Institutional Bulletin: Flare Secures $35 Million, Lava Network Raises $15 Million

The cryptocurrency industry continues to attract an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure and the growing attention companies are paying to Bitcoin as an asset class. ForkLog reviews the most significant events of recent weeks.

Flare Blockchain Raises $35 Million

First-layer blockchain Flare has secured $35 million from Kenetic, Aves Lair, and other investors in a private funding round.

Flare’s earliest investors have reinvested in the long term future of the network in a groundbreaking new agreement.

In addition to extending token vesting and capping sales, they will reinvest 50% of any token sales back into Flare ecosystem projects. https://t.co/7fGTqmjju9 pic.twitter.com/nxhYr9ZnMT

— Flare ☀️ (@FlareNetworks) February 23, 2024

Flare supports the creation of smart contract protocols and focuses on price oracles that transmit asset prices to and from various decentralized applications.

Early investors in the project have agreed to postpone token distribution from 2024 to the first quarter of 2026.

Lava Network Blockchain Raises $15 Million

Modular blockchain Lava Network has closed a seed funding round of $15 million, led by HashKey Capital, Tribe Capital, and Jump Capital, with participation from Alliance DAO, Celestia, StarkWare Corporation, Dispersion Capital, Finality Capital, and North Island Ventures.

Excited to share Lava Protocol’s $15 million seed raise to build a modular data access layer for Ethereum & web3.

We’re also introducing our next phase to Mainnet: Magma.

Wallet users can now earn points on @ethereum, @NEARProtocol, @Starknet, @EvmosOrg and @axelarnetwork. pic.twitter.com/RwUTDHF4F4

— Lava Network ?| ✈️ ETH Denver (@lavanetxyz) February 15, 2024

Founded in 2022, Lava Network focuses on providing data access through remote procedure calls and indexing. Developers plan to launch the main network in the first half of 2024.

AltLayer Rollup Platform Raises $14.4 Million

RaaS platform for creating customized L2 networks, AltLayer, has raised $14.4 million from Polychain Capital and Hack VC, with participation from OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, Bankless Ventures, Primitive Ventures, SevenX, Mask Network, IOSG, and TRGC.

Landmark Update: AltLayer has secured an impressive $14.4M from top VCs in a strategic fundraising round.

We soar to new heights and will be unstoppable in our mission to bring restaked rollups & other novel Web3 infra to the forefront.https://t.co/45VrQWsKl7 https://t.co/fhqNSUTwL0

— AltLayer (@alt_layer) February 19, 2024

The funds raised will be used to expand the team and develop rollup infrastructure.

AltLayer also intends to implement restaking rollups based on the EigenLayer mechanism.

Ethena Labs Raises $14 Million at a $300 Million Valuation

The Ethena Labs team has raised $14 million from Dragonfly and Maelstrom, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Digital, Hashed, and Castle Island Ventures, as reported by The Block.

Following the investment round, the project’s valuation reached $300 million. The funds will be used to expand the team and further development.

On February 19, Ethena launched its own stablecoin, USDe, with an annual yield rate of 27.6%. The crypto community has expressed doubts about its viability.

Fordefi Crypto Wallet Raises $10 Million

Crypto wallet provider Fordefi has raised $10 million from Electric Capital, Paxos, Alchemy, and other investors.

1/ We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve raised $10M in additional funding led by @ElectricCapital! ?

We sat down with @CoinDesk‘s @sndr_krisztian to tell our story on why we raised and where we’re headed. #FORDEFI

Check out our coverage below ⬇️ https://t.co/K32FG7x5WU pic.twitter.com/HRD1pzVX4S

— FORDEFI (@FordefiHQ) February 13, 2024

The platform positions itself as an infrastructure provider and Web3 gateway for traditional companies. The team has developed an autonomous crypto wallet with distributed computing technology and has conducted transactions worth over $3 billion.

The funds raised will be used to develop a new WaaS product. It will allow counterparties to integrate the solution into their applications.

Helius Developer Platform Raises $9.5 Million

Solana-focused developer platform Helius has raised $9.5 million from Foundation Capital, with participation from Chapter One, 6th Man Ventures, Reciprocal Ventures, and Propel Ventures.

we’ve raised a Series A to accelerate crypto development at @heliuslabs!

in mid-2022, my co-founders (@liamvovk and @nick_pennie) and I left Coinbase & AWS to make a dent on a big problem facing crypto:

a shortage of quality products

it was (and still is) too hard to build… pic.twitter.com/bRANlHsWDP

— mert | helius.dev (@0xMert_) February 22, 2024

Founded in 2022 by former Coinbase and Amazon Web Services employees, Helius focuses on creating developer tools that enable quick and easy application development on Solana. 

According to The Block, the funds will be used to expand the team and strengthen the technological base.

Superfluid Finance DeFi Project Raises $5.1 Million

DeFi protocol Superfluid, focused on regular payments, has closed a strategic funding round of $5.1 million.

We have closed a $5.1M round led by @fabric_vc, together with @multicoincap @IOSGVC @circle_ventures @safe @wagmi_vc @eternacapital @verisventures @skylandvc @hyperithm @TheLAOOfficial @TheRealKartik @seikatsu @taavet @stablesbernie @avsa https://t.co/SiPWwjueoK pic.twitter.com/uO8IiGMEYg

— Superfluid (@Superfluid_HQ) February 22, 2024

The investment round was led by Fabric Ventures, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Circle Ventures, Safe Foundation, The LAO, Taavet+Sten, and others.

Superfluid supports 10 blockchain networks compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The team consists of 18 members.

Also on ForkLog:

• Restaking protocol EigenLayer raised $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz.
• Bioptimus raised $35 million to develop a foundational AI model.
• Cross-chain project Analog raised $16 million at a $120 million valuation.
• Hack VC raised $150 million for a venture fund for Web3 projects.