Institutional bulletin: Uniswap raises $165 million, and Tatum raises over $40 million

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

Decentralized exchange Uniswap raised $165 million

Uniswap Labs raised $165 million in a Series B financing round.

It was led by venture firm Polychain Capital. Participants included existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant.

According to the project’s founder Hayden Adams, Uniswap Labs is focused on ecosystem-enabling products: developer tools, launching NFT, mobile apps and others.

Blockchain project Tatum raised $41.5 million

The team behind the blockchain app development platform Tatum raised $41.5 million in financing.

The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners. Participants included Octopus Ventures, 3VC, Tensor Ventures, Depo Ventures, Leadblock Fund, Circle and the founders of Bitpanda.

According to the statement, Tatum has a viable product and counts more than 90,000 customers.

Skyweaver blockchain game developer raised $40 million

Canadian gaming NFT company Horizon Blockchain Games raised $40 million in a Series A financing round. It was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital.

Also participating in the round were traditional video game firms Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Take-Two Interactive Software.

The funds will be used to further develop three core products:

• NFT-based Skyweaver games;
• Sequence developer platform;
• Niftyswap digital asset marketplace.

Despite a bear market and a tendency to cut staff in the industry, Horizon plans to expand its team from 60 to 80 by year-end.

Golden, Web3 data transfer protocol, raised $40 million

The Golden closed a $40 million Series B financing round. It was led by a16z.

Investments were also provided by Protocol Labs and its founder Juan Benet, Solana founder Raj GoyaI, cofounder of Dropbox and former CTO Arash Ferdowsi, Figma CEO Dylan Field, Postmates founder Bastian Lemann and others.

The funds will be used to create a decentralized protocol in which tokens serve as rewards for providing and verifying trustworthy information. Its incorrect nature contemplates sanctions against network participants. Organizations that use the data and pay for it provide direct feedback.

«The world lacks a standardized interface for discovering, distributing and verifying information. To build it at scale, you need not only data but also incentives for data input, verification and governance», explained Judd Gomila, founder and CEO of Golden.

The developers launched the Golden test network. The mainnet is expected in Q2 2023.

Exponential raised $14 million

The DeFi investment and risk assessment platform Exponential raised $14 million in a seed round led by Paradigm.

The funding also included Haun Ventures, former a16z partner Katie Haun, FTX Ventures, Solana Ventures, Polygon, Circle Ventures and more than 80 angel investors.

Exponential plans to bridge the Web2 and Web3 gap, widening access to DeFi protocols through the platform.

Fintech startup Zerion raised $12.3 million

The team behind the Zerion investment app raised $12.3 million in a Series B financing round. It was led by Wintermute Ventures — the venture arm of the eponymous market maker.

Participants also included Placeholder, Mosaic, Polymorphic Capital, Coinbase Ventures, 1inch Network founders Sergey Kunts and Anton Bukov, Alchemy Ventures and others.

The project team will use the funds to further develop the product.

Ex-Coinbase employees raise $5.3 million for Web3 startup

The startup Scale3 Labs raised $5.3 million in a seed round of financing from Redpoint Ventures, Mysten Labs, Howard University and other investors.

The funds will be used to build infrastructure for reliable operation of node operators, expand teams and develop the ecosystem.

According to the founders, the startup enables speeding up the “ultra‑complex” process of updating nodes from eight hours to less than 20 minutes by using a platform that performs all internal work and provides direct links for updates.

Scale 3 developed a monitoring dashboard that provides real-time updates.

The startup’s solution supports the Sui blockchain from Mysten Labs. Plans include adding Ethereum, Solana and Aptos. The project aims to integrate the top-10 blockchains within the next six months.

Also in ForkLog:

• BlockTower raised $150 million in a Web3-focused venture fund.

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