February crypto VC roundup: Infrastructure startups attracted record funding

This article is part of a monthly series from The Block that takes a closer look at where the most recent venture capital investments have been flowing.

The crypto market’s performance has been lackluster of late, but the venture capital funding spree continued nonetheless in the month of February. Over 200 crypto startups received more than $4 billion worth of VC cash last month.

In fact, February attracted the second-highest monthly investment in the history of crypto, one month after January that set the record. 

One particular category that stood out in February was blockchain infrastructure. Startups developing infrastructure tools drew a combined $1.5 billion. There were several mega-deals worth over $100 million in this category, including from Layer-1 networks such as Polygon, Aleo and 5ire. Other infrastructure firms, including Alchemy, Compute North and Qredo, also recorded significant investments.

Another category that saw especially heavy investment in February was DeFi, thanks in large part to Luna Foundation Guard's $1 billion token sale. NFT and gaming startups also continued to draw large amounts of cash — but their shine has dulled over the past few months. 

Below is the February roundup, organized by category, of all the VC fundraises worth more than $10 million announced last month.

Exchanges and market makers 

There were six raises larger than $10 million by firms specifically focused on crypto trading and market-making. 

Crypto market maker Amber Group raised $200 million in a Series B+ funding round and is now valued at $3 billion. Temasek, the Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund, led the round. Previous investors Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, Tiger Global and Coinbase Ventures also participated. 

Crypto exchange Philippine Digital Asset Exchange, also known as PDAX, raised $50 million in a Series B funding round. Tiger Global led the round, with Kingsway Capital, Jump Capital, Ripple and Cadenza Capital Management also participating.

Brazil-based crypto exchange Foxbit raised $21 million in a Series A funding round from OK Group, owner of crypto exchange OKX. The investment will give the group a minority stake in Foxbit.

Canada-based crypto trading platform Newton raised $20 million in a Series B funding round at a $200 million valuation. DV Chain led the round, with CI Financial, Singh Capital Partners and Anthony Pompliano also participating.

Ethereum wallet Rainbow raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Seven Seven Six, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's VC firm. Other investors included Thirty Five Ventures, Bloom Investment Holdings and Y Combinator.

Streetbeat, a trading app for stocks and crypto, raised $10 million in seed funding led by TTV Capital. Other investors included Seraph Group and AAF Management.

NFTs, and gaming and the metaverse

February saw 11 raises larger than $10 million for firms specifically focused on NFTs or blockchain gaming.

NFT platform Pixel Vault, which has created PUNKS Comic and MetaHero collections, raised $100 million from Velvet Sea Ventures and 01 Advisors. It now plans to launch an NFT development platform for artists and creators to help them participate in the ownership of digital content. 

Crowdfunding platform Republic's metaverse investment platform Republic Realm rebranded to Everyrealm and raised $60 million in a Series A funding round. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round. Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed, Dapper Labs and Paris Hilton also participated.

SIDUS HEROES, a blockchain-based play-to-earn game, raised $21 million. Animoca Brands led the funding. Alameda Research, OKX and Polygon also participated.

Ethernal Labs, developers of Ethereum-based NFT marketplace Ethernity, raised $20 million in a seed funding round. Investors included Ripple, Algorand, Polygon Studios and angel investors including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin and Riot Games executive Thomas Vu. 

Metaverse startup BUD Technologies raised $15 million in a Series A+ funding round. Qiming Venture Partners led the round, with Source Code Capital, GGV Jiyuan Capital and Yunjiu Capital also participating. BUD is a 3D social network that allows users to create customizable 3D experiences and interact with others. 

Salad Ventures, a blockchain gaming startup that is building a play-to-earn gaming guild called GuildOS, raised $13.5 million in a private token sale. Investors include Alameda Research, Alan Howard, Brevan Howard's VC fund BH Digital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Winklevoss Capital and Polygon Studios. 

Metaverse startup Sup raised $12 million in seed funding from Paradigm. It currently offers a community-crafted sci-fantasy universe called Blitmap and is also building an on-chain fantasy console game called Supdrive. Blitmap is based on Ethereum and has created a collection of unique characters called Blitmaps and Blitnauts.

Potion Labs, the team behind the NFT game Potion Unlock, raised $12 million. Investors included Polychain, Placeholder, Pantera, The LAO, MetaCartelVentures, ParaFi, Robert Leshner and Tarun Chitra. 

Banger Games, a blockchain gaming startup, raised €10 million (around $11 million). Investors included Avalanche, GSR, Shima Capital, Flori Ventures and Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani.

Hong Kong-based metaverse firm Animoca Brands launched a Japanese subsidiary called Animoca Brands KK, which raised 1.1 billion yen (around $10 million) in seed funding from MCP IPX One Fund. The fund was formed by MCP Asset Management (Japan) and Animoca Brands, and its investors include Kodansha, Nishi-Nippon Railroad and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

NFT platform UCOLLEX raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands and MCP IPX One Fund. UCOLLEX sells unique and limited-edition NFT collectibles.

Don't forget DeFi and Web3 

There were nine raises that surpassed $10 million for DeFi projects in February, with Luna Foundation Guard and Helium raising the biggest rounds. 

Luna Foundation Guard, a non-profit organization created to help grow the Terra ecosystem, raised $1 billion through an over-the-counter sale of Terra (LUNA) tokens. Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital co-led the fundraise, with Republic Capital, GSR, Tribe Capital, DeFiance Capital and other unnamed investors participating.

Decentralized wireless network Helium reportedly raised $200 million in a Series D round at a $1.2 billion valuation. Tiger Global and FTX Ventures are said to have joined existing Helium backers such Khosla Ventures, Multicoin Capital and Munich Re Ventures. 

Muneeb Ali's new startup Trust Machines raised $150 million. Several investors including Digital Currency Group, Union Square Ventures, GoldenTree and Breyer Capital backed the round. Trust Machines wants to make the Bitcoin blockchain a platform for web3 applications.

FlyCoin, a crypto-based travel rewards startup, raised $33 million in a seed round. Early bitcoin investor Josh Jones led the round, with TenOneTen Ventures, 8VC and Liquid 2 participating. FlyCoin is a division of the Ravn Alaska airline and creates loyalty programs for industries such as travel and hospitality and issues FlyCoin (FLY) tokens as rewards.  

3Box Labs, core developers of Ceramic Network, raised $30 million in a Series A round co-led by Multicoin Capital and Union Square Ventures. Ceramic Network is a decentralized data composability network, meaning web3 developers don't have to rely on centralized application database servers like MongoDB, mySQL or Confluent. 

Rift Finance, a decentralized protocol that helps DAOs get sustainable liquidity, came out of stealth and raised $18 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital. Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, DeFiance Capital, Terra’s Do Kwon, Aave’s Stani Kulechov and Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal. Rift Finance helps token projects move past unsustainable yield farming strategies by pairing Ethereum depositors with DAOs. DAOs receive the liquidity they seek, and Ethereum depositors receive diversified yields. 

Web3 startup RabbitHole raised $18 million in a Series A round co-led by Greylock and TCG Crypto. It claims it is building an "on-chain resume for the future of work in crypto" in order to help users organize and allocate talent.

ArDrive, a storage application based on the Arweave blockchain, raised $17.2 million in a seed round co-led by Arweave, Blockchain Capital and Sino Global Capital. ArDrive can be compared with applications like Dropbox or Google Drive, but it allows users to maintain ownership and control of their data on the Arweave blockchain.

Zebec, a Solana-based payment streaming protocol, raised $15 million in a funding round led by Solana Ventures and Distributed Global. Other investors included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Circle, Coinbase Ventures and Alameda Research. Zebec allows DeFi and web3 projects to manage their treasury and pay staff in real-time in USDC or other stablecoins.

Tools of the trade

The remaining 18 fundraises from February above $10 million were from the infrastructure category. They include firms developing tools of developers, enterprises, staking, mining and payments. 

Ethereum scaling project Polygon raised $450 million in a private token sale. Sequoia Capital India led the fundraise, with many others participating including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, Alan Howard, Kevin O'Leary, Alameda Research, Digital Currency Group and Accel.

Compute North, a bitcoin mining infrastructure company that provides equipment hosting services within its data centers, raised $385 million in equity and debt funding. The equity part was worth $85 million was and co-led by Mercuria and Generate Capital. 

Aleo, a blockchain project focused on privacy through zero-knowledge proof technology, raised $200 million in a Series B funding round. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Kora Management co-led the round, with Tiger Global, a16z, Samsung Next, Slow Ventures and Sea Capital also participating.

Web3 infrastructure firm Alchemy raised $200 million in a Series C extension round and is now valued at $10.2 billion. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Silver Lake co-led the round, with existing investors a16z, Coatue and Pantera participating.

5ire, a blockchain startup developing a "sustainable" proof-of-stake network called 5irechain, raised $100 million from GEM Global Yield. The project will select validator nodes based on various factors, including their ESG (environmental, social and governance) score.

Crypto infrastructure startup Qredo raised $80 million in a Series A funding round at a $460 million valuation. Dan Tapiero's 10T Holdings, Coinbase Ventures, Avalanche and Terra co-led the round. Kingsway Capital, HOF Capital, Raptor Group and GoldenTree Asset Management also participated. 

Crypto data analytics platform Dune raised $69,420,000 in a Series B funding round and is now valued at $1 billion. Hedge fund Coatue led the round, with existing investors including Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital also participating.

Blockchain interoperability protocol Axelar raised $35 million in Series B funding round and is now valued at $1 billion. Investors included Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures, Lemniscap and Blockchange Ventures.

Aligned, the web3 infrastructure startup founded by Sam Cassatt, former chief strategy officer at ConsenSys, raised $34 million in seed funding. Several investors backed the funding, including GSR, Altium Capital, Cavalry Fund and Ninja4. There was no lead investor.

Blockchain infrastructure startup InfStones raised $33 million in a Series B funding round from various investors, including Susquehanna International Group, Dragonfly Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and DHVC. InfStones provides various tools, including for validator node management and smart contract deployment.

Enterprise blockchain firm Context Labs raised $28 million from various investors, including BP Energy Partners, Equinor Ventures, KPMG (US), and Shamrock Ventures. The firm provides a blockchain-enabled platform for various industries, including trading and supply chains, to help them track data. 

Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode raised $20 million in a Series A funding round at a $220 million valuation. Kingsway Capital led the round, with Twitter, Tim Draper, and Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with the parent company of Fidelity Investments, also participating.

Sardine, the anti-fraud and compliance startup founded by Coinbase alum Soups Ranjan, raised $19.5 million in Series A funding from Andreessen Horowitz, NYCA and Experian Ventures. Sardine helps crypto and fintech companies prevent account opening, funding, and payments fraud and increase customer conversion.

Crypto payments platform Wirex reportedly raised $15 million to develop an R&D center in Ukraine. The company did not disclose investors but said it is an interim funding round before a $60-80 million Series B round planned for this year.

Pyypl, a blockchain-based payments startup based in Abu Dhabi, raised $11 million. It did not disclose specific investors but said international family offices and high-net-worth individuals backed the round.

Dinara Financial Technology, which is building "enterprise financial services for crypto," raised $11 million, according to an SEC filing. No other details are given on its website. 

Web3 infrastructure startup Artema Labs raised $10 million, according to an SEC filing. Artema's website is blank, but according to job postings, it is working on "web application development for web3 products in the blockchain space."

Staking infrastructure startup SSV Network raised $10 million from Digital Currency Group, Coinbase, Lukka, OKX, and others. SSV Network is focused on Ethereum 2.0 staking.

New crypto VC funds

Venture capital firms have to raise funds, too. The largest round in February came from Seven Seven Six, Sequoia Capital, and Castle Island Ventures. Overall, the month saw nearly 15 new fund launches by both existing and new VC firms. 

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's venture capital firm Seven Seven Six raised $500 million across two vehicles for its second fund. The first vehicle (worth $300 million) will fund startups at their "earliest possible" stage. And the second vehicle (worth $200 million) will be allocated for backing companies at their growth stages.

Sequoia Capital announced that it is launching its first-ever sector-specific fund for crypto. The Sequoia Crypto Fund, worth $500-600 million, will primarily invest in tokens.

Nic Carter's Castle Island Ventures raised $250 million for its third crypto fund. The fund will invest in startups building monetary networks, crypto financial services and internet architecture such as web3. Its previous two funds were smaller, worth $30 million and $50 million, respectively.

Hack VC, a crypto-focused venture capital firm co-led by Dragonfly Capital co-founder Alexander Pack, launched a new $200 million fund. The fund plans to invest in early-stage startups focused on DeFi, NFT infrastructure, DAOs, and their tooling. 

London-based VC Backed raised €150 million (around $167 million) for its second fund to invest in gaming and tech startups. The firm invests in various industries, including crypto. Its current crypto investments include Axie Infinity creator Sky Mavis, NFT-focused Ethereum Layer 2 developer Immutable and crypto payments provider BCB Group. 

Blockchain-based payments infrastructure firm Stronghold launched venture arm Stronghold Capital to invest $100 million in three core areas: overlooked and underrepresented founders and fund managers, the payments and fintech ecosystem, and the Web3 and blockchain ecosystem.

Taiwan-based crypto venture capital firm Infinity Ventures Crypto launched its inaugural fund worth $70 million. Circle, Digital Currency Group, and Animoca Brands participated in the fundraise. The fund wants to invest in GameFi, DeFi, and web3 projects. 

Crypto asset manager Arca launched an NFT fund worth $50 million to invest in NFTs and tokens of NFT projects such as gaming assets and metaverse related tokens. Arca’s NFT Fund counts existing investments in Alethea, CXIP, Portals, Raremint, and Recur.

Venture capital firm AirTree launched a web3 fund worth $50 million to invest in early-stage crypto startups and protocols.  

Germany-based Cherry Ventures launched its first crypto fund worth $34 million. The fund will primarily invest in tokens over equity. 

Animoca Brands and startup accelerator Brinc launched a Guild Accelerator Program worth $30 million to invest in play-to-earn gaming guilds. The program will fund up to $500,000 per guild over two years.

Crypto-focused investment firm Hartmann Capital raised $30 million for its metaverse fund. The Hartman Metaverse Ventures I seeks to invest in various metaverse-related projects. 

Crypto-focused VC A&T Capital announced an additional $30 million in funding for its first fund, taking its total to $100 million. A&T Capital has invested in several startups, including Amber Group, Matrixport, and ConsenSys. 

Australian VC King River Capital raised $50 million for its crypto fund to invest in web3 startups, such as infrastructure, NFT and gaming, and DeFi.

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