Deals are closing, and money is flowing…
There is so much in the press; deals are up, layoffs, deals are down, and shiny new things are grabbing our attention. We’ve wrapped up Q2 2023 (slightly down but still advancing), and all eyes are now on AI;
“Now investors seem very wary of putting money into anything — except, of course, AI — and have retreated to more mature sectors — again, except for AI.”- Crunchbase.
You know AI’s a big deal when…
The GenAI 50 is CB Insights’ ranking of the most innovative companies developing generative AI applications and infrastructure across industries. Applications are now open (note that the application deadline is 8/1/2023).
Some notable trends this week:
- The wallets opened this week for Crypto and Blockchain startups across deals.
- Repeating funders dominate deals this year (Polychain Capital, CoinFund).
- Protocols and privacy startups are more evident in funding deals…we like our ‘privacy.’
Up next are this week’s Top 5 VC Deals…
1Futureverse
$54M, Series A, Capital| Equity| LA | Crypto | 10T Holdings, Ripple Labs | https://www.futureverse.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Futureverse is a technological and cultural foundation for the open metaverse where creators, companies and communities conjure their future…”
2RISC Zero
$40M, Series A, Capital| Equity | Washington state | Crypto | Blockchain Capital, Galaxy Digital, IOSG, RockawayX, Maven11, Fenbushi Capital, Delphi Digital, Algaé Ventures, IOBC, Zero Dao, Alchemy
LinkedIn Overview:
“We are bringing general purpose computing to the zero-knowledge ecosystem – enabling users to trust programs run anywhere, while allowing developers to use the tools they already know and love…”
3Cosmic Wire
$30M, Seed, Capital | Equity | FL | Blockchain | Solana Foundation, Polygon| https://www.cosmicwire.com/
LinkedIn Description:
“Cosmic Wire is a leading technology company at the forefront of Web3 innovation and blockchain solutions. The company utilizes its proprietary technology and decentralized applications to create the backbone operating system powering today’s Web3 ecosystem…”
4Runway
$27.5M, Series A, Capital| Equity |SF | FinTech | Initialized Capital, Elad Gil, Jason Tan| https://runway.com/
LinkedIn Description:
“Why Build Runway? The way we look at financials today hasn’t changed in over half a millennium. It doesn’t just predate computing, it actually predates the popularization of negative numbers…”
5Manta Network
$25M, Series A, Capital |Equity |Blockchain-based privacy-focused protocol | Blockchain | Polychain Capital, Qiming Venture Partnes, Alliance, CoinFund, SevenX Ventures, Binance Labs| https://manta.network/
Website Description:
“Manta Network is building a private, secure, and interoperable future with Zero-Knowledge. We strongly believe that privacy is a fundamental human right, and we are devoted to creating and deploying tools that make it accessible with zero-knowledge proofs…”
