Crypto Fundraising Grows, But Investors Are More Cautious
The crypto fundraising landscape saw a significant increase in volume in July. According to data from Messari, month-over-month deal volume rose 72.9 percent to $1.44 billion, although the deal count fell slightly to 177, with venture firms Pantera Capital and Mirana Ventures behind the early-stage investments.
However, the growth comes with increasing caution among venture capitalists. According to Adam Cochran of CinemaHine Ventures, limited partners (LPs) primarily interested in outperforming index fund returns are finding a better risk-reward ratio in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) holdings than early-stage startups.
LPs are very concerned about returns. A recent study by law firm Barnes & Torberg found that investors are now focused on liquidity and better income, and many are looking for more favorable financing terms.
This edition of Cointelegraph's VC Roundup examines some of the startups that raised capital in the first few weeks of August, with Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) among the highlights.
Parfin closes $10 million in Serie A financing
Digital asset infrastructure provider Parfin has announced that it has completed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Parfin Capital. Other investors in the round include Framework Ventures, L4 Venture Builder and Núclea.
According to the startup, the total amount is expected to reach $16 million by the end of the second closing. Parfin will use the funds to expand its operations in Asia, Latin America and Europe and to develop its enterprise level blockchain Rayls – an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) approved and integrated blockchain system for institutional clients.
So far, the company has funded 38 million dollars. Among its clients are B3 Digitas, Brazilian Stock Exchange Digital Asset and Banco BV.
Andrea has raised $18 million to provide decentralized wireless internet
Wireless Internet service provider Andrea DAWN has received $18 million in funding to launch a decentralized, autonomous wireless network. The investment was led by Dragofly, along with CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermutt Ventures, 6th Person Ventures, Parafi and other investors.
According to the startup, DAWN offers decentralized broadband with multi-gigabit wireless technology, allowing individual homes to act as network hosts on their own Internet infrastructure. The protocol uses location and frequency authentication to achieve trustless consensus.
Andreana currently provides Internet access in 10 states in the United States and recently launched the Backhaul Validator Chrome Extension, which allows users to participate globally as a validator node and test DAWN operator's network speed.
According to the company, participants earn rewards for staying connected, referring friends and participating as verifiers on the network.
Blockscout guarantees a $3 million seed round for data exploration on EVM chains
Open source blockchain explorer BlockScout has closed a $3 million seed round led by 1kx, with other investors including Primitive Ventures and Gnosis, as well as angels including Ivan van Ness, Alex Svanević, Karthik Talwar, Anton Bukov and Stefan George.
The platform offers an open source block browser designed specifically for EVM networks, thus allowing users to view more information about blockchain transactions, blocks, addresses and other onchain data.
The funding will be used to improve the startup's product suite, improve user experience and expand its Explorer-as-a-Service (EaaS) offering. BlockScout is said to support over 600 networks: an open source alternative to self-hosting and a hosted browser service. The client portfolio includes protocols such as Conduit, AltLayer, Gelato, Chainstack, Astria, Arbitrum, Filecoin, OP, Base and Immutable.
BITKRAFT Ventures Leads $7.5 Million Series A Funding for Cartridge OnChain Games
Game developer Cartridge has secured $7.5 million in Series A funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with additional participation from Textile, Dune, Starkware, Primitive and Ergodic.
The funding will support the recently launched Dojo 1.0, an open source framework and support for developers making blockchain-based games. According to the startup, Dojo simplifies the development and deployment of onchain virtual worlds, speeding up development time.
The company is behind a package-as-a-service designed for onchain games called Slots and Controllers.
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