State of Play: Web3 Fundraising in H1 24 💰
Trends: AI x Crypto convergence, gaming as an entry point & focus on early stage.
Hey, it’s Marc. ✌️
Today, we'll dive into the state of fundraising with data-driven insights. This will help you navigate the space with confidence.
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The first half of 2024 has seen a noticeable uptick in investor confidence within the Web3 space. Investors are prioritizing AI, blockchain infrastructure, and mainstream-friendly platforms, signaling a shift towards more integrated, secure, and user-centric Web3 ecosystems.
4 Key highlights:
AI is the new trend: The largest rounds went to AI cloud infrastructure company CoreWeave, which raised $7.5B in debt financing and $1.1B in Series B, followed by another AI startup, Mistral AI, which raised $640M to build foundational models to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3 and Meta’s Llama 3.
Gaming as entry-point: 135 rounds were closed in GameFi with a $505.31M investment, led by Animoca Brands (26 deals) and The Spartan Group (18 deals). Blockchain Gaming Parallel's $35M raise for their sci-fi NFT card game hints at growing mainstream interest in blockchain gaming.
Early-stage and seed financing: Seed and early-stage financings remain active, with companies like Monad Labs and Farcaster attracting substantial investments. In the first half of 2024, 385 rounds were closed across pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, totaling $2.58B in investment.
AI and crypto convergence: AI and Web3 convergence is becoming a key area of interest, as seen in investments in companies like Sentient and Auradine. Other funded projects like HeyGen and Captions, focused on incorporating AI into consumer-facing applications.
Notable Rounds
Here’s a list of the most notable rounds in H1, sorted by funding amount:
Consumer-Centric:
Farcaster: Decentralized social protocol closed Series A lead by Paradigm with $150M. Link
Polymarket: Prediction market platform raised $70M from big VCs, including Peter Thiel & Vitalik. Link
Igloo Inc.: Pudgy Penguins’ parent company raised $11M led by Founders Fund. Link
Gaming:
Volley: AI-powered game developer has raised $55M Series C funding. Link
Parallel: Secured $35M Funding for Sci-Fi NFT Card Game. Link
AI:
CoreWeave: The cloud AI startup raised $8.6B in May under debt financing ($7.5B) and Series B ($1.1B), led by Blackstone, Coatue and BlackRock. Link
Sentient: AI startup bagged $85M co-led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital. Link
PerplexityAI: The “Google killer” announced a $73.6M Series B with a 520M valuation, led by IVP with Jeff Bezos participating. Link
HeyGen: AI company announced a new $60M Series A funding. Link
Captions: AI company raised $60M in a Series C funding round. Link
Atropos Health, raised $33M in a Series B funding round, to accelerate pharmaceutical R&D with AI. Link
Blockchain & Infrastructure:
Iris Energy: Bitcoin mining firm raised $413M to scale up 30 EH/s in hash rate capacity and 510 MW in data center capacities. Link
Monad Labs: The blockchain development company led by Paradigm raised $225M. Link
Hut8: Infrastructure company secured $150M funding and plans to venture into AI. Link
Auradine: The Santa Clara-based provider of Bitcoin mining and Al hardware raised $80M from several investors, including Mayfield Fund, MVP Ventures, and Maverick. Link
Sophon: Entertainment-based blockchain raised $60M in a ‘node sale,’ where the longer investors wait, the more they pay. Link
Succinct: Raised $55M in seed and series A rounds led by Paradigm. Link
IoTeX: The modular infrastructure for DePIN projects raised $50M. Link
Twelve Labs Inc: Nvidia co-led a $50M round for an AI startup focused on video search. Link
Solana: Second phase crosses 100,000 presales, securing $45M for development. Link
Movement Labs: Closed $38M series A round led by Polychain Capital. Link
Conduit: Web3 compute company raised $37M Series A led by Paradigm and Haun Ventures. Link
Humanity Protocol: Identity platform utilizing biometrics raised $30M in seed funding led by Kingsway Capital, achieving unicorn status despite being less than a year old.
Taiko: Ethereum L2 raises $15M Series A, bringing total investment to $37M. Link
IO Research: Solana-based DePIN developer raised $30M Series A with a token valuation of $1B. Link
DeFi
Eigenlayer: The Ethereum restaking protocol raised $100M from a16z. Link
Berachain: Layer 1 blockchain raised $100M Series B funding with Framework Ventures & Abu Dhabi’s Brevan Howard Digital co-leading. Link
Babylon: Bitcoin staking project raised $70M led by Paradigm. Link
Figure Technologies: Fintech company raised $60M to build large, novel decentralized exchange. Link
CeFi
HashKey Group: The Hong Kong crypto exchange's new unicorn with a $1.2B valuation after a $100M raise. Link
Colendi: Closed Series A with $65M funding from Citi, Re-Pie Asset Management, and Finberg. Link
Partior: Fintech startup raised $60M Series B, led by Peak XV Partners. Link
Securitize: Tokenization firm raised $47M led by BlackRock. Link
Other Web3:
Flowdesk: Digital asset trading technology firm, announced its $50M Series B, led by Cathay Innovation. Link
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Notable funds & other investments:
Pantera Capital targets a $1B fund to fuel AI and blockchain innovation. Link
Paradigm announced a raise of a third venture fund with $850M for "early-stage crypto companies". Link
Polygon launched a $720M grants program. Link
Publicis Groupe: World’s 2nd largest comms group makes $300M investment into AI. Link
Galaxy Asset Management, which announced it closed $113 million for a new venture capital fund. Galaxy Ventures Fund will focus on early-stage crypto companies. Link
Kasikornbank: The bank launched a $100m fund to boost AI and Web3 startups. Link
Immutable and Polygon partnered with VC firm King River Capital to launch the $100M ‘Inevitable Games Fund’. Link
Anthropic and Menlo Ventures have launched a $100M ‘Anthology fund’ to support early-stage AI startups. Link
RW3 Ventures launched a $60M early-stage venture fund focused on Web3. Link
Marc Andreessen granted $50K to Truth Terminal, an AI agent on X, for upgrades and projects after it personally requested funding. Link
Benchmark: Venture firm is raising $425M Eleventh fund. Link
Polygon: The Community Grants Program has allocated 35M MATIC to support builders, teams, and creators driving growth and innovation in the Polygon ecosystem. Link
Paper Ventures: Blockchain VC fund launched with a $25M fund to invest in early-stage Web3 + blockchain startups.
The most notable VC funds in H1 2024
Paradigm is reported to be looking to raise roughly $750M to seed a new fund. Link
OKX Ventures: The venture firm has evolved as a leading investor in categories like DeFi, blockchain, and infrastructure with 58 deals in H1 2024 out of 186 total investments.
Bracebridge: Capital firm invests $363M in Bitcoin ETFs, including ARKB, IBIT, and GBTC as institutions continue to increase BTC ETF investments.
Animoca Ventures: Animoca Ventures, the venture arm of Animoca Brands, closed 60 deals in H1 2024. It contributed $6M to Animoca's total bookings in Q1 2024, as part of the company's Investment Management category, which includes realized gains from digital asset investments and fees.
Founder’s Fund: The global venture capital firm made a total of 897 investments across its various funds. It has raised several multi-billion dollar funds, including a $1.9B Founders Fund VIII and a $3.4B Founders Growth Fund.
Notable Angels
Dingaling and Sandeep Nailwal have closed 21 deals each in H1 2024, followed by DCF God (17 deals), Santiago (13 deals), Balaji (12 deals), and others.
So what?
The first half of 2024 showcased VCs' focus on AI, blockchain services, blockchain infrastructure, gaming, and consumer-centric applications. The convergence of AI and Web3 is particularly notable, with significant investments. The continued flow of capital into blockchain AI projects underscores consumer engagement with emerging technologies and a shift in digital experiences.
That’s all for now, folks.