Institutional Bulletin: Keyrock raises $72 million, Fleek raises $25 million

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is borne out by the new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention that companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most significant events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

Market maker Keyrock raises $72 million from Ripple and other investors

Keyrock closed a Series B financing round of $72 million. It was led by Ripple, which has been the company’s key client for the past three years.

The funding was also provided by Six Fintech Ventures and Middlegame Ventures. The startup’s valuation was not disclosed.

Keyrock will use the proceeds to expand its ‘market making as a service’ product line and its capabilities in the options and over-the-counter markets.

Offices are also expected to open in Switzerland and Singapore in addition to the existing one in London. The company has filed for a license in the United Kingdom.

Fleek’s Web3 developer platform team raises $25 million

The platform for Web3 developers Fleek closed a Series A financing round of $25 million. It was led by Polychain Capital with participation from Digital Currency Group, North Island Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.

Founded in 2018, Fleek (formerly Terminal) offered users an easy way to create, deploy, and host websites and apps built on IPFS.

Fleek provides hosting and data-storage services via Web3 protocols. The company works with infrastructure players such as AWS and Cloudflare.

In 2023 the startup plans to launch Fleek Network — a decentralized content- and application-delivery platform for Web3. It will eliminate dependence on centralized intermediaries.

Kiln startup raises more than €17 million from Kraken and ConsenSys

Kiln, a staking platform closed an €17 million Series A financing round (about $17.8 million) with the participation of Kraken’s venture arm and ConsenSys.

The startup was also supported by Illuminate Financial, GSR Ventures, Leadblock Partners, Sparkle Ventures, XBTO and existing investors, including 3KVC, Blue Yard Capital, SV Angel and Alven.

Kiln expects a geometric growth in demand for staking ETH after the Ethereum mainnet shifts to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism as part of the The Merge update in September.

The raised funds will go to expanding its product line. Co-founder and CEO Laszlo Szabo declined to disclose the platform’s valuation but noted strong growth in the metric.

Bitwave, the crypto accounting platform, raises $15 million

Bitwave, the provider of enterprise solutions for managing, accounting for and taxing cryptocurrencies, closed a $15 million Series A financing round.

It was led by Hack VC and Blockchain Capital. Participants included SignalFire, Valor Equity Partners, Arca, Pulsar Trading, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund and Hutt Capital.

The funds will support a new product designed for custodians, exchanges, financial institutions, asset managers and other institutional players.

The firm described Bitwave Institutional as “a set of processes, governance and technologies designed to increase trust in the new framework for digital asset accounting”.

The solution is built on the platform’s flagship enterprise product and includes, among other features, proofs of reserves and obligations verification.

Cyvers, focused on cybersecurity, raises $8 million

The cybersecurity-focused startup Cyvers raised $8 million in a seed round led by Elron Ventures with participation from Crescendo Venture Partners, Differential Ventures and HDI.

Cyvers offers AI-powered security solutions. Its clients include Bit2C, Solidus Capital and CoinMama.

“Our analytical engine forecasts the evolution of attacks by autonomously analysing attacker behaviour. They include smart contract exploits, private key leaks, instant loans and more,” explained co-founder and CTO Meir Dolov.

The startup was founded in February 2022 and is based in Israel. The funds will go to research and development, as well as marketing.

NFT platform Shibuya raises $6.9 million from a16z and others

The decentralized NFT-based video platform Shibuya closed a seed round of $6.9 million.

It was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Variant with participation from basketball star Kevin Durant, model Paris Hilton, Aave CEO Stani Kulechov, business angel Linda Se and others.

The funds will be used to attract new content creators, expand the development team and hire a lead UX/UI designer.

Co-founder Emily Yang, widely known by the alias pplpleasr, also created the Fortune magazine cover in August 2021, sold as an NFT for 429 ETH (over $1.3 million at the time of the deal).

In February 2022 at ETHDenver Yang announced Shibuya as a decentralized blend of Netflix-style online cinema, Vimeo-style video hosting and Kickstarter-style crowdfunding.

Shibuya is currently releasing the anime series White Rabbit, where viewers choose the plot direction via NFT minting and voting. Yang described the project as a mix of Black Mirror and Web3.

Panoptic, built on Uniswap, raises $4.5 million

Panoptic, a project focused on perpetual options trading, raised $4.5 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Gumi Cryptos Capital. Participants included Uniswap Labs Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Jane Street and Blizzard Fund from the Avalanche Foundation.

The project was founded in July 2022. Panoptic’s founders are Jesper Kristensen, former head of research at Advanced Blockchain AG, and Guillaume Lambert, a professor of applied physics at Cornell University.

According to the developers, the first version of the platform will be based on the automatic market maker mechanism from Uniswap.

The funds will be used to expand the team, continue work on the protocol and code audits. The platform is expected to launch in the first quarter of next year.

Fenix Games raises $150 million to fund blockchain games

Web3 game publisher Fenix Games raised $150 million for its new fund to acquire, finance, and distribute blockchain games.

Investors in the round were Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital.

“You can think of us as a venture fund. […] The market is like early mobile games but has not yet found its Clash of Clans among blockchain games,” said Kris Ko, co-founder and CEO of Fenix Games.

The platform aims to support existing projects as well as fund new ones, he added.

Animoca Brands to launch a $2 billion fund to invest in metaverses

Animoca Brands plans to launch a fund of up to $2 billion to invest in metaverse companies. This was stated by co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu.

He noted that the entity, to be called Animoca Capital, is still being formed and has not begun fundraising. The fund will focus on NFT- and metaverse-enabled businesses. Initial investments are expected to be made in 2023.

Animoca Brands has invested in around 380 Web3 ventures, including OpenSea and Dapper Labs. However Siu noted that the aim of these investments was ecosystem development and creating an active market rather than profit.

Siu added that previously some Animoca Brands investors had viewed their funding as equity in portfolio companies. Now there is a demand from them for direct investments in late-stage Web3 startups. The launched fund will provide them with that option, Siu said.

In his words, Animoca Capital is meant to be one of the tools to achieve the company’s long-term goal — to advance digital property rights.

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