Genesis Digital Assets, Lolli and Prime Trust Raise New Capital

Today was another big day for venture capitals and crypto companies as the industry saw even more funding for companies like Genesis Digital Assets, Lolli, Prime Trust and Biconomy. 

In general, the venture capital world has been accelerating its growth into the cryptocurrency world. Just this week alone, Blockworks has reported about $700 million in funding news and it’s not even Friday. 

Here’s a rundown of the news: 

Genesis Digital Assets raises $125 million to expand bitcoin mining 

One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining operators in the world, Genesis Digital Assets, announced a $125 million round of funding to support its expansion plans. 

The funding comes from a United Kingdom-based private equity fund, Kingsway Capital, that focuses on emerging markets with over $2 billion in assets under management, it said. 

The company has been around since 2013, just a few years after the crypto industry began. Since then it has built over 20 industrial-scale mining farms and put over 300,000 miners online. To date, it has mined over $1 billion in bitcoin. 

“Bitcoin is going to be the most important technology for financial inclusion of the global poor and unbanked and mining provides security to make this possible,” said Manuel Stotz, CEO of Kingsway Capital. 

The funding will be used to purchase equipment and build new data centers in the US and nordic region, the company said. 

The company plans to continue providing infrastructure to “power the open-source monetary system revolution” as it continues scaling its mining operations, said Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets, Abdumalik Mirakhmedov.

As of July, the company’s data center capacity exceeds 150 megawatts, bringing the total hashrate over 2.6 exahashes, which is more than 2.6% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate. The company expects another 5.5 exahashes to be online in the next 12 months and by the end of 2023, it expects to reach a capacity of over 1 gigawatt. 

Lolli closes $10 million Series A round  

Bitcoin rewards company Lolli completed a $10 million Series A financing round led by Acrew Capital. 

“Acrew’s sizable bet on Lolli says two things: bitcoin business is booming, and as the original bitcoin rewards platform, Lolli has the best team to increase adoption in the long run,” said CTO and Co-founder of Lolli Matt Senter. 

The company was founded in 2018 to make “bitcoin accessible to all by offering bitcoin rewards to shoppers on everyday purchases,” it said. Earlier this year, Lolli raised $5 million in a pre-Series A funding round, Blockworks reported. 

Recently, the company released its mobile shopping app, which allows users to earn bitcoin when they shop at more than 1,000 retailers including Microsoft, Kroger and Booking.com. To date, users have earned more than $3.5 million in bitcoin rewards, the company said. 

Other investors include Banana Capital, Up North Management and Animal Capital, the Generation Z-focused venture capital fund founded by social media stars Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck. 

The funding round includes investments from independent influencers and entrepreneurs including YouTuber Logan Paul, Chantel Jeffries, Lauren Riihimaki of LaurDIY, Kenny Beecham, and Baron Davis. Early investors Seven Seven Six, 3K VC, Gabriel Leydon, and Forerunner Ventures also contributed to the raise.

The funding will contribute to international expansion of the company, hiring, partnerships and further development of the recent mobile app, the company said. 

“Lolli is leading the way to mainstreaming Bitcoin and making it accessible to the general public. I’m thrilled to be investing and helping to fuel the growth of a company that allows users to earn and learn about this new asset class,” Paul said. 

While many TikTok and internet stars contributed to the round, CEO and Co-founder of Lolli Alex Adelman said, “We’re thrilled by the support of so many incredible investors and fellow entrepreneurs who believe in our mission of making bitcoin more accessible for all. We believe it’s imperative to align with top creators to both educate, distribute, and amplify the power of bitcoin to the masses.”

Financial infrastructure Prime Trust raises $64 million

Prime Trust, a financial infrastructure for FinTech innovators, closed its $64 million Series A round led by Mercato Partners, coinciding with the firm crossing $100 million in annual revenue run rate, the company said in a statement. 

The round also included participation from Samsung Next, Nationwide, Commerce Ventures, Ayon Capital, Kraken Ventures, STCAP, s20 Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures, Diverse Angels, University Growth Fund and Nevcaut Ventures. 

Although the company is not a crypto-based institution, it powers crypto exchanges, non-fungible token creators, digital wallets and more. It plans to use the funding toward expanding further into the crypto space. 

“The funding will be used to add systems and personnel who are working on expanding the company’s B2B market share in crypto, including digital asset exchanges, banks, consumer retailers, OTC desks, tokenized assets and wallets, and in crowdfunding, including broker-dealers, crowdfunding portals and real estate syndicators,” it said. 

Booming capital 

The cryptocurrency market has experienced a huge uptick in fundraising, with blockchain start-ups raising a record $4.38 billion in Q2 of this year, according to data from CB Insights.

Additionally, the global FinTech industry saw 88 rounds of deals worth over $100 million, up from 60 rounds in the first quarter of the year, the data showed. Although not all those deals noted in the report went toward cryptocurrency, the money and news speaks for itself as announcements pile in almost daily about new funding rounds in the crypto space.

This week, Blockworks reported digital asset platform Fireblocks raised a whopping $310 million in Series D funding further enhancing its unicorn status, while Eco, Saber Labs, Hedgehog Markets, Valora and Biconomy also announced noteworthy fundraising rounds for their respective companies.

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