Institutional Roundup: Taurus raises $65 million, Coincover $30 million

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

Infrastructure startup Taurus raises $65 million

The Swiss startup Taurus SA, focused on serving institutional clients in Europe, raised $65 million following a Series B financing round.

It was led by Credit Suisse, the second-largest bank in Switzerland by assets. Among the investors: Germany’s largest financial conglomerate Deutsche Bank, the Pictet Group, and Cedar Mundi Ventures — a Lebanese investment firm focused on new technologies.

Arab Bank Switzerland and Investis also joined the round, having previously participated in financing Taurus SA.

Credit Suisse representatives stressed that Taurus is well positioned in the context of custody solutions and tokenisation services, helping financial institutions and their clients.

Taurus has been collaborating with the Swiss bank for the past two years. The companies have implemented several joint projects related to tokenisation and the issuance of structured products.

Co-founder Sebastian Dessimos expressed confidence that the traditional financial system will become more connected with the digital assets space. Taurus plans to open offices in Paris and Dubai in the coming months, and to grow headcount from the current 60 to 100 by year-end.

Coincover raises $30 million

The digital-asset protection and insurance service Coincover raised $30 million in a financing round led by Foundation Capital.

Names of other investors were not disclosed. According to Coincover, the raised funds will enable it to grow its client base and widen its range of services.

“This new funding will accelerate hiring, product updates and partnerships to safeguard the crypto ecosystem. Given that $3 billion was stolen in hacker attacks last year, and with cryptocurrency regulation expected in 2023, the opportunities are enormous,” said Charles Moldow, general partner at Foundation Capital.

The British startup provides protection and insurance guarantees for crypto investors and companies.

Amazon unit invested $20 million in Superplastic studio

The Alexa Fund, Amazon’s venture arm, led a round of $20 million for 3D studio Superplastic, which previously released an NFT on Ethereum.

Investors included Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Kering, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures, and Betaworks. The total funds raised by the startup reached $58 million.

The animated series featuring two main virtual celebrities of the studio — Janky and Guggimon — is in development at Amazon Studios. The creators describe the toothy rabbit and cat as “lazy and remarkably incompetent best friends” who want to achieve success in life at any cost.

The virtual characters have millions of followers on social media. They gained prominence in 2021 when Superplastic’s NFT collection was presented at Christie’s. According to the script, the duo “broke into” the auction house, triggering an explosion and the emergence of nearly 14,000 digital collectibles.

Ex-Jump Trading developers raise $19 million to build Monad blockchain

Monad Labs, founded by former Jump Trading developers, raised $19 million in a funding round led by Dragonfly Capital.

Other investors include venture firms Placeholder Capital, Lemniscap, Shima Capital, as well as angels Naval Ravikant, Cobie and Hasu. In total, the project has the support of more than 70 market participants.

Monad is creating an EVM-compatible layer-one blockchain, “designed to improve the entire Ethereum ecosystem.” It will be based on Proof-of-Stake.

The project team promises that the system can process 10,000 transactions per second. The testnet and mainnet launches are planned for 2023.

Over the next six months, Monad Labs plans to double its staff—from 12 to 24 people.

Web3 startup Nefta raises $5 million at a $32.5 million valuation

Web3 infrastructure startup Nefta raised $5 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Play Ventures, which invested the largest sum — $2.5 million. Other participants included Polygon Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Sfermion and Picus Capital.

Investors valued the startup at $32.5 million. This figure, according to Nefta CEO Gishan Villink, has grown 225% over the last eight months. In June the project raised $1 million in pre-seed funding at a $10 million valuation.

The 2022-founded startup provides companies with tools to enter and grow in the Web3 space: API, development tools and other solutions to help integrate digital assets, multi-chain wallets and marketplaces.

Also on ForkLog:

• Aptos Labs invested in a Web3 competitor to TikTok.