Blockchain startups secure $109.3m in funding

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

Crypto fundraising for the week of 09 – 15 June 2024 | Source: Crypto Fundraiser

Top funding rounds highlight a wide range of innovative projects that push the boundaries of web3, privacy, identity and more. Here’s a breakdown of this week’s biggest fundraising efforts:

Nexus Laboratories secures $25 million Series A round

Nexus Laboratories, a web3 startup specializing in zero-knowledge-powered 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 a $2.2 million seed round in 2022 and will be used to support the development of a new zero-knowledge virtual machine called Nexus 1.0, according to the company.

Layer3 raises $15M to change its on-chain identity

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

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

Layer3’s multi-chain identity and distribution protocol facilitates user onboarding and token distribution across more than 25 blockchains serving millions of users worldwide. According to the company, this funding will help further adoption and innovation of its technology in the crypto space.

NEAR Foundation subsidiary Nuffle Labs raises $13 million

NEAR Foundation announced the establishment of Nuffle Labs, which provided $13 million in funding in this process.

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

Needless to say, the future is Near! 🤩

We are excited to be back @NuffleLabsA product from our portfolio company @NEARProtocolwith our new investment!

We are committed to supporting advancement missions with a $13 million funding round #Closemodularity and development of the ecosystem… pic.twitter.com/zbl5dEv0Jn

— Fabric Initiatives (@fabric_vc) June 14, 2024

Nuffle Labs said it will use NEAR’s data availability and rapid end-layer products to deliver aggregations and enhance ecosystem development.

Ava Protocol completes $10 million in seed funding

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

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

This fund supports the development of cross-chain smart contract automation, ensuring contracts are executed according to predefined conditions.

Irys completes $8.9 million strategic round

Formerly known as Bundlr Network, it successfully raised $4.8 million in a strategic funding round led by Irys de Lemniscap.

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

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

Symbiotic secures $5.8 million for shared security protocol

Another crypto startup benefiting from venture capital funding this week is 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 announced 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 applications.

Kima Network raises $5 million in pre-seed funding

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

The startup aims to combine traditional financial services with decentralized finance (defi) instruments through its decentralized consensus protocol.

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

Paradigm’s new $850 million fund

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

Reports of Paradigm raising this funding surfaced in early April, and the June 13 announcement confirmed the plans and positioned Paradigm at the forefront of the next wave of crypto projects.

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