VCs Are Placing Bets on Blockchain Technology Startups

Venture dollars continue to flow into cryptocurrency startups, even as markets remain largely muted.

Most notably, Uniswap Labs — the team behind the largest decentralized exchange (DEX), Uniswap — secured $165 million in a Series B round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from other investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant.

This fundraise, which is the largest-ever funding round for a DeFi protocol, brings Uniswap’s total valuation to $1.66 billion, sources familiar with the matter confirmed with Blockworks. 

As Uniswap is not yet profitable, founder Hayden Adams said the company plans to tap the capital influx to expand products in a bid to become financially sustainable.

Crypto custodian Copper, meanwhile, drummed up $196 million as part of its ongoing Series C round. 

The overall funding target for Copper has not been publicly determined. But a spokesperson told Blockworks the company has raised $181 million from new and existing shareholders. It also received a convertible debt-to-equity loan good for $15 million. 

Copper’s latest fundraise was led by Barclays Ventures and Tiger Global Management. The company has previously received backing from Alan Howard, Dawn Capital and Target Global. 

On a smaller scale, Web3 infrastructure companies are also being eyed by investors. 

Chainsafe, a firm focused on protocol implementation and cryptographic technology, secured $18.75 million in a Series A led by Round13. 

Other investors who participated in the round include NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Sfermion, Jsquare, ConsenSys, Digital Finance Group and Fenbushi Capital. The funding will allow ChainSafe to accelerate its plans to develop Web3 infrastructure for gaming.

Scaling startup Celestia was also on investors’ radars, closing a $55 million deal to continue the development of modular blockchain technology.

The round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto. 

Other notable recent funding rounds include:

• Blockchain development platform Tatum secured $41.5 million in a Series A round led by 3VC.
• Singaporean crypto investment startup Pillow raised a $18.1 million Series A co-led by Accel and Quona Capital.
• DeFi-focused hedge fund Edge Capital raises two separate funds of $66.8 million.
• Shardeum, a sharded layer-1 blockchain based on the Ethereum virtual machine, closed a $18.2 million seed round at a $199 million valuation.

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