Blockchain Startups Attract Funding Amid Bear Market: Summary of Recent Financings
Summary:
Despite a bearish market, blockchain-based startups continue to attract funding. Untangled Finance raised $13.5M to bring private credit on-chain, while Nocturne accumulated $6M for private Ethereum accounts. Web3 wallet provider Account Labs secured $7.7M as it launched its UniPass Wallet; Rymedi raised $9M for expanding its blockchain-based healthcare platform; and Waterfall Network gathered $2M ahead of its mainnet launch. However, overall crypto industry funding dropped to 2020 levels, reaching $2.1B in Q3 2023.
Despite the bearish market, blockchain-based ventures are still attracting financing, as evidenced by Blockaid, MetaMask's partner, which gathered $33 million in funding in October. However, compared to the previous year, the total amount of funding in the cryptocurrency industry has decreased, accumulating $2.1 billion in 297 deals in Q3 of 2023, according to data from Messari. Investors in this bear market are adopting a more vigilant attitude towards projects, rigorously examining them before committing their funds and favoring projects with practical uses in the real world. Highlighting the potentials of blockchain technology in October, the Nature Science Journal hailed Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) as a promising tool for supporting financially stretched scientific research. This month, Cointelegraph's venture capital roundup featured freshly financed projects.
Untangled Finance, a London-based fintech, amassed $13.5 million to push forward their efforts to bring regulated, institutional true credit to the blockchain, complete with a liquidation mechanism. Leading the funding round was Fasanara Capital. Untangled aims to utilize these funds to access more than 130 approved asset originators from 60 different countries. The company's protocol is developed to tokenize real-world private credit assets, like invoices and SME loans, turning them into credit pools on the blockchain. Both DeFi and TradFi investors can then issue Collateralized Debt Notes using these credit pools.
A protocol for enabling private accounts on the blockchain, Nocturne, recently closed a $6 million seed funding round. This round was co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Bankless Ventures, HackVC, Robot Ventures, and certain members from the Ethereum community, including Vitalik Buterin. The funds will be used to expedite the creation and deployment of Nocturne's protocol, as well as legal expenses as the company maneuvers through shifting regulatory requirements.
Account Labs, a provider of Web3 wallets, recently announced a funding round of $7.7 million. With this funding, Account Labs launched its premiere consumer app, UniPass Wallet, on Polygon. The firm's wallet app lets users create a self-custody Web3 wallet using a Google account and top it up with any Mastercard or Visa card. The merger of Keystone and UniPass in May 2023 led to the creation of Account Labs, which now plans to tap into the growing demand for stablecoin transactions in Southeast Asia.
Rymedi, a healthcare data exchange platform powered by blockchain, revealed a $9 million Series A round to increase its footprint. The funding will support Rymedi in improving data safety and expanding accessibility of healthcare records for patients. The company currently serves more than one million patients across multiple geographical locations, including the US, Africa, and Australia.
In preparation for its mainnet launch set to occur in Q1 2024, Layer-1 protocol, Waterfall Network, secured $2M funding. Waterfall's Directed AcyclicGraph technology, termed as "DAG", is reported to offer unlimited scalability. The protocol is also teaming up with BlueWave Corporation for the development of its smart contract platform.
Published At
11/5/2023 8:49:23 PM
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