Institutional Bulletin: Gnosis Safe raises $100 million, Animoca Brands valued at $5.9 billion

The cryptocurrency industry is drawing a growing cadre of institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and the increasing attention companies devote to Bitcoin as an asset class. The standout developments of recent weeks are in ForkLog’s briefing.

Gnosis Safe raises $100 million and undergoes a rebrand

The digital-asset management platform Safe, formerly known as Gnosis Safe, raised $100 million in a strategic financing round.

The round was led by crypto fund 1kx, with 63 participants including Tiger Global, A&T Capital, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Greenfield One, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, ParaFi, Lightspeed, Polymorphic Capital, Superscrypt, and a number of other firms and individual investors.

The funds will go to the Safe Ecosystem Foundation — the non-profit organisation behind the project’s development.

The community voted in April to establish the foundation and separate the platform from the parent company, Gnosis Ltd.

5ire raises $100 million for sustainable blockchain development

Dubai-registered firm 5ire closed a Series A round of $100 million valuing the company at $1.5 billion. The funds will be used to develop an environmentally friendly blockchain based on Proof-of-Benefit.

The round was led by conglomerate Sram & Mram. The firm plans expansion into Asia, North America and Europe, while maintaining its core operations and development focus in India.

Proof-of-Benefit is based on incentivising practices aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals laid out in 2015.

Mainnet launch is planned for November 2022.

Cybersecurity-focused startup Halborn raises $90 million

The Miami-based startup Halborn closed a $90 million Series A round.

Lead investor Summit Partners, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Digital Currency Group, and the Brevan Howard hedge fund. The startup did not disclose its valuation following the round.

CEO Rob Benke stressed that the project’s focus on cybersecurity gives it “some immunity to the crypto-winter.” He also highlighted hacker activity targeting digital assets.

Currently Halborn works with Coinbase, Solana and Ava Labs. The firm also counsels Amazon, BNY Mellon, Nike, family offices and venture investors on risk mitigation.

Animoca Brands raises $75 million at a $5.9 billion valuation

The blockchain-gaming operator Animoca Brands raised $75.32 million. The company’s valuation reached $5.9 billion.

The funding followed January’s round in which the firm raised around $359 million. A delay to the second tranche was prompted by the need for additional compliance checks.

Investors backing Animoca Brands included Kingsway Capital, Alpha Wave Ventures, 10T, SG Spring Limited Partnership Fund, Generation Highway Ltd, Cosmic Summit Investments Limited and Liberty City Ventures.

The company will deploy the funds to finance further strategic acquisitions, product development, obtaining digital-property licenses, and advancing an open metaverse.

Hidden Road raises $50 million from Castle Island Ventures and others

Hidden Road, a landing and brokerage platform for institutional investors, closed a $50 million Series A round. The round was led by Castle Island Ventures.

Investors also included Citadel Securities, FTX Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Greycroft, XBTO Humla Ventures, Wintermute, SLN Capital, Profluent Trading, Coinbase Ventures and Corner Capital.

The platform built by the startup provides real-time risk management and seamless lending across traditional and digital asset classes.

Hidden Road’s suite includes prime brokerage, clearing and financing across traditional and digital assets.

Square Enix backs Zebedee in $35 million Series B

The game-focused fintech startup Zebedee raised $35 million in a Series B financing round. It was led by Kingsway Capital, according to a press release.

Funds were also provided by Square Enix, known for Final Fantasy and other games, The Raine Group, and existing investors Initial Capital and Lakestar.

Zebedee focuses on gaming and enables game developers to integrate support for Bitcoin’s Lightning Network micropayments.

In early 2021, the startup demonstrated this capability in Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive shooter. Players could earn bitcoin rewards for participating in online matches.

Planetarium Labs raises $32 million

Singapore-based Web3 startup Planetarium Labs, focused on gaming, closed a $32 million Series A round. It was led by Animoca Brands, the developer of NFT games.

The round also included Krust Universe, Kakao’s investment arm, the South Korean game developer WeMade, and Samsung Next.

The startup plans to launch several games in collaboration with major gaming studios in the Asia-Pacific region. Planetarium Labs also intends to grow its team from 25 to 40 people.

Hashflow raises $25 million from Coinbase and Kraken

The decentralized trading platform Hashflow closed a $25 million Series A round. The company’s valuation reached $400 million.

Participants in the round included Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, LedgerPrime, Jump Crypto, Wintermute Trading, GSR, Kronos Research, Altonomy, Fabric Ventures, Evernew Capital and others.

The funds will go toward continuing to scale regardless of market conditions.

Founded in 2021, Hashflow plans to launch on the Solana blockchain and offer structured products by the end of 2022.

Inflection Points raises $12.6 million

Anthony Pompliano-associated recruitment firm Inflection Points (formerly PompCryptoJobs) closed a $12.6 million financing round and announced the acquisition of competitor Proof of Talent.

Investors included Thiel Capital of Peter Thiel, Fifth Down Capital, XYZ Fund, Rose Park Advisors, Blockchange, Third Prime, and a number of angel investors.

The firm raised its profile and helped create jobs for 4,000 professionals in the industry. Since its inception the company has achieved positive profitability and secured investments after revenue reached seven figures.

The acquired firm Proof of Talent closed 100 roles for more than 40 startups. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Optic raises $11 million

Optic, an AI-powered NFT-content recognition startup, raised $11 million in a seed round.

It was led by Kleiner Perkins and Pantera Capital. Participants included Greylock Partners, Lattice Capital, OpenSea, Circle, Polygon, CoinDCX, Neon DAO and Flamingo DAO.

Optic will deploy the funds to build core AI infrastructure and grow the team. The project will roll out tools for NFT artists and collectors, as well as a public API for Web3 developers.

The company was founded in 2021 by former Google product chief Andrey Doronichev, developers Roman Doronin and Vlad Vinogradov. The startup is developing an AI engine for recognizing NFT content.

Optic says it processes millions of collectible tokens daily, cross-referencing them to determine authenticity. Automated monitoring tools alert marketplaces, brands and NFT owners to results.

Also on ForkLog:

• The volume of venture funding in the crypto industry has fallen to a yearly low.
• Bloomberg: FTX is in talks to raise funds.
• Media: Sequoia Capital to raise $9 billion for Chinese startups.
• Crypto exchange Thalex raised $7.6 million from Bitfinex and Bitstamp.
• The Empiric Network project on StarkNet raised $7 million.

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