Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_622bc409e82cd" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The week started off strong with Immutable’s $200 million financing round, valuing the company at $2.5 billion on Monday</li>
 <li>Bain Capital Ventures, which has about $155 billion in assets under management, launched a $560 million crypto-focused venture arm</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The crypto funding environment continued to heat up this week as massive mega rounds and funds launched in the space.&nbsp;



Over $1.82 billion in fresh capital entered the space, up 36% from <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/funding-roundup-1-34b-invested-in-crypto-companies-and-funds-this-week/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$1.34 billion </a>from last week. The total money invested this week came from about 30 deals and funds, according to PitchBook data.



The week started off strong with Immutable’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/immutable-notches-2-5b-valuation-after-series-c-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$200 million</a> financing round on Monday, which valued the company at $2.5 billion. The round was led by Temasek and included other investors like Animoca Brands, Tencent, ParaFi Capital, Princeville Capital, Arrington Capital, Mirae Asset and Liberty Global.



On Tuesday, Bain Capital Ventures, which has about $155 billion in assets under management, launched a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bain-capital-ventures-launches-560m-crypto-focused-fund-as-ecosystem-booms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$560 million</a> crypto-focused venture arm. The funds will be deployed into about 30 companies or protocols focused on DeFi and crypto infrastructure, Stefan Cohen, managing partner at Bain Capital Crypto, told Blockworks.



Over the next 10 years, the Bain Capital Crypto team anticipates crypto getting integrated and embedded into traditional consumer and business software stacks and plans to invest in companies that will bridge protocols into established software ecosystems, Cohen said on Tuesday.



Separately, Singapore-based platform Cake DeFi has launched its corporate venture arm with <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/singapore-based-cake-defi-launches-100m-in-capital-for-venture-arm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million</a> in capital, the firm told Blockworks on Wednesday. Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV) will focus its investments across Web3, the metaverse, the NFT space, gaming, esports and fintech spaces that will benefit its core business, it said.



It was also leaked that Ethereum layer-2 developer StarkWare is raising <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ethereum-scaling-startup-reportedly-triples-valuation-in-four-months/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">at least $100 million</a>, which would increase its valuation to $6 billion, Israeli newspaper Calacalist <a href="https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjm00s7wbq" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. StarkWare declined to comment Thursday. However, a company source, who spoke to Blockworks under condition of anonymity, said they couldn’t confirm it, “but it sounds entirely plausible.”



The new valuation is triple its previous $2 billion valuation from just four months ago, when the company raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Sequoia Capital.



Other notable capital raises this week:&nbsp;



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Okcoin announces “Bitcoin Odyssey” collective with plans to invest <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/okcoin-announces-165m-bitcoin-odyssey-collective-partners-with-top-venture-firms-to-supercharge-bitcoin-adoption-301500256.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$165 million</a> over the next 12 months into Bitcoin-focused DeFi apps&nbsp;</li><li>Scaling and privacy solution for Web3 applications, Espresso Systems, debuted to the public with a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/espresso-systems-launches-to-public-amid-a-32m-raise/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$32 million</a> funding round</li><li>Stablecoin payment builder Kado closed a <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/payment-builder-kado-closes-first-capital-raise-to-expand-access-to-stablecoins/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$5.4 million</a> fundraise&nbsp;</li><li>Swim Protocol raised <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/03/09/2400100/0/en/Swim-Protocol-Raises-4M-for-Innovative-Cross-Chain-Infrastructure.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$4 million</a> in seed funding by Pantera Capital with participation from FTX, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures and others</li></ul>



Check back next week for more funding news.



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Funding Roundup: More Than $1.8 Billion Pooled Into Crypto Companies and Funds This Week

<div id="highlights-block_6227c52cd3343" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bain Capital has about $155 billion in assets under management</li>
 <li>“The fund was oversubscribed by a little bit, but in the classic spirit of Bain Capital, we started with a modest fund size and plan to expand significantly from there,” Alex Evans, a partner at Bain Capital told Blockworks</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Asset manager Bain Capital has launched its first $560 million crypto fund, the company confirmed to Blockworks Tuesday.



The firm, which has about $155 billion in assets under management, launched the early-stage crypto-native fund and its new venture arm Bain Capital Crypto to take promising stakes in Web3 founders and builders, partner Alex Evans told Blockworks.



The capital will be invested mainly in crypto-focused infrastructure and DeFi. The team will assemble a portfolio of 30 new companies or protocols to invest in across the fund, Stefan Cohen, managing partner at Bain Capital Crypto, told Blockworks.



Evans and Cohen will co-lead the fund. For the time being, the team will focus on deploying this capital into the crypto ecosystem but may look into launching future funds, Evans said.



“The fund was oversubscribed by a little bit, but in the classic spirit of Bain Capital, we started with a modest fund size and plan to expand significantly from there,” Evans said.



This fund was created in response to the firm’s ongoing investments in the crypto space over the past seven years, Cohen said in a <a href="https://baincapitalcrypto.com/announcing-bain-capital-crypto/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>.



Bain has invested in 14 DeFi (decentralized finance) and crypto infrastructure businesses to date, including B2B infrastructure platform <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/zero-hash-raises-105m-to-bring-crypto-products-to-all-financial-companies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zero Hash</a>, asset manager <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/private-equity-firm-kkr-invests-in-defi-and-blockchain-focused-parafi-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ParaFi Capital</a> and crypto lender <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/blockfi-closes-350m-series-d-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BlockFi</a>. In general, its venture arm <a href="https://www.baincapitalventures.com/portfolio/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invests</a> anywhere from $1 million of seed capital to $100 million in growth equity.



It’s also a large investor in Compound Finance, an algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol for developers, and has the <a href="https://compound.finance/governance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third highest</a> voting weight for the protocol’s governance. 



“Those crypto investments will stick with their capital venturist funds, we’re not transferring positions or anything like that,” Cohen said. “This fund is entirely a net-new portfolio we’re building, and we’re very focused on early-stage investments but have flexibility to buy liquid tokens, as well.”



Over the next 10 years, the team anticipates crypto getting integrated and embedded into traditional consumer and business software stacks and plans to invest in companies that will bridge protocols into established software ecosystems, Cohen said.&nbsp;



“We also believe that this crypto-native economy and services around it are going to grow quite quickly,” Cohen said. “We’re starting to see some of that with DeFi [decentralized autonomous organizations] that formed and have treasuries, which use the capital in the crypto economy. So, we think that the snowball effect will continue to accelerate and create entirely new sectors of activity supporting the crypto ecosystem.”



While a number of firms have invested in crypto for years, the heat has been ramping up in the past 12 months as crypto adoption and growth builds globally.&nbsp;



Last month, the 50-year-old investment firm Sequoia Capital launched a new <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/sequoia-capital-is-raising-up-to-600m-in-new-sub-fund-to-focus-on-tokens/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$500 million to $600 million</a> sub-fund focused on liquid tokens and digital assets. Separately, the traditional venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a16z, has dove deep into the digital asset world and plans to raise another crypto fund around <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-looking-to-raise-4-5b-for-new-crypto-funds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$4.5 billion</a>, more than double the size of its last <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/andreessen-horowitz-launches-2-2b-crypto-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$2.2 billion</a> crypto fund.



“The reality is, we felt like we couldn’t service this market well from a generalist venture fund,” Cohen said. “There will be lots of generalist venture firms that will try to access this space and invest in it, and we’re excited that they’re going to be putting capital into it, but we think to properly support founders you need to take the approach we’ve taken here.”



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Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/onthemargin">Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter</a>.



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