others

Decentralized real-time communication network Huddle01 completed $2.8 million in seed round financing, with participation from Superscrypt, M31 Capital, Protocol Labs, East Ventures, Longhash Ventures, Good News Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Stani Kulechov, Dan Romero, and Juan Benet.

It is reported that with the new round of financing, Huddle01 plans to develop its ecosystem to support thousands of applications and launch its node network to facilitate large-scale communication and reward them with Huddle01 tokens. Additionally, Huddle01 will launch a funding program to enable developers to build applications on Huddle01's infrastructure. (Source link)

3. Delphi Labs completes $13.5 million financing, with participation from Jump Crypto and others

According to CoinDesk, Delphi Digital's incubation department Delphi Labs completed $13.5 million in financing, with participation from Jump Crypto and others. These funds will be used to establish an accelerator aimed at fostering the growth of teams dedicated to launching Web3 projects. It is reported that each team in the accelerator will receive $200,000 in funding, and project teams will be introduced to Delphi's potential investor network at the end of the program. (Source link)

4. Web3 carbon footprint NFT platform Ecosapiens completes $3.5 million seed financing, led by Collab+Currency

Web3 carbon footprint NFT platform Ecosapiens completed $3.5 million in seed round financing, led by Collab+Currency, with participation from Celo CFO Alex Witt, former Moonbirds COO Ryan Carson, Boost VC, Slow Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund.

It is reported that Ecosapiens will provide a range of digital infrastructure and resources, including NFTs, carbon infrastructure, chat groups, and even comic series, enabling individuals and businesses to easily participate in reducing carbon footprints, using more sustainable products, and supporting the transition to a green economy through the communities they create. (Source link)