Funding Wrap: 2023’s First Crypto Startup Raises
Funding to crypto startups is off to a slow start in the first week of 2023
Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel modified by Blockworks
December 2022 saw very few cryptocurrency projects receive funding from venture capitalists — only $670 million dollars were funneled into crypto startups.
For comparison, the same time last year, Web3 companies received more than $3.5 billion, information on Crypto Rank shows.
The chaos caused by the collapse of FTX hasn’t helped projects seeking to close funding deals in the first week of 2023. And for those who have managed, the amount of money raised is relatively small.
DeFi meta aggregator, Ondefy, is one of the companies which have secured funding this first week of the new year.
The protocol secured $1 million from investors including AngelDao, Paraswap, Stacker Ventures, Caballeros Capital, White Loop Capital, Cryptoast, YellowSpoon, Tenzor Capital, Stake Capital and HyperGrowth.
Founded by Gauthier Vila in 2021, Ondefy is designed to make DeFi applications more accessible to retail users.
Proceeds will be used to grow the Ondefy team, and improving user experience, the company said in a blog post.
“We are also partnering with numerous projects to enable them to provide their community simple access to their token with fiat.” the company said.
MSafe, a multi-signature wallet solution for the Aptos and Move ecosystem, was another company to secure funding this week.
The San-Francisco based started landed $5 million in its latest seed round led by Jump Crypto. Other investors included Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Superscrypt (founded by Temasek), just to name a few.
Product development, team growth and product scaling will be the main uses for the latest funding.
“Starting with the multi-sig non-custodial wallet, we aspire to be a one-stop destination for institutions, enterprises, and individuals to manage and grow their digital assets,” Wendy Fu, founder and CEO of MSafe said in a statement.
The final company which revealed they had landed funding this week was Web3 trading management platform, Assure Wallet.
Although the investors participating in the round haven’t been disclosed, the startup tweeted that it had closed a $1.4 million pre-A round of financing and will be using its fresh cash to optimize the product and improve user experience.
Assure did not immediately return Blockworks’ request for clarification.
Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.
Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.
Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.
The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.
