Institutional Roundup: LayerZero Raises $120m, Sei $30m

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an ever-growing cohort of institutional players. This is evident in new investments in infrastructure and in the heightened attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most significant events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s roundup.

LayerZero team raises $120m at a $3bn valuation

The LayerZero project team raised $120 million following a Series B financing round. The cross-chain protocol is valued at $3 billion.

The startup was backed by a16z Crypto, Sequoia Capital, Circle Ventures, Samsung Next, OpenSea, Christie’s and other investors.

The team started talks about raising additional funding in May 2022. Two months earlier, the firm was valued at $1 billion in a Series A financing round.

The protocol developed by the company connects different blockchains, enabling decentralized applications to transmit data across chains.

LayerZero supports Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Aptos, Arbitrum and Optimism. The protocol has been integrated by Uniswap, SushiSwap and PancakeSwap.

Blockchain startup Sei raises $30m at an $800m valuation

The Sei Network, a Layer 1 blockchain project focused on exchange trading, raised $30 million at an $800 million valuation.

The round included participation from Jump Capital, Distributed Global, Multicoin Capital, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Flow Traders, Hypersphere Ventures and Bixin Ventures.

More than 120 projects have already been built on the blockchain. According to co-founder Jayendra Jog, the latest public testnet attracted about 3.6 million unique users and processed over 35 million transactions in less than a month.

The funds will be used to pursue the “right strategic partners, especially in the mainnet,” as well as to expand presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Sei head added that the project is still in the public testing phase. The mainnet launch is planned for the second quarter of 2023.

Alchemy Pay raises $10m for expansion in South Korea

Alchemy Pay raised $10 million from market-maker DWF Labs to grow its business in South Korea. The strategic investment valued the payments platform at $400 million.

The press release states the aim of capitalising on Korea’s high cryptocurrency adoption and helping local firms achieve greater internationalisation.

Partners include Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Diners Club, Google Pay and Apple Pay, as well as regional mobile wallets and domestic transfer systems.

Alchemy Pay operates in 173 countries and supports more than 50 fiat currencies.

Bitget to receive $10m strategic investment from Dragonfly

Venture firm Dragonfly announced strategic investments in the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget in the amount of $10 million.

The funds are intended to expand Bitget’s markets and range of services, as well as educational initiatives.

In 2023, the company plans to accelerate its transformation into a universal crypto-investment platform. This will be aided by efforts to broaden and improve spot trading, yield-generating products, a platform for launching tokens, and ecosystem development.

Satsuma on-chain data indexing platform raises $5m

Satsuma, a platform for indexing blockchain data, raised $5 million in a seed round led by Initialized Capital and Archetype. Other investors include OpenSea, Y Combinator, Homebrew and South Park Commons.

Co-founder and CEO Jonathan Kau noted that the company was founded in March 2022 and closed the round in May. The startup did not rush to announce fundraising, as it focused on developing the platform.

Satsuma makes it easier to search and analyse on-chain data, helping developers gain deeper insight into a project, for example, its total value locked.

Also on ForkLog:

• Bitkraft raised $220.6m to create a second blockchain-gaming fund.
• Investment activity in crypto startups slid to $2.4b in Q1.