Institutional Bulletin: Polychain Capital and CoinFund raise a combined $358m for crypto funds

The cryptocurrency industry is drawing more institutional players. This is reflected in growing investments in infrastructure, and in the increasing attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most notable developments of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

Polychain Capital raised $200 million for its fourth venture fund

A crypto-focused firm Polychain Capital raised $200 million for its fourth venture fund. Fortune reported, citing its own sources.

The amount corresponds to the ‘first close’ of the fundraising. The company has set a target of ‘just under’ $400 million.

The focus of the fund’s investments will be second-layer solutions for Ethereum.

CoinFund raises $158 million to launch a crypto fund

New York-based venture firm CoinFund secured $158 million in funding to establish a crypto-focused fund.

According to Chief Executive Jake Brukhman, the firm initially planned to raise $125 million.

CoinFund will use the funds to finance crypto and AI projects at an early stage. The firm will also continue to invest in tokens.

Snoop Dogg and a16z back Web3 startup Sound in $20 million Series A

The music Web3 project Sound raised $20 million in a Series A round led by the crypto arm of venture capital firm a16z.

Other investors include rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Ashton Kutcher, producer Ryan Tedder, musician Tay Keith, as well as Palm Tree Crew, A Capital, Collab + Currency and Scalar Capital.

Sound aims to create a new business model for musicians, distinct from traditional streaming services. The platform enables artists to turn their songs into non-fungible tokens (NFT) for direct-to-fan sales.

RISC Zero raises $40 million in Series A led by Blockchain Capital

RISC Zero, a startup building a virtual machine based on zero-knowledge proofs, raised $40 million in a Series A round.

The round was led by Blockchain Capital, with Bain Capital Crypto, the lead investor from the previous round, joining. Other participants included Galaxy Digital, IOSG, RockawayX, Maven 11, Fenbushi Capital and others.

The startup will channel the funds into launching its own compute platform, Bonsai. The solution supports development and deployment of applications in both cloud and decentralized environments.

Binance Labs invested $15 million in gaming Web3 project Xterio

The venture arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced investments of $15 million in the gaming Web3 platform and publisher Xterio.

The Swiss company develops free-to-play and on-chain games. The funds will be used to grow the ecosystem, launch new projects and integrate AI technologies into them.

Under the partnership, Binance will support the startup’s growth and will integrate the platform’s native token into BNB Chain.

Manta Network raises $25 million to launch a ZK network

The developers of the EVM-compatible Manta Network closed a Series A funding round at $25 million to launch zero-knowledge proofs-based applications.

Leading investors were Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners, with Alliance, CoinFund and SevenX Ventures participating. The round valued the company at $500 million.

The project team positions Manta Network as the fastest L1 network. The developers have also launched a layer-2 testnet for ZK applications — Manta Pacific.

The funds will be used to scale the protocol, expand the user base and develop new use cases for Manta Pacific.

Web3 investments fall 76%

In the second quarter, Web3 startups attracted about $1.8 billion in venture funding — a drop of 76% year on year, according to Crunchbase.

The total number of deals also fell by 51% — from 659 to 322. This is the lowest level since the end of 2020.

Also on ForkLog:

• 10T Holdings backed Futureverse with a focus on AI in a $54 million round.
• Cosmic Wire raised $30 million from Solana and Polygon.
• Binance Labs invested $10 million in Radiant Capital.
• The startup from the founder of the Indian exchange WazirX raised $5.4 million.