Boardroom’s latest metaverse VC roundup also includes fundraising updates from Hashflow, a16z, Change, Christie’s, and more.
Venture capital investments in the crypto industry dropped for the first time in the second quarter of 2022, PitchBook data shows. This is no surprise, as the period includes the onset of “crypto winter”, but the market is now on the rise after a strong week of trading activity.
Boardroom’s latest Metaverse VC Roundup indicates that the market may rebound soon enough.
Read up on more of the latest investment deals below regarding firms like Multicoin Capital, Hashflow, Animoca Brands, Optic, and a16z.
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Crypto Funds and Firms
Crypto funds and VC firms are launching new programs to continue infusing the Web3 industry with capital and resources. Here are some of the major moves we’re watching:
- Multicoin Capital announced a third crypto fund worth $430 million. The VC firm reported that a third of the fund has already been invested in crypto companies and that it has plans to deploy the rest by mid-2023.
- Animoca Brands‘ valuation is up to $5.9 billion following a $75 million raise. The NFT gaming and metaverse investor shared plans to use the funds for further investments, acquisitions, and ownership of popular intellectual properties.
- Art and luxury auction company Christie’s launched a venture fund and made its first investment in blockchain startup LayerZero Labs.
- Crypto asset manager Valkyrie is moving into the VC space with the launch of a new subsidiary called Valkyrie Ventures. The new crypto firm is looking to raise a $30 million fund.
- Tribe Capital raised $25 million to launch a crypto incubator program to form partnerships and joint ventures.
- Crypto enthusiasts Anthony Pompliano and Colton Sakamoto raised $12.6 million to launch a crypto hiring and recruitment firm called Inflection Points.
Hashflow
Decentralized crypto exchange Hashflow closed a $25 million Series A. The round included investments from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital Partners, Jump Crypto, Electric Capital, and more. Hashflow wants to use the capital to help create a frictionless crypto trading experience. The company will also expand the product offerings on its platform and scale its engineering and marketing teams.
“Our team is excited about Hashflow’s one-of-a-kind tech and its impressive growth, which has been achieved within a short window and on a lean budget,” said Jump Crypto President Kanav Kariya in an official release. “Hashflow is well-positioned to scale its products and offerings to transform the entire DeFi space.”
After this Series A, the company reports that its valuation is up to $400 million.
Optic
Optic, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to authenticate NFTs, launched out of stealth with $11 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Pantera Capital. Optic will use the capital to hire more engineers and further build out a public application programming interface for Web3 developers. The company also wants to provide tools to NFT creators and collectors aiming to stay as secure as possible in the space.
“People think of authenticity and all sorts of fraud and trust issues in the NFT space as a problem of a single marketplace or a single chain or a single creator or community,” said Optic CEO Andrey Doronichev in a statement. “That’s not true. That’s a systemic ecosystem issue, and it has to be addressed.”
OpenSea, Polygon, and Lattice Capital also participated in the round.
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A16z Investments
Andreessen Horowitz announced this week that it’s moving primarily to a virtual work approach and assembling three new offices in Miami Beach, New York, and Santa Monica to continue fostering a physical presence in bustling business hubs. A16z said in a press release that its headquarters would be in the cloud moving forward while its existing Menlo Park and San Francisco offices remain operational.
The firm definitely has no shortage of business opportunities, and here are just two of its recent investments in the Web3 sector.
- Merkle Manufactory, the developer of a social networking protocol called Farcaster, raised a $30 million investment led by a16z. The new company was founded by former Coinbase executive Dan Romero, and the round included investments from Coinbase Ventures, First Round Capital, Multicoin Capital, and more.
- Morpho Labs, a decentralized lending services protocol, raised $18 million in a round co-led by a16z and Variant. The round included investments from 80 other entities.
More Deals
Here are five more recent funding deals to note since our last roundup:
- Decentralized sports gaming platform company Scorefam secured a $25 million capital commitment from GEM Digital Limited as part of a broader partnership.
- Montreal-based video game studio Bravo Ready raised $3 million in seed financing to accelerate game and software development. The round was backed by Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, Sino Global Capital, and 6th Man Ventures.
- Giving company Change raised $5 million to expand its donation platform efforts to notable blockchain networks. The seed round was co-led by Freestyle and NEA.
- Crypto trading platform Thalex closed a $7.5 million Series A and secured a group of strategic investors to support its plans to “enable on-exchange trading of crypto derivatives at scale by removing friction,” the AP reports.
- MetaOasis DAO closed a $1.5 million seed round co-led by KuCoin Ventures and Windvane. The metaverse project announced the fresh financing on the same day it launched public mint for its Zzoopers NFT collection.
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