VC Roundup: Investors tap blockchain ecosystems to reach startups

As a seasoned crypto investor with over a decade of experience in this dynamic digital frontier, I am thrilled to see the increasing collaboration between venture capital firms and blockchain ecosystems. The recent partnership between Morph and 14 prominent venture capitalists is a testament to the growing interest in early-stage projects within the Web3 ecosystem.

Investment companies are looking for fresh opportunities to get involved in upcoming initiatives by teaming up with blockchain networks, as investors appear increasingly eager about potential investments leading towards 2025.

14 venture capital firms, such as Pantera Capital, Spartan Group, Foresight Ventures, MEXC Ventures, Social Graph Ventures, Rockaway, Levitate Labs, Every Realm, Bloccelerate, MH Ventures, Laser Digital, Paperclip Partners, Public Works, and Borderless Capital, teamed up with layer-2 ecosystem Morph on a collaborative project in December.

As a crypto investor, I’m excited about Morph’s commitment to speed up projects within their network ecosystem. They’re essentially creating a bridge for startups, connecting them directly with potential investors and experienced mentors. It’s not just about providing funding; it’s about offering guidance from the initial concept stage all the way through to the token launch. In essence, they’re gathering all the essential resources a builder needs to succeed in this dynamic crypto landscape.

There’s been an increase in investors showing interest in early-stage blockchain companies within the Web3 environment, leading venture firms to announce new investment funds. Notable firms that have recently secured funding include Portal Ventures, DragonFly, Pantera Capital, Hack VC, VanEck, and Parafi Capital, among others. Collectively, these funds are projected to inject approximately $2 billion into cryptocurrency startups in the upcoming months.

In this installment of CryptoMoon’s Venture Capital Review, we highlight a selection of companies that successfully secured funding during the month of December.

Brighty secures $10M for crypto payments in Europe, UK

The fintech service, Brighty, revealed a $10 million investment round headed by Futurecraft Ventures, aiming to broaden its cryptocurrency-based payment solutions across Europe and the United Kingdom.

This startup provides its users with European IBAN accounts linked to credit cards, as well as digital wallets for Ethereum, Tron, Polygon, and Arbitrum blockchain networks.

AgriDex raises $9M to tokenize agricultural commodities on Solana

AgriDex, an online marketplace built on the Solana platform for trading real-world assets (RWA), recently secured $9 million in a funding round headed by Sycamore Gap. Participating investors include Endeavour Ventures, Hawkwood Capital, FS Ventures, HU Investments, as well as angel investors from firms like Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Palantir.

AgriDex facilitates digital agricultural trading, executing deals in products such as wine, coffee, olive oil, and livestock, including rare animals from Gatcombe Park. This platform guarantees immediate payment settlements, charges transaction fees less than 0.5%, and maintains records using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Based on AgriDex’s reports, they aim to capture a market worth approximately $4.5 billion in agricultural sales. Among their strategic partners and customers are Circle, Plume Network, Imperial Shipping Group, Parrogate Group, and Future Farm.

Yei Finance secures $2M to develop v2 decentralized lending platform

In a seed funding round, Yei Finance managed to secure a total of $2 million. This round was primarily spearheaded by Manifold, with additional contributions from DWF Ventures, Kronos Research, Outlier Ventures, Side Door Ventures, and WOO, along with several angel investors.

The financial backing will facilitate the debut of Yei Finance’s second version, a versatile cross-chain money market geared towards both borrowing and lending across various blockchains. This platform leverages Circle’s CCTP for direct USD Coin (USDC) transfers, eliminating the need for wrapped tokens and external bridges. As per the company, Yei Finance v2 introduces segregated lending pools for specific assets and risk levels, as well as yield-generating tokens such as yUSDC.

VanEck leads Superform’s $3M round for SuperVaults

In a funding round headed by VanEck Ventures, the on-chain wealth management app Superform successfully secured $3 million in investments. This round also saw contributions from Polychain Capital, CMT Digital, Amber Group, Node Ventures, BlockTower Capital, Heartcore Capital, Maven11 Capital, and UpTop Capital.

Waterfall Network raises $11.6M for blockchain infrastructure

Waterfall Network, a Layer-1 decentralized ledger, has secured $11.6 million in funding from Bolt’s Capital, Alpha Token Capital, and Enflux. This investment will be utilized to advance research and development efforts aimed at streamlining nodes, enhancing infrastructure, and boosting blockchain scalability. The announcement comes after Waterfall Network achieved a transaction speed of 12,778 transactions per second (TPS).

The startup explains that it is designed to work seamlessly with Ethereum‘s system (EVM-compatible), and employs a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure for handling multiple transactions in parallel, as well as reaching consensus.

By December 2024, Waterfall had approximately 8,647 active validators distributed across various regions such as South and North America, Australia, Africa, Eurasia, along with the British, Japanese, and Taiwanese islands.

Union raises $12M Series A for crosschain ZK layer

In a Series A funding round headed by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Longhash Ventures, along with Borderless Capital and various other venture firms, Union – a zero-knowledge (ZK) transaction platform – secured $12 million. Notable founders from Polygon, Movement, and Berachain also contributed to the round, increasing Union’s overall funding to $16 million.

Union employs Zero-Knowledge proofs for secure communication, asset movement, and cross-chain transactions. As stated by this innovative company, their Ethereum-to-IBC bridge enables liquidity exchange between Cosmos and various other ecosystems such as Polygon, BSC, Arbitrum, and Movement Labs. Furthermore, it is reported that they are working on solutions for Bitcoin compatibility.

2024-12-17 23:47