Funding Weekly: 34 funding rounds raised approximately $120 million, with DeFi being the most watched sector
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Funding Weekly: 34 funding rounds raised approximately $120 million, with DeFi being the most watched sector
Between January 29 and February 4, eight blockchain projects raised over $5 million each.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData, 34 blockchain startups raised a total of $119.9 million from January 29 to February 4.
Projects raising over $5 million include:
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Web3 gaming company Saltwater completed a $5.5 million seed round;
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RPG NFT game Pixelmon announced completion of an $8 million seed round;
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Cross-chain domain name service Clusters announced a $9 million seed funding;
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Hybrid exchange platform Cube.Exchange, integrating traditional finance and blockchain technology, completed a $12 million Series A round;
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Bitcoin-based cross-chain DEX project Portal secured $34 million in seed funding;
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Web3 social game developer Forgotten Playland announced completion of a $7 million raise;
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Zero-knowledge proof blockchain project Gevulot completed a $6 million seed round;
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Crypto payment company Mesh received a $6.5 million investment from PayPal Ventures.
Highlighted Projects
NAVI Protocol
Overview: A native all-in-one liquidity protocol on Sui enabling users to participate as liquidity providers or borrowers within the Sui ecosystem. Its innovative features include an auto-leveraged vault and isolation mode, allowing users to leverage assets for new trading opportunities with minimized risk. NAVI supports digital assets across varying risk levels and ensures user fund protection and reduced system risk through advanced security mechanisms.
Investors: NAVI Protocol, Sui's first native all-in-one liquidity protocol, raised $2 million in funding led by OKX Ventures, dao5, and Hashed. Participation included Mysten Labs, Comma3 Ventures, Mechanism Capital, GeekCartel Capital, Nomad Capital, Coin98 Ventures, Cetus Protocol, Maverick, Viabtc, Assembly Partners, Gate.io, Hailstone Labs, Benqi, and LBank Labs.
Highlights:
1. Total supply of 1 billion NAVX tokens, with 45.8% allocated to TVL growth incentives, activities, and airdrops, including rewards for early supporters;
2. NAVI Protocol’s IDO opened on February 4 and oversubscribed by 2,000% within 20 minutes; the IDO will continue until February 7;
3. Its TVL has surpassed $160 million, with over 800,000 users—both record highs.
Puffer Finance
Overview: Puffer is a decentralized native liquid restaking protocol (nLRP) built on EigenLayer. It introduces native Liquid Restaking Tokens (nLRTs), which accrue both PoS and restaking rewards. Nodes within the protocol use Puffer’s anti-slashing technology to reduce risks and enhance capital efficiency while increasing rewards via native restaking.
Investors: Binance Labs announced its investment in Ethereum liquid staking protocol Puffer Finance.
Highlights:
1. Puffer plans to operate its upcoming Layer 2 as an EigenLayer AVS to amplify network effects and increase rewards for permissionless validators, helping promote Ethereum decentralization.
2. Puffer’s remote signing tool Secure-Signer previously received funding from the Ethereum Foundation, helping validators reduce slashing risks while improving Puffer’s capital efficiency;
3. Puffer Finance has launched its staking campaign, where users can deposit stETH and wstETH to earn Puffer + EigenLayer points, with double points locked in before February 9.
Stride
Overview: Stride is a blockchain providing liquidity for staked tokens, enabling users to liquid-stake tokens from any Cosmos chain. Using Stride, users can earn both staking and DeFi yields across the Cosmos IBC ecosystem.
Investors: Cosmos ecosystem liquid staking protocol Stride announced on X the completion of a $4 million strategic funding round led by DBA, with participation from 1confirmation, Road Capital, Modular Capital, Imperator, and Chorus One. This funding aims to advance Stride’s development within the Celestia ecosystem.
Highlights:
1. Stride announced launching a new LST asset, stTIA, with 5 million STRD tokens (5% of maximum supply) to be airdropped to early stTIA holders over 150 days;
2. Stride stated that stTIA holders may be eligible for a potential airdrop from Movement, the first ZK Move-EVM L2 network;
3. Future support will extend to Sei (stSEI), Penumbra (stUM), Namada (stNAM), Berachain (stBERA), Kujira (stKUJI), Akash (stAKT), Secret (stSCRT), and others.
Detailed Funding Information by Sector:
DeFi
Berachain ecosystem liquidity proof protocol Infrared Finance announced on X the completion of a $2.5 million seed round led by Synergis, with participation from NGC Ventures, Tribe Capital, CitizenX, Shima Capital, Dao5, Signum Capital, Ouroboros Capital, Decima, OakGrove Ventures, DoraHacks, TenzorCapital, AlexShin, AlbertChon, CharlesLu, Mr.Block, ChrisSpadafora, and DCFGod. Infrared aims to support liquid staking under Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) within the Berachain ecosystem. Funds will be used to advance infrastructure, including validator networks, PoL vaults, and the native liquid staking token (LST) iBGT.
Community-native Berachain DEX project Kodiak Finance announced completion of a $2 million seed round. The team stated that this funding will accelerate Kodiak’s expansion and continue developing native Berachain trading products.
Decentralized derivatives trading platform BBO Exchange (BBOX) completed a $2.7 million Pre-Seed round co-led by Hashed and Arrington Capital, with participation from Consensys, CMS Holdings, Flow Traders, Manifold Trading, Mask Network, Laser Digital (Nomura Group), Arcane Group, Draper Dragon, Vessel Capital, Aulis Venture, Formless Capital, Press Start Capital, and One Piece Labs. BBOX is also one of 12 projects in Batch 6 of the Binance Labs Incubation Program. BBOX has now opened testnet registration, available via BBOX Twitter or official website.
Binance Labs has invested in Ethereum liquid staking protocol Puffer Finance. Built on EigenLayer, Puffer Finance has been backed by prominent investors including Brevan Howard Digital, Jump Crypto, and Lightspeed Faction. Funds will support development of Puffer’s open-source technologies, nLRP, and new Active Validation Services (AVS), part of Puffer’s verticalized infrastructure including Layer 2 (L2). Puffer will bring its native liquid restaking token (nLRT) to BNB Chain users to access Ethereum PoS and restaking rewards.
Open smart contract-based financial strategy tool Doubler Pro announced completion of its seed round led by Youbi Capital, with participation from Bixin Ventures, Mask Network, Comma3VC, Pivotlabs, Continue Fund, Sanyuan Capital, Waterdrip Fund, DWF Ventures, Gate Labs, Formless Capital, MTCapital US, and Catcher VC. Specific amount undisclosed. Doubler Pro also announced launch of its testnet and integration with Blast L2. New funds will accelerate development and improve user experience.
Sui’s first native all-in-one liquidity protocol NAVI Protocol raised $2 million to expand its innovative integrated lending, borrowing, and LSDeFi platform. Funding was co-led by OKX Ventures, dao5, and Hashed, with participation from Mysten Labs, Comma3 Ventures, Mechanism Capital, GeekCartel Capital, Nomad Capital, Coin98 Ventures, Cetus Protocol, Maverick, Viabtc, Assembly Partners, Gate.io, Hailstone Labs, Benqi, and LBank Labs.
Decentralized perpetual contracts protocol Zeepr Labs announced on X completion of a funding round led by Celestia ecosystem incubator Cincubator. Amount undisclosed, post-money valuation at $150 million. Zeepr is a decentralized perpetual contracts protocol supporting both coin-margined and USD-margined positions, aiming to deliver a slip-free, funding-fee-free on-chain trading experience.
Composable options protocol Ithaca Finance ("Ithaca") announced completion of a $2.5 million pre-seed round co-led by Cumberland and Wintermute Ventures. Other participants include Room40 Ventures, Ghaf Capital Partners, and angel investors Andrew Keys (co-founder of DARMA Capital), Stan Miroshnik (executive partner at TenSquared Capital), and Georgios Vlachos (co-founder of Axelar). Ithaca Finance has launched on Arbitrum testnet and will invite select users to mainnet ahead of full public launch later this quarter.
Cross-chain trading and liquidity routing protocol Squid announced completion of a $4 million strategic round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from Nomad Capital, North Island Ventures, Maelstrom, Chorus One, XYZ, Breed, Binary Builders, and Typhon Ventures. Funds will accelerate development of complex transaction bundling and more efficient asset routing. The team is also integrating with additional interoperability networks and plans to expand Squid into ecosystems beyond Ethereum and Cosmos.
DeFi project Nibiru Chain announced completion of a strategic round with participation from Oddiyana Ventures. Specific amount undisclosed. Nibiru Chain previously raised $8.5 million in a seed round at a $100 million valuation last year, led by Tribe Capital, Republic Capital, NGC Ventures, and Original Capital.
Cryptocurrency trading startup Velar said Thursday it raised $3.5 million in venture funding to build a suite of decentralized finance (DeFi) tools for Bitcoin’s emerging DeFi landscape. CEO Mithil Thakore said Velar plans to launch the first perpetual swaps exchange leveraging the Bitcoin network.
DePIN
DePIN provider Hivello announced completion of a $1.5 million new funding round, with participation from Blockchange, Cypher Capital, MH Ventures, Primal Capital, Contango Digital Assets, Candaq, NGC, Blockchain Founders Fund, and IDG. Combined with a previous $1 million raise in December 2023, the company has now raised $2.5 million total. The company plans to use the new funding to expand technical capabilities, accelerate product development, and strengthen its market position in DePIN.
AI
Web3 AI data infrastructure PublicAI completed a $2 million seed round, with participation from IOBC Capital, Foresight Ventures, Solana Foundation, Everstate Capital, and several renowned AI academics and professors. Proceeds will accelerate the launch and commercialization of its training network. PublicAI aims to use blockchain to scale production of high-quality training data to solve AI’s fundamental challenges and enable humanity to co-build and share benefits from AI.
Web3 infrastructure protocol focused on AI, KIP Protocol, completed a strategic round led by Animoca Ventures, with participation from B.Army (Vietnam), CSP DAO (EMEA), MQdao, Spicy Capital (LatAm), Skyvision Capital (Hong Kong), and Purechain Capital (UK). KIP Protocol is a decentralized base layer for AI models, apps, and data owners to securely transact and monetize in Web3. KIP enables valuable knowledge and data to be protected and monetized as knowledge assets, ensuring ownership retention during AI interactions.
Decentralized cloud computing provider Exabits.ai announced completion of its seed round, with participation from Protocol Labs, Outlier Ventures, Jabre Capital Partners, Valkyrie Fund, Big Brain Holdings, Blockchain Builders Fund, Taisu Ventures, Fortified Ventures, LBank Labs, Paramita Capital, Moonhill Capital, IoTeX, and 1nvest. Specific amount undisclosed. Exabits.ai also received support from Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, Harvard Innovation Labs, OV Base Camp, Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator, and Google Cloud.
Layer 1
Zero-knowledge proof blockchain project Gevulot completed a $6 million seed round led by Variant, with participation from RockawayX, Volt Capital, Stake Facilities, and individual investors including Marc Boiron (CEO of Polygon Labs) and Shumo Chu (founder of Manta Network). Gevulot did not disclose its valuation. Funds will be used to launch its Layer 1 blockchain, enabling developers to leverage ZK proofs and delegate compute tasks to a network of advanced hardware operators.
Cosmos ecosystem liquid staking protocol Stride announced on X completion of a $4 million strategic round led by DBA, with participation from 1confirmation, Road Capital, Modular Capital, Imperator, and Chorus One. This funding aims to drive Stride’s development within the Celestia ecosystem. Stride stated it will distribute 5 million STRD tokens (5% of max supply) as airdrops to users holding stTIA over the next 150 days.
RWA
RWA ecosystem TProtocol announced completion of an angel round with participation from Summer Capital, Matrixport Venture, Spark Digital Capital, among others. Amount undisclosed. New funds will drive TProtocol’s development into a comprehensive blockchain RWA aggregator. TProtocol aims to empower RWA issuers to achieve on-chain, cross-chain, and asset listing capabilities within its platform.
GameFi
Developer of “Solana Hunger Games” GG announced strategic investment from Delphi Digital to build an on-chain game blending augmented reality and SocialFi.
Web3 social game developer Forgotten Playland announced completion of a $7 million raise, with participation from Merit Circle, Spartan Group, C2 Ventures & Paper Ventures. Their eponymous game was showcased during a Merit Circle DAO community event last May, with official release expected in Q1 this year.
Gaming platform Yooldo announced completion of a $1.5 million raise at a $13 million valuation, with participation from Bedrock Ventures, Double jump.tokyo, Edimus, Hyperithm, Klaytn Foundation, Manta Network, Neopin, Planetarium, Presto Labs, and Vista Labs. Grant sponsors include Aptos Foundation, BNB Chain, Immutable X, and Oasys. New funds will improve technology, onboard more games, and grow its community. Yooldo has been accepted into both Consensys Scale Program and Google for Startups Program.
RPG NFT game Pixelmon announced completion of an $8 million seed round, with participation from Animoca Brands, Delphi Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Amber Group, 9GAG founder Ray Chan, and Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson. The team plans to use the funds to advance development of its casual and mid-core game portfolio. Pixelmon is currently building four games: Arena (PvP survival arena), Hunting Grounds (open-world RPG), Kevin the Adventurer (casual), and PixelPals (casual). Beyond games, Pixelmon also plans to expand its IP through merchandise, trading card games (TCG), animated series, and comic books.
Web3 gaming company Saltwater completed a $5.5 million seed round led by crypto investment firms Deus X and Fourth Revolution Capital (4RC). Saltwater plans to use the funds to hire more staff, invest in new technologies, and expand into new areas. This funding follows Saltwater’s acquisition of game studios Maze Theory, Nexus Labs, and Quantum Interactive, known for titles like "Doctor Who" and "Peaky Blinders."
Gamified social platform SoulLand announced on X completion of funding, with participation from Foresight Ventures, Redline DAO, Zonff Partners, MEXC, Mandala Ventures Limited, Stratified Capital, Basics Capital, and Onemax Capital. SoulLand is a gamified social subscription platform with over 500,000 registered users globally and over 35,000 daily active users.
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Bitcoin L2 stablecoin infrastructure Bmaker announced completion of a $1.2 million Pre-Seed round, with participation from C3u Capital, Tangle Capital, Droplet Capital. Bmaker, modeled after MakerDAO, aims to provide greater liquidity for the BTC ecosystem. The project plans to conduct a multi-chain IDO on February 2.
Bitcoin-based cross-chain DEX project Portal secured $34 million in seed funding from Coinbase Ventures, Arrington Capital, OKX Ventures, and Gate.io. This latest funding follows an $8.5 million angel round in September 2021. New funds will develop two flagship products: a decentralized exchange and a non-custodial crypto wallet.
RGB protocol infrastructure Bitlight Labs announced on X completion of a seed round led by Gate Ventures and HV Capital, with participation from MH Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Oak Grove Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, and others. Bitlight Labs expects to launch on Bitcoin mainnet and Lightning Network in weeks, issuing BIT tokens based on RGB20 standard across its entire app ecosystem to foster a sustainable token economy. By introducing tokens, Bitlight Labs aims to build a Turing-complete native Bitcoin asset issuance and decentralized finance (DeFi) system using RGB smart contracts, advancing the Lightning Network ecosystem. Season 1 BIT token airdrop is imminent.
Bitcoin ecosystem composable DID protocol BRC-137 announced completion of a $2.5 million seed round with participation from Basics Capital, DFG, Gate Labs, JSquare, and others. Funds will accelerate protocol development and ecosystem growth to realize a native social universe on Bitcoin. BRC-137 aims to enhance asset liquidity and build a richer DID ecosystem by introducing composable prefixes and suffixes. The protocol also introduces royalty mechanisms to promote innovation in on-chain social models.
Infrastructure
Cross-chain domain service Clusters announced completion of a $9 million seed round, with participation from Variant, Collab+Currency, Arrington Capital, Mask Network, and Electric Capital. The platform is developed by Delegate Labs and powered by LayerZero.
CeFi and Others
Crypto payment company Mesh received a $6.5 million investment from PayPal Ventures, including $5 million in PYUSD transferred on-chain using Mesh API.
Generative NFT art platform Art Blocks announced the acquisition of digital art marketplace Sansa. Integrating Sansa’s secondary market and collector experience into Art Blocks will help build a stronger ecosystem to fulfill its vision of serving creators and collectors. Sansa will continue operating as an independent application.
Jubi trading platform Jubi has been fully acquired by Exor Digital Holdings Limited and officially rebranded as Joy Universe Digital Asset Exchange, abbreviated as JU Digital Asset Exchange.
Hybrid cryptocurrency exchange platform Cube.Exchange, integrating traditional finance and blockchain technology, completed a $12 million Series A round led by 6th Man Ventures, with participation from GSR Markets, ParaFi Digital, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, and Everstake Capital. Sources indicate the round includes equity with token warrants, resulting in a post-money equity valuation of $100 million. Funds will expand cross-functional teams and pursue licensing in additional jurisdictions. Cube is currently in early access mode, with public launch expected in the coming months. Cube CEO Bartosz Lipinski stated the company plans to continue offering reward pools with listed tokens and has no immediate plans to issue its own token.
Dan Tapiero-led growth equity firm 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners (1RT) have "partially" acquired crypto custody infrastructure provider Qredo. The deal was conducted via UK-based new entity Fusion Laboratories. Most of Qredo’s assets have now been acquired, with remaining operations entering administration. As part of the deal, 10T and 1RT will focus Qredo’s business through Fusion Labs on Fusionchain, and QRDO tokens will migrate to the Cosmos ecosystem upon Fusionchain’s launch.
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