And they’re BACK! While researching deals this week, they just kept getting larger and larger. What a relief to see double and triple-digit deals once again! Startups are going after the ‘big fly,’ and VCs are lining up their bases for the ‘bomb.’ A bit of baseball jargon to get you fired up for the season, which is officially open, despite snowstorms across areas of the country.
In other news, “Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are among the prominent technologists and artificial intelligence researchers who signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on developing advanced A.I. systems.” -Fortune Mag.
You decide. Is it FOMO or warranted? How many startups or VCs would pause to let their competition catch up? Not many; game on.
Some notable trends this week:
- This week’s #2, EigenLabs, was featured last week in Fortune Mag’s Crypto; “Professor behind EigenLabs gets $50 million funding, promises to upgrade Ethereum network.” This funding may be the largest for an individual (with a DBA) so far.
• This week’s double and triple-funding deals were focused in payments, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. We expect to see deals increase, thanks to emerging technologies and the current state of banking.
• Is 2023 the year of megadeals? According to our research, we’re off to a good start. Our top 5 a few weeks ago featured Stripe, which comes in at #2 for 2023 Megadeals so far. Keep track of deals over $500M on Crunchbase’s Megadeals Board here.
Up next, this week’s Top 5 VC Deals
1Ledger
$109M, Series C I | Equity| France | Crypto| 10T, Caphorn Invest, Morgan Creek Capital, Cathay Innovation, True Global Ventures, Cité Gestion SPV, Digital Finance Group, Vanyer Fund| https://www.ledger.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Founded in Paris in 2014, LEDGER is a global platform for digital assets and Web3. Ledger is already the world leader in Critical Digital Asset security and utility. With more than 6M devices sold to consumers in 200 countries and 10+ languages, 100+ financial institutions and brands as customers, 20% of the world’s crypto assets are…”
2Eigan Labs
$50M, Series A | Equity | Seattle | Blockchain | Blockchain Capital, Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, Coinbase Ventures | https://www.eigen.cash/#/
Twitter Overview (no LinkedIn listing could be found):
@Eigen_Network | Where Smart Contract Becomes Private
3P97 Networks
$40M | Equity | Texas | Payments | Portage | https://p97.com/ |
LinkedIn Overview:
“P97 Networks is transforming the payments experience for the new age of mobility. Our innovative technology enables businesses to support payments from various platforms, increase consumer engagement, and gain real-time data and insights about their users.”
4Fetch.ai
$40M | Equity | UK | Blockchain | DWF Labs | https://fetch.ai/
LinkedIn Overview:
“The world’s first adaptive, self-organising smart ledger. Fetch.ai is a next-generation protocol, invented by world-leading AI experts, that enables a digital world where Autonomous Economic Agents can perform proactive economic activity…”
5Spiral
$28M, Series A | Equity | NYC | FinTech | Team8, Euclidean Capital, Intuition Fund, Communitas Capital, Phoenix, Nidoco AB | https://www.spiral.us/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Headquartered in NYC, Spiral is the pioneer of the Impact-as-a-Service™ platform that helps banks and financial institutions amplify community impact and customer engagement by easily embedding sustainability, social impact, ESG, and CSR into their businesses…”
