Funding Weekly Report: 34 deals raised approximately $270 million, with AI and Bitcoin ecosystem becoming mainstream
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Funding Weekly Report: 34 deals raised approximately $270 million, with AI and Bitcoin ecosystem becoming mainstream
Between March 25 and March 31, 18 blockchain projects raised over $5 million each.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData, between March 25 and March 31, 34 blockchain startups announced a total of $270.15 million in funding.
Projects that raised over $5 million include:
Modular blockchain sophon raised $10 million;
RWA project Midas raised $8.75 million in seed funding;
Decentralized permissionless platform for AI models and DApps FLock.io raised $6 million in seed funding;
Intent execution network dappOS raised $15.3 million in Series A funding;
NFT card game Parallel announced on X the completion of a $35 million funding round;
Web3 gaming company Elixir Games raised $14 million in seed funding;
BOB, aiming to launch an EVM-compatible Bitcoin Layer 2 network, completed a $10 million seed round;
Cloud infrastructure provider Hive announced the completion of a $13 million Series A round;
Web3-based AI platform for creators MyShell announced $11 million in Pre-A funding;
DePIN Layer 1 project peaq announced $15 million in funding;
Bitcoin Layer 2 infrastructure Bitlayer announced a $5 million seed round;
RPG blockchain game Illuvium announced on X a $12 million Series A round;
DePIN project MetaBlox closed a $5 million funding round at the end of 2023;
Reya Labs, developer of modular L2 Reya Network, raised nearly $10 million;
Gunzilla Games, developer of the video game "Off the Grid", raised $30 million;
Bitcoin DeFi platform ALEX announced a $10 million strategic investment;
0G Labs (formerly Zero Gravity), the first modular AI blockchain project, raised $35 million in pre-seed funding;
Cross-chain decentralized gaming network BlockGames raised $6 million in its latest funding round.
Highlighted Projects
peaq
Overview: peaq is a Web3 network powering Internet of Things (IoT) applications on Polkadot. It enables entrepreneurs and developers to build decentralized applications for vehicles, robots, and devices, while empowering users to manage and earn revenue when connected machines provide goods and services.
Investors: DePIN Layer 1 project peaq announced $15 million in funding co-led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, HV Capital, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands, Moonrock Capital, Fundamental Labs, TRGC, DWF Labs, Crit Ventures, Cogitent Ventures, NGC Ventures, Agnostic Fund, Altana Wealth, and others. The funds will be used to develop peaq’s modular DePIN functionality and SDK, enabling DePIN projects to more efficiently build and deploy their applications on peaq.
Features:
1. The ecosystem comprises over 20 DePIN projects across areas such as multi-chain machine IDs, AI agents, and data validation;
2. peaq is expected to conduct a public sale and token listing in the coming weeks, with its mainnet scheduled to launch in May;
3. At the end of last year, peaq launched the Bosch XDK110 kit in collaboration with Bosch and Fetch.ai, enabling anyone to easily leverage advanced Web3 and AI technologies via small devices to provide valuable data and earn cryptocurrency rewards.
FLock.io
Overview: FLock is a unique platform integrating on-chain decentralized machine learning, offering secure and efficient solutions for fine-tuning and inference of AI models. Leveraging the combined strengths of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, it provides a powerful environment for organizations or individuals handling large datasets.
Investors: Decentralized permissionless platform for AI models and DApps FLock.io raised $6 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Faction and Tagus Capital, with participation from DCG, OKX Ventures, and Volt Capital.
Features:
1. Core products include: an AI co-creation platform (using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) technologies to realize economic value of data sovereignty and enable shared AI development), FLock SDK (a powerful Python-based software development kit for building machine learning applications, open-source architecture using federated learning + blockchain), and FLock client.
2. FLock.io not only encourages public participation in contributing to and fine-tuning AI models but also aims to break the monopoly of large corporations on AI innovation, making AI tools more accessible and diverse.
3. An early-bird campaign for data contributors is currently live—double points until April 3, 1.5x points from April 4 to April 18. Points exceeding standard thresholds will be distributed after the event concludes.
MyShell
Overview: MyShell is a decentralized AI consumer layer allowing creators to build AI agents or bots for user interaction. Its ecosystem includes bots like OpenVoice (an instant voice cloning program), MeloTTS (a multilingual text-to-speech library), and Alice—an AI agent capable of performing various tasks including topic research, coding, and literature reviews.
Investors: Web3-based AI platform for creators MyShell announced $11 million in Pre-A funding led by Dragonfly, with participation from Delphi Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Maven11 Capital, Nascent, Nomad Capital, OKX Ventures, and others. Angel investors in this round include former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, former Paradigm investment partner Casey Caruso, and former Parafi partner Santiago Santos.
Features:
1. MyShell currently offers points and plans to introduce token rewards for creators and consumers. Creators will earn tokens when their AI agents gain attention, while consumers can stake tokens on AI agents to generate revenue.
2. MyShell currently operates on Polygon and opBNB but plans to launch its own custom Layer 2 later this year.
3. MyShell is committed to building a new ecosystem featuring an open, compatible development platform that allows creators to easily call different models and external APIs. Additionally, the platform provides an app store to help creators publish and manage AI applications, with a fair reward distribution mechanism ensuring contributors within the ecosystem are fairly compensated.
Funding details by sector:
Bitcoin Ecosystem
BTC Layer 2 project BEVM announced completion of its seed round and partial Series A funding totaling tens of millions of dollars, with participation from nearly 20 institutions including RockTree Capital, Waterdrip Capital, Arkstream Capital, ViaBTC Capital, Satoshi Lab, Web3port, Cogitent Ventures, MH Ventures, Mapleblock, Electrum Capital, Zephyrus Capital, Lotus Capital, 7UPDAO, and TimeTells. Post-funding valuation stands at $200 million. BEVM is set to launch its mainnet on March 28.
Bitcoin Layer 2 infrastructure Bitlayer announced a $5 million seed round co-led by Framework Ventures and ABCDE Capital. Dozens of institutions participated, including StarkWare, OKX Ventures, Alliance DAO, UTXO Management, Asymmetric Capital, Kenetic Capital, Pivot Global, Web3Port, Mindfulness Capital, C6E Capital, PAKA, Comma3 Capital, and Kronos Ventures. Notable Web3 founders and angel investors such as Bitcoin OG & KOL Dan Held, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis, and co-founder Dan McArdle also joined. Bitlayer plans to launch its mainnet on April 5 and roll out an ecosystem incentive program called Ready Player One.
Bitcoin lightning network company Neutronpay secured a $1.5 million bridge round led by Axiom Capital. This investment aims to help Neutronpay bring instant, cost-effective payment solutions powered by Bitcoin to Southeast Asia's digital economy.
Bitcoin infrastructure platform OrdinalsBot announced a $3 million seed round, bringing its total funding to over $4.5 million. The round was led by DACM, with participation from Eden Block, Nural Capital, WWVentures, Lightning Ventures, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Oak Grove Ventures, UTXO Management, Kenetic Capital, CMS Holdings, Kestrel0x1, Sora Ventures, London Real Ventures, Crypto Zombie, and MDX. Funds will be used to expand infrastructure, including hiring and launching an Ordinals inscription marketplace.
BOB, aiming to launch an EVM-compatible Bitcoin Layer 2 network, completed a $10 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Mechanism Ventures, Bankless Ventures, CMS Ventures, UTXO Management, and DFG. BOB aims to become the first Bitcoin Layer 2 compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM); the name BOB stands for “Build on Bitcoin”.
Bitcoin Layer 2 network Taproot Chain announced on X a new round of several million dollars in funding. The round was led by Negentropy Capital, with participation from Digital Pacific Holding, Bitvalue Capital, Hussein Family Office, and Wall Street investment banker Patrick Bominton.
Satoshi Protocol, the first CDP stablecoin protocol in the BEVM ecosystem, has completed its seed round co-led by Web3Port Foundation and Waterdrip Capital, with participation from BEVM Foundation, Cogitent Venture, Statoshi Lab, GP of MH Venture/co-founder of BSCnews, Movebit, and Supremacy. Since early March, Satoshi Protocol has been live on the Bitcoin Layer 2 solution BEVM testnet, with over 80,000 addresses minting the genesis NFT and all 25,000 OATs issued during the testnet phase fully distributed. Over 100,000 addresses participated within two weeks, and the protocol is expected to officially launch on mainnet soon.
Bitcoin-native DA layer project Nubit announced on X a $3 million Pre-Seed round with participation from dao5, OKX Ventures, and Primitive Ventures. This funding will support Nubit in building the first Bitcoin-native data availability layer and advancing ecosystem development on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin DeFi platform ALEX announced a $10 million strategic investment led by Spartan Capital, with participation from CMS Holdings, DACM, DWF Labs, Foresight Ventures, G-20 Group, Ouroboros Capital, Summer Capital, Cultur3 Capital, and EVG. According to the company’s website, ALEX has nearly $200 million in total value locked and over $1.3 billion in transaction volume across 52,892 wallets.
DeFi
StakeStone, a liquid staking project in the Manta ecosystem, received investments from Binance Labs and OKX Ventures; specific amounts were not disclosed.
Intent execution network dappOS raised $15.3 million in Series A funding led by Polychain, with participation from Nomad Capital, IDG, Flow Traders, IOBC, NGC, Amber Group, Uphonest, Taihill, Waterdrip, Bing Ventures, Spark Capital, and Metalpha. The company is now valued at $300 million. dappOS is an intent-centric execution network enabling chains and dApps to operate around user intents. It creates a bilateral market converting high-level user intents into on-chain outcomes: on the supply side, service providers post collateral and choose to run one or more execution services; on the demand side, developers can find solutions that fulfill user intents.
Avalanche-based AMM options protocol Arrow Markets raised $4 million in Series A funding, with participation from Framework Ventures, Delphi Ventures, and the Avalanche Blizzard Ecosystem Fund. Arrow Markets’ core innovation lies in its Request-for-Execution (RFE) mechanism, designed to quote options contracts on Avalanche’s C-Chain.
DePIN
DePIN project Meson Network announced a strategic investment and partnership with Summer Venture and Everest Ventures Group (EVG).
DePIN Layer 1 project peaq announced $15 million in funding co-led by Generative Ventures and Borderless Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, HV Capital, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands, Moonrock Capital, Fundamental Labs, TRGC, DWF Labs, Crit Ventures, Cogitent Ventures, NGC Ventures, Agnostic Fund, Altana Wealth, and others. Funds will be used to develop peaq’s modular DePIN functions and SDK, enabling DePIN projects to build and deploy applications more efficiently on peaq. The ecosystem includes over 20 DePIN projects spanning multi-chain machine IDs, AI agents, and data validation. peaq expects to conduct a public sale and token listing in the coming weeks, with mainnet launch planned for May. An incentive program aimed at supporting DePIN development and adoption on peaq—including gamified challenges with participant rewards—is also planned.
Liquidity restaking protocol Unstable raised $2.5 million in seed funding, with participation from Lattice, Laser Digital, Blockchain Founders Fund, Assouline Ventures, Agnostic Fund, Artichoke Capital, Black Edge Capital, NewTribe Capital, NxGen, and several angel investors. Unstable will use the funds to power its pioneering zkOracles, leveraging them to enhance DeFi functionality in the LRTfi market.
DePIN project MetaBlox closed a $5 million funding round at the end of 2023, led by Anagram and Volt Capital, with participation from Comma3 Ventures, ECMC Group, Awesome People Ventures, Stratified Capital, DePIN Labs, Future 3 Campus, IoTeX, ZC Capital, and JDI. Additionally, Synergis and SNZ, who participated in MetaBlox’s angel round, continued their investment in the strategic round. MetaBlox now has over 100,000 global nodes and operates in over 100 countries. The project is set to rebrand soon as Roam, maintaining its mission of advancing global WiFi connectivity and access.
L1
No-code ecosystem GraphLinq announced on X the completion of a strategic funding round with participation from DWF Labs; specific amount undisclosed. DWF Labs will serve as GraphLinq’s primary liquidity provider across various CEXs and DEXs and support OTC trading. New funds will boost GLQ token liquidity, optimize seamless global supply, and deliver tangible benefits to market participants.
Modular
Modular blockchain sophon announced on X a $10 million raise, with participation from Paper Ventures, Maven 11, The Spartan Group, SevenX Ventures, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, and others.
0G Labs (formerly Zero Gravity), the first modular AI blockchain project, raised $35 million in pre-seed funding led by Hack VC, with participation from Alliance, Animoca Brands, Delphi Digital, Stanford Builders Fund, Symbolic Capital, and OKX Ventures.
Reya Labs, developer of modular L2 Reya Network, announced a near-$10 million raise with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute, Fabric Ventures, Framework Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, Amber Group, and Robot Ventures. A liquidity generation event (LGE) and launch of Reya Exchange are expected in the coming weeks.
AI
Web3-based AI platform for creators MyShell announced $11 million in Pre-A funding led by Dragonfly, with participation from Delphi Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Maven11 Capital, Nascent, Nomad Capital, and OKX Ventures. Angel investors include former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, former Paradigm investment partner Casey Caruso, and former Parafi partner Santiago Santos. MyShell currently offers points and plans to introduce token rewards for creators and consumers. Creators earn tokens when their AI agents gain attention, while consumers can stake tokens on agents to generate income. MyShell currently runs on Polygon and opBNB but plans to launch its own custom Layer 2 this year.
Geneva-based cloud infrastructure provider Hive announced a $13 million Series A round led by SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank, with participation from OneRagtime. Hive aims to reshape centralized cloud computing by aggregating unused hard drive space and computing power from personal devices to offer a decentralized alternative.
Decentralized permissionless platform for AI models and DApps FLock.io raised $6 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed Faction and Tagus Capital, with participation from DCG, OKX Ventures, and Volt Capital. FLock.io leverages the synergies between federated learning and blockchain technology to address growing model demands and potential data leakage risks, ensuring secure model training without exposing underlying source data, while providing fair compensation for data contributions and community collaboration.
AI security platform Rug.AI announced a $1.1 million Pre-Seed round led by No Limit Holdings, with participation from Mask Network, Builder Capital, Formless Capital, Prismatic Capital, Roshun Patel, Pentoshi, Avi Felman, MacnBTC, and Andrej Radonjic. Rug.AI aims to create end-to-end on-chain security solutions.
RWA
RWA project Midas raised $8.75 million in seed funding led by BlockTower, Framework, and HV Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Ledger, GSR, Hack VC, Axelar, and FJ Labs.
GameFi
NFT card game Parallel announced on X a $35 million funding round with participation from Solana Ventures, Distributed Global, OSS Capital, VanEck, and Focus Labs.
BloodLoop, a hero shooter game developed by Web3 studio 7 Digital Labs, announced a $4 million seed round with participation from the Avalanche Foundation, Merit Circle, and Citizen Capital. 7 Digital Labs is developing a free-to-play hero shooter game integrated into the Web3 gaming world.
Web3 gaming development platform Mirror World announced the launch of Sonic, a game-focused chain on Solana based on SVM HyperGrid, along with a multi-million-dollar Pre-A round. Mirror World previously raised funds from Galaxy Interactive, Republic Crypto, OKX Ventures, Mirana, and others. Sonic Devnet is expected to go live in April, launching the Sonic Odyssey points rewards program for early participants.
Cross-chain decentralized gaming network BlockGames announced a $6 million new funding round led by Newman Group, 32-Bit Ventures, Cypher Capital, and Sfermion Capital, with participation from Maven Capital, Susquehanna, Aptos, Mapleblock, Cumberland, Based VC, Devmons, Estoty, Aquanow Ventures, Founderheads, 432 VC, Presto Labs, and notable figures including Jiho (co-founder of SkyMavis), Sebastien Borget (co-founder of Sandbox), Brett Beller (former founder of Drizly and legal advisor at Coinbase), and Luke Wagman (founding member of CoinMarketCap). BlockGames is a cross-chain, cross-game, decentralized player network powered by universal player profiles.
Gunzilla Games, developer of the video game "Off the Grid", raised $30 million in funding led by CoinFund and Avalanche Blizzard Fund, with participation from Republic Capital and Morningstar Ventures. "Off the Grid" is a free-to-play battle royale video game set for release on PC, Sony PlayStation, and Microsoft Xbox.
RPG blockchain game Illuvium announced on X a $12 million Series A round with participation from Arrington Capital, King River Capital, Animoca Brands, The Spartan Group, GoldenChain, Arca, Selini Capital, Laser Digital, Polygon Ventures, 32-Bit Ventures, Yield Guild Games, N8.Capital, and First.VIP.
Web3 gaming company Elixir Games raised $14 million in seed funding with participation from gaming giant Square Enix, Shima Capital, and the Solana Foundation. Elixir Games will use the funds to develop its gaming ecosystem, set to launch in Q2 2024, including the rollout of its native $ELIX token. Square Enix is a Japanese video game publisher known for franchises such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts.
Infrastructure & Tools
Account abstraction infrastructure provider Biconomy announced a strategic funding round with participation from Jump Capital, Borderless Capital, Consensys Ventures, Taisu Ventures, Manifold Trading, Side Door Ventures, and Blockchain Founders Fund. Notable angel investors include U.S. entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan and Jordi Alexander, founder of Selini Capital. To date, Biconomy’s account abstraction SDK has served over 4.5 million users, created over 6.1 million UserOps, captured nearly 50% market share in account abstraction transactions, and supported over 1.2 million smart accounts.
CeFi & Others
Farcaster developer Merkle Manufactory is nearing completion of a funding round led by Paradigm, reportedly valuing the company at around $1 billion. Dan Romero, former Coinbase VP and co-founder of Merkle, confirmed on March 29 that the startup is raising funds but did not disclose the amount.
Cryptocurrency investment management firm Borderless Capital announced the acquisition of quantitative trading firm CTF Capital to expand into Latin America and strengthen its technological capabilities, including “AI-driven” investment strategies. CTF Capital’s managed assets will be integrated into Borderless Capital’s flagship hedge fund, which manages $100 million. Borderless Capital currently oversees five venture funds with total assets exceeding $500 million.
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