Huma Finance raises $38m, Fuse gets $12m

At least 19 startups have raised venture capital funding in the past seven days, with the largest round going to Huma Finance, a tokenized real-world assets platform.

Huma announced on Sept. 11 that it had raised $38 million in a fundraising effort led by Distributed Global. Hashkey Capital, Stellar Foundation, Folius Ventures and Turkish private bank İş Bankası also participated.

The company plans to use the $10 million in equity funding and $28 million via yield-generating RWAs to expand its PayFi network globally, and plans to go live on Solana (SOL) and Stellar (XLM)’s smart contract networks in the coming months.

This week’s crypto VC funding column features the latest announcements from X.com and investment tracker Crypto Fundraising. Here’s what was announced between September 8 and September 14:

Insurance (Project Zero), $12 million

London-based decentralized renewable energy developer Fuse has secured $12 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital.

We are excited to announce a $12 million strategic round led by @multicoincap next to you @aeyakovenko & others to be built @projezero2050a decentralized renewable energy network. Project Zero aims to accelerate global renewable energy adoption by rewarding network participants…

— Insurance (@FuseEnergyHQ) September 12, 2024

PIN AI, $10 million

PIN AI, an AI infrastructure company, has confirmed $10 million in pre-seed funding. The startup aims to develop the world’s first open-source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN).

The list of backers includes: A16z CSX, Hack VC, Blockchain Builders Fund (Stanford Blockchain Accelerator), NEAR Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin, SOL Foundation president Lily Liu, Symbolic Capital, Mysten CEO Evan Cheng, dcbuilder (Worldcoin Foundation), Foresight Ventures, Nomad Capital, Cresta co-founder Tim Shi, Espresso CEO Ben Fisch, Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore, Alumni Ventures, and Dispersion Capital.

We are excited to announce that PIN AI has raised $10 million in pre-seed funding to launch the world’s first Personal AI Open Platform.

PIN AI brings AI and crypto together in meaningful ways, delivering a privacy-focused, on-device AI assistant that democratizes on-device intelligence… picture.twitter.com/zaqgizisKc

— PIN AI (@PINAI_IO) September 9, 2024

DRiP, $8 million

Drip Labs, the startup behind Solana-based creative platform DRiP, raised $8 million in seed funding on September 9. NFX led the effort, with Coinbase Ventures and Progression also participating.

Nytro Lab (Castilla) CAST, $8 million

Hong Kong-based developer Nytro Lab has raised $8 million in funding, with the proceeds likely going to Castile, Nytro Lab’s first blockchain game, which entered beta testing on September 10.

SevenX and OKX Ventures led the round, with Aptos Labs, Amber Group, HashKey, and Leland Ventures also participating. Matr1x, Castile’s co-publisher, is also supporting Nytro Lab.

Infinite, $6 million

Infinit has raised $6 million in a funding round, The Block reported. Electric Capital, Mirana Ventures, Hashed, and Arthur Hayes’ family office Maelstrom participated in the effort.

Moku, $5.35 million

Moku raised $5.35 million. Sky Mavis and A16Z GAMES led the round with participation from a long list of backers including Contango Digital Assets, Arca, Framework Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Richard Dai from DRW, Holly Liu from Flori Ventures, 32-Bit Ventures, and Jason Lee from Phantom.

Rounds < $5M Blocksense Network: $4M seed round led by Permutation Syrupal Protocol: $3.75M seed round; currently valued at $25M Fountain Platform: $3.5M funding; Backers include Foundation Capital, Caladan, Primal Capital, Druid Ventures, MHC, United Overseas Bank, NGC Ventures, Marin Ventures, and Blockchain Founders Fund V Wingbits: The Stockholm-based protocol raised $3.5M from Borderless Capital and Tribe Capital, along with Antler and angel investors Titan: Round13 Digital Asset Fund led the $3.5M round, with RN Financial Corp also participating T1 Protocol: Ethereum scaling solution T1 Protocol raised $2.5M in a pre-seed funding round Investors include A16z, Espresso, Frax, Cow Swap, ETH Global, ENSO, Injective, and Titan. Hyperbridge Protocol: Web3 Foundation teamed up with Scytale Digital to lead a $2.5 million seed round for Hyperbridge. Ammalgam: The decentralized lending exchange closed a $2.5 million seed round co-led by Faction VC and Framework Ventures. Robot Ventures, Bodhi Ventures, NGC Ventures, Dewhales, and Blockchain Founders Fund also participated. Orange Cap Games (Vibes): The $2 million pre-seed angel investment round will allow Orange Cap to bring the intellectual property to life through its upcoming card game Vibes featuring Pudgy Penguins. GasHawk: The startup raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed round from 3SE Holdings, AVID3, Artemis Capital, Appworks, Redbeard Ventures, Alchemy, and various angel investors. Universal Health Token: Animoca, Polygon, and Tezos back $1.2 million pre-seed round for UHT. Carrot CRT: Mission: To “simplify achieving the highest returns in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem,” the startup raised $600,000 in pre-seed round.

Click here for last week’s column.