Institutional Roundup: Ramp raises $70 million, Archax raises $28.5 million

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

Crypto infrastructure startup Ramp raises $70 million

Ramp raised $70 million in a Series B financing round. It was led by Mubadala Capital and Korelya Capital, with participation from venture firm Cogito Capital and existing investor Balderton Capital.

The main product of Ramp, a company based in London and Warsaw, is a toolkit for developing payment software. It enables users to buy cryptocurrencies via debit and credit cards, bank transfers and Apple Pay, both on the startup’s platform and off it.

According to Ramp founder Shimon Sipnevich, 70% of payment volumes come from Europe and the United States. The company is considering expanding into Mexico, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

British crypto exchange Archax raises $28.5 million

The regulated British exchange Archax raised $28.5 million following a Series A financing round.

Among the participants were Bitrock Capital, Blockchain Coinvestors and Tezos Foundation. The round was led by investment firm Abrdn. The latter manages assets worth $619 billion and is the largest shareholder of the regulated exchange.

Archax provides institutional investors with the ability to store and trade a range of digital assets and securities.

Braavos crypto wallet raises $10 million from Pantera Capital

Braavos, the startup behind the Braavos wallet, raised $10 million in a financing round led by Pantera Capital.

Other investors included Road Capital, BH Digital, DCVC, Crypto.com, Matrixport and Starkware.

Built on the second-layer network StarkNet for Ethereum scaling, the Israeli startup has created its own comprehensive crypto solution.

The team behind the wallet aims to offer users self-custody of digital assets, while simplifying seed phrases and private keys handling as much as possible.

The app is available in both browser and mobile versions for iOS and Android devices. Braavos combines traditional storage and transfer capabilities with access to decentralized applications.

According to Braavos CEO Motti Lavi, the developers see their mission as “removing barriers for users” while maintaining the advantages “of decentralisation and self-custody.”

Custodia cryptocurrency bank raises $7 million

The Custodia cryptocurrency bank (formerly Avanti) raised $7 million. The company did not disclose information about the investors.

In March 2021, then-named Avanti, the startup raised $37 million in a Series A financing round. Investors included Binance.US, Coinbase Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital and other institutions.

Total funding raised by Custodia to date stands at $51 million.

Xternity Web3 startup raises $4.5 million in pre-seed round

Xternity, a Web3 infrastructure startup for gaming, raised $4.5 million following a pre-seed round.

Led by venture firm NFX, which specialises in early-stage investments. Among other participants: Jibe Ventures, Flori Ventures, Secret Chord Ventures and vGames.

Israel-based Xternity aims to help game publishers implement Web3 components, including NFTs. To this end, the firm has developed a no-code platform supporting blockchains Polygon, ImmutableX, Solana, BNB Chain, Celo and Ethereum.

Currently, Xternity employs ten people. The firm plans to hire five more developers.

Mysten Labs behind Sui signs strategic partnership with NCsoft after $15 million investment

The Web3 startup Mysten Labs behind the Sui blockchain project announced a strategic partnership with South Korean online-game developer and publisher NCsoft.

Founded in 1997, the company is best known for the Lineage, Aion, Guild Wars and Blade & Soul franchises.

As part of the collaboration, NCsoft invested $15 million in Mysten as part of a $300 million Series B round in September. It was led by FTX Ventures, and the startup was valued at $2 billion.

The partners will explore opportunities for jointly creating entertainment applications on the Sui blockchain. The network was Mysten’s first product, launched in 2021 by former Meta employees who worked on the Diem project.

Also on ForkLog:

• CoinFund will launch a $250 million fund for Web3 project investments.
• LeadBlock Partners raised $150 million in a crypto venture fund.

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