Institutional Bulletin: Meta alumni startup valued at $2 billion, and Northzone raises €1 billion for Web3 fund

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention companies devote to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past few weeks are in ForkLog’s latest overview.

Parent company of 21Shares raised $25 million at a $2 billion valuation

21.co, the parent company of the crypto ETP 21Shares, raised $25 million in a financing round led by hedge fund Marshall Wace.

The company was valued at $2 billion. According to the firm, this makes it the “largest cryptocurrency unicorn in Switzerland”.

Web3 startup by ex-Revolut employees raised $78 million

Former Revolut chief revenue officer Alan Chang raised $78 million for his startup Tesseract, aimed at tokenising the electricity market.

The project’s co-founder was another former employee of the British fintech firm, Charles Orr. According to him, Tesseract raised $30 million in traditional equity. The remainder was raised through the sale of its own token.

The startup plans to purchase electricity from renewable sources at fixed prices and offer it to consumers via power purchase agreements. The latter will tokenise energy. Each token will confer ownership of 1 W of capacity in the company’s network.

Fuel Labs startup backed by Blockchain Capital and Stratos Technologies in $80 million round

Fuel Labs, focused on blockchain scalability solutions, raised $80 million from Blockchain Capital and Stratos Technologies.

The round also included Alameda Research, CoinFund, Bain Capital Crypto, TRGC, Maven 11 Capital, Blockwall, Spartan, Dialectic and ZMT. The startup’s valuation was not disclosed.

The project positions itself as a ‘modular execution layer’, comparable to L2 solutions such as Polygon.

Meta alumni startup Mysten Labs raised $300 million from FTX Ventures and others

The Mysten Labs startup, founded by a team of former Meta employees, closed a Series B financing round of $300 million at a $2 billion valuation. The funds will be used to build core infrastructure and accelerate the deployment of the Sui blockchain.

The funding round was led by FTX Ventures. It also included Coinbase Ventures, Jump Crypto, Andreessen Horowitz, Circle Ventures, Binance Labs, O’Leary Ventures and others. 

Investors will receive equity stakes as well as warrants on the project’s own tokens.

Northzone raised €1 billion for a Web3-focused investment fund

British venture firm Northzone raised €1 billion into a fund focused on investments in crypto and fintech startups.

Founded in 1996, the firm has backed a wide range of projects, including Spotify, iZettle, Klarna, Trustpilot, Kahoot!, Tier, Personio, Zopa, Forto, TrueLayer and Spring Health.

Northzone has also invested in the decentralised identity developer Magic Labs, the European Bitcoin exchange Cryex, and the Ethereum-based streaming video platform Livepeer.

Doodles NFT project raised $54 million from Reddit co-founder

The Doodles NFT project, behind the eponymous collection, closed its first financing round at $54 million at a $704 million valuation.

Led by Seven Seven Six, the venture firm co-founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Among participants: Acrew Capital, FTX Ventures and 10T Holdings.

According to the statement, the funds will help the company “scale its growth strategy and monetise its intellectual property.”

Two Sigma Ventures-backed crypto investor raised $400 million

Two Sigma Ventures, a venture firm focused on investments in crypto and DeFi companies, raised over $400 million through two of its funds.

About 85% of the sum came from external investors, including colleges, nonprofits and pension funds. The remaining 15% came from senior executives and partners of the parent company’s division – Two Sigma.

The funding will be directed to startups working on technology and data in the social sector.

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