Funding was on par with last week’s levels, with the total amount rising modestly to $224 million from $222 million. Infrastructure deals claimed the lion’s share of deals and amount raised, representing 36% of deals and 71% of total funds raised. The majority was raised via two $70 million deals from Ramp and TRM Labs. Ramp Network is a crypto payments solution looking to make purchasing cryptocurrencies easily available via any website or app. TRM Labs is a blockchain intelligence company allowing companies to analyze blockchain data to help detect illicit or fraudulent activities. CeFi saw a notable uptick in fundraising this week, rising to $36 million, over double the amount raised in either of the past two weeks.
The spread of deal stages was wider than usual, with every category containing at least one deal. Seed deals were still the largest category, capturing 27% of deals, followed by Series A and Strategic deals, each capturing 18% of the deal count.
Deal of The Week:
Sepana, the Web3 search tooling provider, announced they raised a $10 million funding round led by Hack VC and Pitango First. Protocol Labs, Lattice Capital, and Balaji Srinivasan also participated in the raise. Sepana aims to create a search infrastructure enabling the discoverability of Web3 content such as DAOs, NFTs, and decentralized social media. The funds will be used to hire additional blockchain engineers, search experts, and launch products to enable a “search community”. The funding type and valuation were not disclosed.
Why is this the Deal of The Week?
The power of search engines like Google is often taken for granted. Search engines are so ubiquitous that we forget how much impact Google’s algorithms have on what content and websites attract the most traffic online. Currently, there is no Google in Web3, and users are left fending for themselves when looking to explore decentralized applications. Sepana is looking to improve this experience through its search tooling for consumers and future search API, which will allow dApps to integrate into its infrastructure. Through this infrastructure, they hope to make Web3 less siloed, permissionless, and private, while helping dApps connect to users more efficiently. Their long-term vision is to build a decentralized peer-to-peer search protocol with “open source and community-driven” algorithms, according to co-founder Daniel Keyes. Search algorithms revolutionized how the world navigated the internet, and it has the potential to do the same for blockchains.
Selected Deals
Notifi is an infrastructure-based platform focusing on providing Web3 developers with the ability to integrate notification abilities and messaging platforms such as email, SMS, and Telegram within their applications. The platform is currently supported on Ethereum, Near, and Solana. The company has secured $10M in funding through its seed round, co-led by Race Capital and Hashed. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Long Hash Ventures, Wintermute, Protocol Labs, MetaWeb Ventures, and others. Notifi intends to use the capital raised to expand its product onto additional blockchains including Aptos, Avalanche, Polygon, and Sui.
Archax is a CeFi-based platform and exchange based in the United Kingdom. It is currently the only digital asset exchange in the UK with a license from the Financial Conduct Authority. The company has secured $28.5M in funding through its Series A round led by Abrdn. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Blockchain Coinvestors, Bitrock Capital, and the Tezos Foundation.
TRM Labs is an infrastructure-based platform that focuses on helping its users track illegal crypto-related activity and fraud. The platform is able to accomplish this through cross-chain analytics. The company has secured $70M in funding through a Series B Extension round led by Thoma Bravo, bringing total Series B funding to $130M. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Amex Ventures, Citi Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and PayPal Ventures. TRM Labs intends to use the capital raised for workforce expansion and product development.
Ramp Network is an infrastructure-based platform aiming to connect traditional finance and crypto further. The platform plans to accomplish this through its payment product, allowing users to purchase crypto on any website or application. The company has secured $70M in funding through its Series B round, co-led by Korelya Capital and Mubadala Capital. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Cogito Capital and Balderton Capital. Ramp Network intends to use the capital raised for workforce expansion, product development, and adding new payment methods.
Xternity is a Web3-based platform aiming to assist traditional game developers in utilizing Web3 innovations. The platform plans to accomplish this by allowing users to create embedded wallets, custom NFT stores, and loyalty clubs. The company has secured $3.5M in funding through its pre-seed round led by NFX. In addition, the funding round also included investor participation from Flori Ventures, Secret Chord Ventures, vGames, and Jibe Ventures. Xternity intends to use the capital raised for workforce expansion.
