Institutional Tide: Worldcoin Raises $115 Million, Auradine $81 Million

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evident in new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention companies are giving to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most significant developments of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s overview.

Worldcoin from Sam Altman’s team raises $115 million

The Tools for Humanity team, which includes developers from Sam Altman’s Worldcoin startup, raised $115 million in a Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital.

Among other investors are Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global.

According to the company’s statement, the funds will help accelerate the development of Worldcoin and its growth, as well as the commission-free World App wallet.

The flagship product is the World ID protocol, based on zero-knowledge proofs. The technology enables verification using iris recognition while preserving anonymity.

Auradine, a privacy-focused AI blockchain project, raises $81 million in Series A

Auradine, a privacy-focused and AI-enabled blockchain project, closed a Series A round of $81 million led by venture firms Celesta Capital and Mayfield.

The Marathon Digital Holdings mining company also invested in the startup alongside Stanford University, Cota Capital and DCVC.

Auradine is developing “breakthrough solutions in scalability, resilience and security.”

The company is based in Santa Clara, California, and employs over 40 people, including software engineers and cybersecurity specialists from Palo Alto Networks, Marvell, Intel, Google and Wells Fargo.

“Our first product will be a system-level software solution with cloud-storage management capabilities, oriented to blockchain security applications,” said Rajiv Khimani, co-founder and CEO of Auradine.

The startup plans to launch its first product in the summer of 2023 and will focus on serving clients in the financial sector and in healthcare.

Bitcoin-focused River Financial raises $35 million

Bitcoin-focused River Financial raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Kingsway Capital.

Other investors include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Cygni, Goldcrest and Valor Equity Partners. Company representatives did not disclose its valuation.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the company offers a suite of Bitcoin-focused services: brokerage, custodial solutions, mining, wallets, and infrastructure elements for interacting with Lightning Network.

CEO Alex Leishman is confident in a “new wave of interest in Bitcoin,” which “this time is not hype” and is largely driven by institutional adoption.

“Bankruptcies and the bailout of banks this year have been a worrying signal, exposing cracks in the traditional financial system and reminding us why Bitcoin matters — a safe path to a stronger and more transparent global economy,” he noted.

The raised funds will be used to broaden its line of services, invest in infrastructure products and mining.

Eco-miner Soluna raises $14 million

Eco-friendly data-centre provider Soluna Holdings raised $14 million from Navitas Global.

The funds will go toward developing the Dorothy 1B project for mining digital assets, based in Texas, United States.

Under the terms of the deal, Soluna will receive a $2 million loan to finish a 25 MW facility. The remaining funds will come as equity investments.

The mining company will retain a 51% stake in the new project, offering other backers expert know-how in operation and maintenance.

Soluna’s leadership expects the company to be profitable by the end of 2023.

Jack Dorsey leads seed round for Azteco at $6 million

Block’s Jack Dorsey led a seed round financing of $6 million for the crypto-payments company Azteco.

Other investors include Lightning Ventures, Hivemind Ventures, Ride Wave Ventures, Aleka Capital, Visary Capital, Gaingels and entrepreneur Sunil Rajaraman.

“My contribution to Azteco stems from a deep respect for their mission,” said Dorsey.

Azteco is a startup aimed at regions with “unstable and unreliable economies.” The company issues Bitcoin vouchers that can be exchanged for fiat at select retail points or online.

The service will launch in 195 countries where access to digital assets is restricted due to cash dominance and underdeveloped electronic banking.

According to Azteco’s plans, the project will also simplify buying the first cryptocurrency online, without requiring account creation or completing the full KYC process.

Also on ForkLog:

• TON founded an investment fund of $250 million for DeFi projects.
• Journalists learned of HashKey Capital to secure a $1 billion valuation.
• Dispersion Capital launched a $40 million venture Web3 fund.