Funding Wrap: The Web3 Startups Funded This Past Week

Over $100 million poured into cryptocurrency startups this past week as a handful of cryptocurrency startups secured funding from prominent venture capitalists in the space. 

Topping the list — Cosmos-based interoperable smart contracts network, Injective Labs, secured $40 million from its latest round of funding, led by Jump Crypto. Brevan Howard’s BH Digital, the digital asset division of the hedge fund, also participated in the round.

Eric Chen, Injective Labs’ CEO, told Blockworks the company wants to build the best possible environment for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. 

“We’re evolving towards a general purpose [layer-1] blockchain that has a sector-specific focus within decentralized finance applications,” Chen said. “Injective exists for developers who want to build something that only the core modules or core stack of Injective can provide.”

Service companies that are bridging the gap between Web3 and Web2 have also gained venture capital interest in the past week. 

Software-as-a-service startup Heirloom raised an $8 million seed round led by Ripple Labs and Forte Labs. The company allows organizations to mint a variety of Web3 assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized identities (DIDs) and verifiable credentials. 

Nick Daze, CEO of Heirloom, told Blockworks that the company was built with the intention of helping the crypto industry to reach a mainstream audience. 

“Our focus right now is three things: business development, staffing, and rolling out our first products,” Daze said. “Our first product coming to market is a no-code tool that lets stakeholders at enterprise scale companies tokenize, distribute and measure their assets without needing a computer science background.”

Money has also been funneled into Web3 companies building tools for the creator economy. 

CreatorDAO, a community that invests in creators in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings, announced today that it raised a $20 million seed funding round led by prominent crypto investor Andreessen Horowitz and Initialized Capital.

Up-and-coming creators apply to the DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) and selected participants receive access to capital, mentorship and technology that may help grow their audience. Celebrities such as Paris Hilton, The Chain Smokers and Andrew East have signed up to be a member of the DAO’s larger community. 

“Creators today are businesses, but no one’s figured out how to help them realize their growth potential,” Michael Ma, CEO and co-founder at CreatorDAO said in a statement. “[Creators are an] investment vacuum similar to the one that Y Combinator and angel investors filled for tech entrepreneurs 17 years ago.”

Other notable funding rounds this week:

• Web3 accelerator LongHash Ventures launches a $100 million fund to grow the Asian crypto landscape.
• NFT media distribution platform Pinata raised a $21.5 million Series A co-led by Greylock and Pantrea.
• Zero-knowledge proof startup RISC Zero raised a $12 million seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto.
• Jito labs — a Web3 company building tools to improve MEV transparency and efficiency — secured $10 million from Multicoin Capital and Framework Ventures.

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