Private labels, tokens and healthcare infrastructure are attracting investors’ attention

Blockchain-based startups continue to raise funding in the current bear market, with MetaMask partner Blockaid raising $33 million in October. However, overall funding in the crypto industry has dropped to levels seen at the end of 2020, raising $2.1 billion over 297 deals in the third quarter of 2023. As is often the case in bear markets, investors are looking closely at projects and looking for tangible applications before investing.

As part of its October highlights, the journal Nature Science discussed the application of blockchain technology, praising the potential of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to support unfunded scientific research. Cointelegraph's venture capital (VC) roundup shows the projects that raised capital in October.

Untangled Finance Completes $13.5M Funding to Bring Personal Credit on Chain

London-based fintech Untangled Finance has raised $13.5 million to accelerate efforts to bring institutional-grade lending through an on-chain verification system. Fasanara Capital was the lead investor in the competition. The platform's protocol focuses on introducing real-world personal credit assets, such as receivables and microfinance loans, into a chain of credit pools. These pools, in turn, facilitate the issuance of collateralized debt notes to both DeFi and TradeFi investors, Untangled said in a statement. The protocol focuses on credit markets, which is very useful for DeFi. Through its funds, Untangled plans to acquire more than 130 certified asset developers spanning 60 countries.

Mata raises $6M seed round for personal accounts on Ethereum

Nocturne, a protocol that enables on-chain personal accounts, has announced a $6 million seed fund led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, along with Vitalik Buterin and other members of the Ethereum community. Other investors include Bankless Ventures, HackVC and Robot Ventures. In the coming weeks, the company plans to launch on the mainnet. Nocturne provides a solution that combines hidden addresses, zero-knowledge proofs, and account abstraction to enable private accounts on public blockchains. The seed round accelerates production and deployment of the Nocturne protocol across multiple ecosystems. A portion of the round will go toward legal work as the team continues to adapt to changing regulatory requirements.

1/ Excited to participate in the $6M seed round led by @BainCapCrypto & @polychain with @VitalikButerin and other members of the Ethereum community.

This round will fund the deployment and continuation of private accounts on Ethereum. pic.twitter.com/ve25yJp6iI

— Nocturne (@nocturne_xyz) October 25, 2023

Account Labs has received $7.7 million in funding for its UniPass Wallet app

Web3 wallet provider Account Labs has announced a $7.7 million round of funding with lead investors Amber Group, MicMarvel Dao Ventures and Qiming Ventures among other participants. This announcement coincides with the launch of the company's first consumer-facing app, Unipass Wallet, on Polygon. According to Account Labs, the UniPass Wallet app uses account draft to allow users to create a self-managed Web3 wallet with just a Google Account and load it with any MasterCard or Visa card. Tag Labs was formed in May 2023 through the merger of hardware wallet developer Keystone and software wallet developer UniPass. The company hopes to address the demand for stablecoin transactions in the Southeast Asian region.

Rymedi invests $9 million to expand blockchain-based healthcare infrastructure.

Rymedi, a blockchain-based healthcare data exchange platform, has announced a $9 million Series A round to expand its reach. The round was led by RW3 Ventures and White Star Capital with participation from Blockchange Ventures, Avalanche's Blizzard Fund and strategic angel investors from the healthcare industry. Rymedi says it serves more than 1 million patients in more than 1,200 locations across the United States, Africa and Australia. The funds will be used to increase information security and healthcare record access for patients. “We're always looking for great teams to use blockchain technology to solve real-world problems in global markets,” Pete Najarian, managing partner of RW3 Ventures, said in a statement.

Fountain has received $2 million in funding for its main network launch

Layer-1 protocol Waterfall Network has raised $2M ahead of the mainnet launch, which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2024. Infrastructure provider Baytrade Labs led the funding. After six months of testing its technology infrastructure, Bittrade Labs has become a key investor and user of the Waterfall Network, according to a statement. The protocol is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and uses a technology called Directed Acyclic Graph, or “DAG”, which allows for unlimited scalability. Waterfall is also working with BlueWave Corporation to develop its smart contract platform.

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