Blockchain related startups secure over $983m in major funding rounds

Nexus Laboratories secures $25m series A round

Nexus Laboratories, a web3 startup specializing in zero-knowledge-powered scaling and privacy tools, 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 the Blockchain Builders Fund.

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

Layer3 raises $15m to change onchain identity

New York-based Layer3 raked in the second-highest amount of the week, closing a $15 million series A funding round.

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

Layer3’s omnichain identity and distribution protocol streamlines user engagement and token distribution across more than 25 blockchains, serving millions of users globally. According to the company, this funding will help it push for further adoption and innovation of its technology in the crypto space.

NEAR Foundation spinout Nuffle Labs garners $13m

The NEAR Foundation announced the formation 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 finally layer products to offer rollups and enhance ecosystem development.

Ava Protocol completes $10m seed funding

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

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

This funding supports the development of cross-chain smart contract automation, enabling contracts to execute based on predefined conditions.

Irys concludes $8.9m strategic round

Irys, formerly Bundlr Network, also successfully raised $4.8 million in a strategic funding round led by Lemniscap.

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

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

Symbiotic secures $5.8m 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 stated that it would use the funds to expand its operations and development efforts, focusing on enabling decentralized networks to bootstrap sovereign ecosystems through customized restaking implementations.

Kima Network raises $5m in pre-seed funding

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 bridge traditional financial services with decentralized finance (defi) tools through its decentralized settlement protocol.

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

Avail Raises $43 Million in Its Series A Funding Round

Avail, a project bringing a data availability layer network to the growing modular blockchain ecosystem, has secured $43 million through Series A funding from Cyber Fund. The project will compete with other big names in the DA niche like Celestia.

Founded by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun, Avail looks to address the scalability issues associated with present-day blockchain builds. The project will ensure newly developed layer 2 networks move away from monolithic builds and utilize its data availability network instead of relying on Ethereum, which is already congested.

$35 million Series A for M^0, a network for minting digital dollars

M^0 has raised $35 million in Series A funding from Bain Capital Crypto, Galaxy Ventures, GSR and others.
The stablecoin minting protocol is set to launch on Ethereum in the coming weeks, M^0’s Luca Prosperi told The Block.

Nexus Laboratories raises $25 million

Nexus has secured $25 million in a Series A funding to develop verifiable computation through zero-knowledge cryptography.

According to the latest announcement by the company, Nexus revealed that the funding round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Pantera Capital. Other participants included Dragonfly Capital, Faction Ventures, and Blockchain Builders Fund.

The Sandbox raises $20M at $1B cap to grow open metaverse creator economy

The Sandbox raised $20 million in promissory notes with a $1 billion market cap. Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands, in collaboration with the other two firms, manage the fund

BITAI raised $20 million seed

BITAI has completed a $20 million seed funding round led by First Round. Jump Crypto and Dragonfly also participated.

All but not everyone:

On June 15, 2024:

• Elys Network raised $2.50M from Cogitent Ventures, Comma3 Ventures, Persistence.

On June 14, 2024:

• Stage raised $2.40M from Solana Foundation, RR2 Capital, Moonrock Capital.
• PrivateAI raised an undisclosed amount from Charlie Yechuan Hu, DAO Maker, Gains Associates.

On June 13, 2024:

• Qiro Finance raised $1.20M from Alliance, Druid Ventures, Escape Velocity.
• Nuffle Labs raised $13.00M from NEAR Foundation, Electric Capital, Canonical Crypto.
• REVOX (ex ReadON) raised an undisclosed amount from SevenX Ventures, Arweave SCP Ventures, Cointelegraph.
• Optopia raised an undisclosed amount from G. Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, JRR Capital.
• Bondex raised an undisclosed amount from Animoca Brands.
• Carv raised an undisclosed amount from Double jump.tokyo.

On June 12, 2024:

• GenomesDAO raised an undisclosed amount from Pantera Capital, Modular Capital.
• Holdstation raised an undisclosed amount from SNZ Holding, Summer Ventures, Everest Ventures Group.
• Star Nest raised $6.00M from GoFintech Innovation, Doo Group.
• Codatta raised $2.50M from OKX Ventures, Comma3 Ventures, Mask Network.
• Skytopia raised $2.40M from Vertex Ventures, Superchain Capital, Boyaa Interactive.
• Yuliverse raised $4.00M from Lingfeng Capital, Spyre Capital, Presto Labs.
• Irys (Formerly Bundlr) raised $3.50M from Framework Ventures, Primitive Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures.
• kima raised $5.00M from Blockchange Ventures, FinSec Innovation Lab, Outlier Ventures.
• Pixelverse raised $5.50M from Delphi Ventures, Merit Circle, Bitscale Capital.
• BITAI raised $20.00M from First Round Capital, Jump Crypto, Dragonfly Capital.
• Layer3 raised $15.00M from ParaFi Capital, Greenfield Capital, Electric Capital.
• D-Drops raised $0.54M from ROM Utrecht Region.
• Particle raised an undisclosed amount from Spirit DAO, XDeGods, Dingaling.
• Zircuit raised an undisclosed amount from Binance Labs.

On June 11, 2024:

• Unite (formerly Taki) raised $3.00M from SuperLayer, Marc Andreessen, Yat Siu.
• Symbiotic raised $5.80M from Paradigm, cyber Fund.
• Ava Protocol raised $10.00M from Electric Capital, Taisu Ventures, Sandeep Nailwal.
• Orbital7 raised an undisclosed amount from Castrum Capital.
• Mistral AI raised $640.00M from General Catalyst, Bertelsmann Investments, BNP Paribas Securities Services.
• Zyfi raised $2.00M from Tenzor Capital, Everstake, ZBS Capital.

On June 10, 2024:

• Honeypot Finance raised an undisclosed amount from TKX Capital, CSP DAO, Aquanow.
• Nexus raised $25.00M from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital.
• Squads Labs raised $10.00M from Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Placeholder.
• Bitball raised $2.00M from Bitfun Capital.

On June 8, 2024:

• Folks Finance raised an undisclosed amount from Danu Ventures.

On June 7, 2024:

• Ink Finance raised $5.00M from Republic, Alliance, Blizzard Fund.
• Mythical Games raised an undisclosed amount from Find Satoshi Lab.

On June 6, 2024:

• SmartLoC raised $1.96M from High-Tech Grunderfonds, Loggerhead Ventures, MBG Schleswig-Holstein mbH.
• Halo Wallet (Formerly KuCoin Wallet) raised $3.00M from IDG Capital, KuCoin Ventures, Hashkey Capital.
• XOCIETY raised $7.50M from Hashed, Sui Foundation, The Spartan Group.
• Mountain Protocol raised $8.00M from Multicoin Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures.
• Glacier Network raised $8.00M from Foresight X, UOB Venture, Laser Digital.
• K3 Labs raised an undisclosed amount from Finality Capital Partners, Blockchain Founders Fund, Aztlan Capital.
• The Sandbox raised $20.00M from Kingsway Capital, Animoca Brands, LG Technology Ventures.

On June 5, 2024:

• GoPlus Security raised $10.00M from OKX Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Animoca Brands.
• M^0 raised $35.00M from Galaxy Ventures, Wintermute, GSR.
• XREX raised $18.75M from Tether.
• Bitlayer raised an undisclosed amount from Skyland Ventures.
• Nubit raised $12.00M from Polychain Capital, Nomad Capital, dao5.