Blockchain startups secure $109.3 million in funding

This week, the blockchain sector saw 34 startups collectively raise $109.3 million in various funding rounds, from Series A to grants.

Cryptocurrency Fundraising for the Week of June 9-15, 2024 | Source: Fundraising for cryptocurrencies

Major funding rounds highlight a wide range of innovative projects pushing the boundaries of web3, privacy, identity and more. Here’s a summary of this week’s biggest fundraising efforts:

Nexus Laboratories secures $25 million Series A round

Nexus Laboratories, a web3 startup specializing in zero-knowledge scaling and privacy tools, has raised an impressive $25 million in a Series A round.

Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pantera Capital co-led the investment, with contributions from Dragonfly Capital, Faction Ventures and Blockchain Builders Fund.

This funding follows an earlier $2.2 million seed round in 2022 and, second to the company, will be used to support the development of a new zero-knowledge virtual machine called Nexus 1.0.

Layer3 raises $15 million to change identity onchain

New York-based Layer3 raised its second-highest amount of the week, closing a $15 million Series A funding round.

ParaFi and Greenfield Capital co-led the initiative. Electric Capital and King River also participated in the round.

Layer3’s omnichain identity and distribution protocol simplifies user engagement and token distribution across more than 25 blockchains, serving millions of users worldwide. According to the company, this funding will help it drive further adoption and innovation of its technology in the cryptocurrency industry.

NEAR Foundation Spinout Nuffle Labs Raises $13 Million

The NEAR Foundation announced the creation of Nuffle Labs, securing $13 million in funding in the process.

The initiative aims to advance NEAR’s modularity and promote decentralized development. The funding includes a grant from the foundation and investments from Electric Capital, Canonical Crypto, Fabric Ventures, and Robot Ventures, among others.

Nuffle Labs said it will use NEAR’s data availability and Fast Infine Layer products to deliver rollups and improve ecosystem development.

Ava Protocol completes $10 million seed funding

Ava Protocol, formerly known as OAK Network, has raised $10 million in seed funding, split between a seed round of $5.5 million and a subsequent seed+ round of $4.5 million.

Investors such as Electric Capital, Taisu Ventures, and Shima Capital support Ava’s vision of intent-focused, event-driven autonomous transactions for Ethereum and beyond.

This funding supports the development of cross-chain smart contract automation, enabling contracts to be executed based on pre-defined conditions.

Irys closes $8.9 million strategic round

Irys, formerly Bundlr Network, has also been successful lifted up $4.8 million in a strategic funding round led by Lemniscap.

The startup focuses on improving on-chain data management and fighting misinformation.

With over 1.9 billion transactions processed, it aims to use the funds to develop systems that improve scalability and efficiency in blockchain ecosystems.

Symbiotic gets $5.8 million for shared security protocol

Another crypto startup that benefited from venture capital funding this week was Symbiotic, a developer of a shared security protocol. It raised $5.8 million in a seed round led by Paradigm and cyber.Fund.

On June 12, the company said it would use the funds to expand its operations and development efforts, focusing on enabling decentralized networks to launch sovereign ecosystems through custom restaging implementations.

Kima Network raises $5 million in pre-seed funding

Finally, Israel-based Kima Network also announced the closing of a $5 million pre-seed funding round led by Blockchange Ventures and FinSec Innovation Lab.

The startup aims to connect traditional financial services with decentralized finance (defi) tools through its decentralized settlement protocol.

Other backers in pre-seed included Outlier Ventures, Big Brain Holdings and Maven Capital. The funds will help Kima develop its web3 settlement infrastructure.

Paradigm’s new $850 million fund

This week’s cryptocurrency activity took place against the backdrop of a announcement from Paradigm, a leading cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firm, of a new $850 million fund. According to the company, this fund will target crypto projects in their early stages of development.

Reports of Paradigm raising this fund had emerged in early April, with the June 13 announcement confirming the plans and positioning Paradigm at the forefront of the next wave of crypto projects.

The company was an early supporter of key industry players such as Uniswap, the decentralized exchange; Optimism, an Ethereum layer 2 solution; and Flashbots, a project focused on MEV concepts.

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