Funding Roundup: All Quiet On the Web3 Front

One of the quietest weeks crypto funding has passed following the failure of prominent US startup bank Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). 

This week, only $37 million was given to startups in the space, significantly less compared to the previous week, where an estimated $254 million was handed to crypto startups.

Only six companies managed to land funding this week, with a majority of them in the gaming space. Here are the highlights:

DRESSX

LA-based digital fashion tech company DRESSX has landed a $15 million Series A led by Greenfield. Other investors participating in the round include Slow Ventures, Warner Music, the Artemis Fund and Red Dao.

The company launched in August 2020 and has worked with Decentraland and Ready Player Me to sell digital garments for gamer avatars. They have also worked with external marketplaces such as Roblox, Zepeto and Meta.

“There is a huge design space and a new paradigm emerging around the question, what we are wearing within the metaverse,” Jascha Samadi, founding partner at Greenfield, said. “As we spend more and more time in virtual environments, this will equally translate beyond the physical sphere and NFTs and blockchain technology will enable true digital ownership to elevate one’s identity.”

Metacade

Play-to-earn gaming platform Metacade has successfully secured $10 million in a token-presale round.

The token will list on Bitmart and decentralized exchange Uniswap after the presale concludes on March 30.

The initial raise target was set for $20 million, but the company has since reduced the limit to $16.4 million.

“A lot of money rushed out of the market after FTX collapsed and the past year overall, and it seems that we are able to access resources cheaper than we believed possible beforehand,” the company said in a blog post. “We do believe that we can deliver the project in full, with a buffer remaining, for $16.385m rather than the $20m initially anticipated.”

TeleportDAO

TeleportDAO, a decentralized infrastructure organization designed to build cross-chain applications, has secured $2.5 million in a seed round of financing from AppWorks and DefinanceX.

The DAO is designing infrastructure that can move any data — such as messages, contract calls and assets — between blockchains in a trustless manner. It is in the process of integrating with platforms, wallets and lending applications and is in the process of creating a decentralized marketplace for Ordinals.

“Blockchains bridges need to become at least as secure as their underlying chains. Multisig and validator-based bridges do not offer such security,” Niusha Moshrefi, CEO of TeleportDAO, said in a statement. “The primary focus in TeleportDAO is to build such secure bridges using light-client technology.”

Other notable raises:

• Web3 gaming studio, Jungle landed $6 million in a seed round led by Bitkraft VC and Framework Ventures.
• Soul Wallet secured $3 million in a party round where investors such as Struck Crypto, Game7DAO, NGC Ventures and Dispersion Capital. 
• Crypto wallet infrastructure Capsule received a $500,000 investment from a16z.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
• Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
• Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
• 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
• Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
• The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
• Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.