Institutional Bulletin: Proof Market Raises $22m, Easy Raises $14.2m

The cryptocurrency industry has been drawing an increasing number of institutional players. This is reflected in both new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention companies are giving Bitcoin as an asset class. The most significant developments of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

Media reports Flashbots eyes a $50m raise at a $1bn valuation

Flashbots, the infrastructure project, is in talks with investors to raise between $30m to $50m at a $1bn valuation. The Block reports, citing its own sources.

According to the publication, the startup has not filed for VC funding as is usual. On the contrary, the project expects offers from them.

Paradigm has agreed to lead the round. According to Crunchbase, the firm was Flashbots’ lead seed investor in 2020.

The startup is developing solutions to democratise access to opportunities maximising extractable value and protection against the misuse of this option in the Ethereum network.

ZKP-based Proof Market protocol developers raise $22m

Nil Foundation, the company behind the zero-knowledge proof (ZKP)-based Proof Market protocol, raised $22m at a $220m valuation.

The round was led by Polychain Capital. Blockchain Capital, StarkWare and Mina Protocol also participated. The funds will be used to further deploy Proof Market.

Founded in 2018, Nil Foundation developed the Proof Market protocol. It enables blockchains and Layer-1 and L2 networks to generate zero-knowledge proofs on demand.

The development seeks to address the high cost of creating ZKP proofs, a problem that drives many projects to rely on centralized intermediaries.

According to founder and CEO Mikhail Komarov, the Proof Market protocol sits somewhere between an auction and a marketplace.

Easy Company raises $14.2m to build a crypto wallet

The Easy Company startup closed a seed financing round of $14.2m with participation from Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Tapestry, Upside, Scribble and other investors.

Easy Company launched a wallet of the same name with social features. The app is in early access on iOS and Android.

To ease interaction with the Web3 ecosystem, developers adopted a social-media-like app layout. For example, users can swipe through NFT like Instagram Stories.

Pantera and Archetype back Obol Labs in $12.5m round

A security-focused blockchain startup built on Proof-of-Stake closed a Series A round at $12.5m.

The round was led by Pantera Capital and Archetype with participation from BlockTower, Nascent, Placeholder, Spartan, Coinbase Ventures, Ethereal Ventures and IEX. Total funding raised by Obol Labs to date amounts to $19m.

The startup develops DVT. It enables running an Ethereum Proof-of-Stake validator across multiple machines by splitting the private key.

Metahood, a metaverse-focused platform, raises $3m

Metahood, a metaverse-focused platform for selling virtual real estate, closed a seed round of $3m.

Led by venture firm 1confirmation with participation from Volt Capital, Flamingo DAO, Neon DAO, and angel investors including The Sandbox co‑founder Sebastien Borget, and Decentraland co‑founder John Crain, among others.

Metahood is a more specialised platform compared with traditional NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, SuperRare and Rarible. The startup provides detailed information about the plot and district, its neighbours and nearby points of interest.

The platform supports metaverses The Sandbox, Decentraland, Otherside by the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection and Somnium Space. In the future the startup plans to broaden the list of virtual worlds as they appear.

Also on ForkLog:

• HashKey Capital raised $500m for crypto startup investments.
• The founders of Castle Island and a16z backed the Escape Velocity fund with $25m.

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