Crypto-based Startups Enjoy Strong Start to 2024 with Significant Funding Rounds
Summary:
Despite the challenges of high-interest rates on private investments, numerous cryptocurrency-based start-ups have started 2024 by securing significant funding. Notable funding rounds have included Axiom's $20 million for smart contract data authentication, Portal's $34 million for Bitcoin atomic swaps, and HashKey's nearly $100 million funding, which led the crypto exchange to unicorn status. Foundations, such as the Solana Foundation, are also supporting early-stage ventures, while other companies, like Kiln, Digital Infrastructure Inc., Pontem, and p0, have each raised funds to expand their operations and product offerings.
Despite gloom over high-interest rates impacting private investments, 2024 started on a brisk note for cryptocurrency-based start-ups with notable funding across various sectors. Paramount among the January developments were smart contract platform Axiom raising $20 million for its unique approach to on-chain data authentication, Portal's generating $34 million as preliminary funding for Bitcoin atomic swaps, and HashKey, a crypto exchange, attaining the unicorn status after a near $100 million Series A funding round.
Foundations are also contributing to early-stage initiatives. Case in point, the Solana Foundation selected Colosseum to oversee its accelerator program, providing $250,000 seed funding for start-ups. Additionally, Keyrock, a digital asset market maker, pledged $10 million in token capital to the Radix public ledger for ecosystem growth. In this latest edition of the VC Roundup by Cointelegraph, a handful of the start-ups that received funding in January are featured.
Kiln, a staking platform, amassed $17 million for boosting its APAC growth. The funding will be used to establish its new headquarters in Singapore and fuel product development. 1kx, an early-stage ... investment firm, led this round with contributors like IOSG, Crypto.com, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, LBank, and existing investors. The company, reputed for incentivizing institutions for securing the Ethereum blockchain, has seen more than a five-fold increase in its stake under management in 2023 via operators like Ledger Live, Crypto.com, and Coinbase.
Digital Infrastructure Inc. garnered a hefty $11.5 million Series A funding led by CoinFund and endorsed by Slow Ventures, Consensys Mesh, Borderless Capital, and others. Additionally, Rick Wagoner, ex-CEO of General Motors, and other existing investors were also part of this funding initiative. The company's innovative idea of connecting vehicle networks and rewarding users for their car data saw its DIMO network grow by 900% in 2023.
Pontem, a development studio, clinched a $6 million deal to nurture the development of Move Virtual Machine (VM) on EVM-compatible blockchains. The investors in this venture include Lightspeed Faction, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kraken Ventures, Pantera Capital, and Wintermute. Since 2019, the company has been developing products based on Move, following its introduction with Meta’s Libra Blockchain.
Another notable instance is p0, a platform that garnered $6.5 million as debut fund by Lightspeed Venture Partners and contribution from Alchemy Venture. This platform assists developers in identifying and rectifying software security issues using large language models (LLMs). The duo behind this innovative start-up are Prakash Sanker and Kunal Agarwal, graduates from Stanford and Harvard, respectively.
Published At
2/2/2024 9:00:47 PM
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