AI-blockchain solutions win the hearts of investors

The first quarter of 2024 is coming to an end with signs of improved sentiment around cryptocurrencies, with the launch of a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) in January.

Favorable market volatility can boost venture capital investment after a long winter. In the year In 2023, venture capital companies in crypto and blockchain raised $5.75 billion in 58 funds, with a record year of $37.7 billion in 262 funds in 2022, according to Galaxy Digital.

The first signs of recovery came in the last quarter of 2023, when venture capital reached $1.9 billion, up 2.5% from the previous quarter.

Attracting investors is a growing development of solutions combining artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, as well as products that join institutional investors into the crypto space.

Cointelegraph's VC Roundup highlights the startups that raised capital in the first few weeks of March.

Utila has secured $11.5M in seed funding for Institutional Wallet

Enterprise-focused wallet provider Utila has raised $11.5 million in seed funding from NFX, Wing VC and Framework Ventures, along with angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Charlie Songhurst and Surojit Chatterjee. The startup offers a self-sustaining wallet platform for institutional investors in various chains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. In the past six months, more than $3 billion has been traded on the platform, Utila says. Among the startup's clients are hedge funds, OTC desks, market makers, brokers and token issuers. Other investors in the company include Fansanara Digital Ventures, North Island Ventures, Republic Capital, Liquid2, Inspired Capital, Lyrik Ventures, DCG Expeditions, Launchpad Capital and Shima Capita, among others.

Synnax raises $1M in pre-seed funding for Credit Intelligence for Digital Assets.

Synnax, a credit information platform focused on rating standards in the digital asset industry, has received $1 million in pre-seed funding. The funding round was led by No Limit Holdings. The capital injection is aimed at developing the Synax platform, which will facilitate the transition from the traditional private credit market to blockchain technology to establish an unbiased credit rating system. The Dubai-based startup is using decentralized artificial intelligence models to address weaknesses in current credit rating systems, such as transparency and bias. The round was backed by global investors Edessa Capital, Kenetic Capital, Bitscale, Ryze Capital, MH Ventures, Hex Trust, Moonvault, GameFi Ventures, Typhon Ventures, Ausvic Capital, Drops Ventures and Everstake Ventures.

HexTrust is proud to support @SynnaxTech, a pioneer in AI-based credit ratings for the digital asset industry, in a $1m pre-seed round.

Synax's innovative approach is transforming the credit markets transparently and efficiently.

Learn more: https://t.co/CduxTdd719

— Hex Trust (@Hex_Trust) March 7, 2024

Sahara decentralized AI network has raised $6 million seed round

Sahara raised $6 million in seed funding led by Polygon Capital and Samsung Next, Matrix Partners, Motherson Group, dao5, Geekcartel and Canonical Crypto, among others, including Polygon's Sandeep Nilwal as an angel investor. A startup focused on developing a decentralized AI network that facilitates the creation of autonomous Knowledge Agents (KAs) that autonomously analyze external and internal proprietary data. It also provides privacy and security-focused AI model training data services. The funding will support the development of additional Sahara ecosystem components such as Sahara Vault, Sahara ID and Sahara Network, said the startup, which is led by University of Southern California professor Sean Ren and former investment director of Binance Labs, Tyler Zhou. .

Ton Foundation receives $8 million in support from Mirana Ventures

In 2019, Mirana Ventures bought $8 million worth of Toncoin, the native Open Network (TON) founded by Telegram Group. The investment is part of a partnership between Ton Foundation, Baybit and Mantle Network. Bybit is incorporating Toncoin into its offerings, including rewards for stock and cashback. The initiative generated more than $22 million in business transactions, according to the Ton Foundation. Meanwhile, TonSpace, Telegram's self-secure wallet, is connecting its users to the Mantle network by integrating Ton-based MNT tokens. The money will be used to support the development of the community and projects. Telegram has over 900 million monthly active users.

UXLINK Closes $10M Funding Round for Web3 Social Media.

Web3 social platform UXLINK has received nearly $10 million in funding from multiple investors including OKX Ventures, Web3Port Foundation and others in North America, Asia and the Middle East. UXLINK is a new social networking platform. Unlike traditional social media that focuses on one-way interactions, such as following someone with no mutual connection, UXLINK emphasizes two-way, friendship-like relationships. Some of its features include a social decentralized exchange for trading digital assets and a reward module for users who participate and contribute to the platform. According to UXLINK, more than 3.5 million verified users and 75,000 decentralized groups have joined the service since its launch in April 2023.

TEN raised $9m from bank consortium R3

Ethereum Layer 2 network TEN has received additional support of $9 million in a funding round led by banking consortium R3 from Republic Crypto, KuCoin Labs, Big Brain Capital, DWF Labs and Magnus Capital. The platform, developed by Obscuro Labs, combines Optimistic Scrolls and Zero Knowledge Scrolls to provide developers with layer 2 encryption. The team is working on customizable privacy levels in smart contracts that will allow developers to choose which parts of a smart contract to make private and which parts to make public. TEN, currently on the testnet, is set to roll out on the mainnet in October, featuring programmable encryption, fast bridges and random number generation.