The first quarter of 2024 is coming to a close, and there is a growing positive sentiment surrounding cryptocurrencies, thanks to the introduction of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January.
This favorable market trend could lead to an increase in venture capital investment after a challenging period. According to a report from Galaxy Digital, venture capital firms in the crypto and blockchain industry raised $5.75 billion across 58 funds in 2023, a decline from the record-breaking year of 2022, which saw $37.7 billion raised across 262 funds.
However, there were signs of recovery in the last quarter of 2023, with venture funding reaching $1.9 billion, a 2.5% increase from the previous quarter. This marked the first time that venture capital investments in crypto startups had grown since early 2022.
One factor attracting investors is the development of solutions that combine artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. Additionally, there is a focus on products targeting institutional investors entering the crypto space.
Cointelegraph’s VC Roundup highlights startups that have recently secured funding in March.
Utila, an enterprise-focused wallet provider, has raised $11.5 million in seed funding from NFX, Wing VC, and Framework Ventures, as well as angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Charlie Songhurst, and Surojit Chatterjee. The startup offers a self-custody wallet platform for institutional investors across various chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Utila claims that over $3 billion has been transacted on its platform in the past six months. The company’s clients include hedge funds, OTC desks, market makers, brokers, and token issuers. Other investors in Utila include Fansanara Digital Ventures, North Island Ventures, Republic Capital, Liquid2, Inspired Capital, Lyrik Ventures, DCG Expeditions, Launchpad Capital, and Shima Capital, among others.
Synnax, a credit intelligence platform focused on the digital asset industry, has secured a $1 million pre-seed funding round. The funding was led by No Limit Holdings and will be used to develop Synnax’s platform, which aims to establish an unbiased credit rating standard for the transition from the traditional private credit market to blockchain technology. The Dubai-based startup utilizes decentralized artificial intelligence models to address the shortcomings of current credit rating systems, such as lack of transparency and bias. The round was also supported by global investors Edessa Capital, Kenetic Capital, Bitscale, Ryze Capital, MH Ventures, Hex Trust, Moonvault, GameFi Ventures, Typhon Ventures, Ausvic Capital, Drops Ventures, and Everstake Ventures.
Sahara, a startup focused on developing a decentralized AI network, has raised a $6 million seed funding round led by Polychain Capital. Other participants in the round include Samsung Next, Matrix Partners, Motherson Group, dao5, Geekcartel, and Canonical Crypto, among others. The company facilitates the creation of autonomous Knowledge Agents (KAs) that can analyze external and internal proprietary data. Sahara also offers data services for AI model training, with a focus on privacy and security. The funds raised will support the growth of additional Sahara ecosystem components, such as Sahara Vault, Sahara ID, and Sahara Network. The startup is led by Sean Ren, a Professor at the University of Southern California, and Tyler Zhou, the former Investment Director at Binance Labs.
Mirana Ventures has invested $8 million in Toncoin, the native token of The Open Network (TON), a blockchain project founded by Telegram’s team in 2019. This partnership between the TON Foundation, Bybit, and the Mantle Network has led to the integration of Toncoin into Bybit’s offerings, including staking rewards and cashback. The TON Foundation reports over $22 million in trading volume as a result of this initiative. Additionally, TON Space, Telegram’s self-custodial wallet, has connected its users with Mantle Network through the integration of TON-based MNT tokens. The funds will be used to support community development and projects. Telegram boasts over 900 million monthly active users.
UXLINK, a Web3 social platform, has raised nearly $10 million in funding from investors such as OKX Ventures and the Web3Port Foundation. The platform offers a new type of social network that emphasizes two-way, friendship-like connections, as opposed to the traditional one-way interactions seen on other social media platforms. UXLINK also features a social decentralized exchange for digital asset trading and a reward module for user participation and contribution. Since its launch in April 2023, over 3.5 million verified users and 75,000 decentralized groups have joined the service.
TEN, an Ethereum layer 2 network developed by Obscuro Labs, has raised $9 million in a funding round led by banking consortium R3. Republic Crypto, KuCoin Labs, Big Brain Capital, DWF Labs, and Magnus Capital also participated in the round. TEN combines optimistic rollups and zero knowledge rollups to offer an encrypted layer 2 for developers. The team is currently working on customizable privacy levels in smart contracts, allowing developers to choose which parts of a smart contract should be public or private. The mainnet release of TEN is scheduled for October and will include features such as programmable encryption, immediate bridges, and random number generation.