Institutional Bulletin: Zama Secures $73 Million, Avail Raises $27 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.

Crypto Firm Zama Raises $73 Million

French cryptocurrency company Zama, which aids developers in creating privacy-focused applications, has closed a Series A funding round amounting to $73 million.

We’re thrilled to announce our $73 million Series A funding, led by @protocollabs and @multicoincap, to bring FHE to the fore, and give developers tools to tackle data privacy challenges across blockchain and AI use cases.

Read more @TechCrunchhttps://t.co/05aBx9AW7c pic.twitter.com/gsMTvha3zQ

— Zama (@zama_fhe) March 7, 2024

The round was led by Multicoin Capital, Protocol Labs, and Filecoin, with participation from Metaplanet, Blockchange Ventures, Vsquared Ventures, Stake Capital, Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, and other angel investors.

Zama CEO Rand Hindi told The Block that the company’s total funding has exceeded $80 million. He declined to disclose the project’s valuation.

The team at Zama, founded in 2020, consists of 75 individuals with expertise in cryptocurrency, machine learning, and blockchain. According to Hindi, half of them hold PhDs in their respective fields. The company plans to expand its workforce.

Modular Blockchain Avail Raises $27 Million from Peter Thiel’s Fund

Developers of the modular blockchain Avail have closed a seed funding round amounting to $27 million.

The day is here! We’re unfolding the cards!

Avail raises $27m, led by @foundersfund and @dragonfly_xyz to accelerate the unification of web3!

With this, we’ll build the Avail trinity — a three-phase roadmap aimed at unifying multiple ecosystems in web3.

Consisting:

• Avail… pic.twitter.com/DbmuNdoPKz

— Avail (@AvailProject) February 26, 2024

The round was led by billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Dragonfly, with participation from SevenX Ventures, Figment Capital, and Nomad Capital.

The solution is designed to reduce blockchain load by offloading data and enhancing scalability “in all directions.”

Avail is positioned as a data availability layer for Optimism, Validium, and other zero-knowledge proof-based solutions that will operate on top of it. The technology will enable data availability to be hosted and verified off-chain, serving as a key component of the modular network structure concept.

Ether.Fi Restaking Protocol Raises $23 Million

Based on EigenLayer, the Ether.Fi restaking protocol has closed a Series A funding round amounting to $23 million.

We’ve raised $27M led by @Bullish and @coinfund_io!

Crypto is back baby!

We had a huge number of amazing investors participate in this round and now have 95+ investors backing https://t.co/gbHcksxzp2@ambergroup_io@BanklessVC@OKX_Ventures@Consensys@SeliniCapital… pic.twitter.com/u7OCPqnbak

— ether.fi (@ether_fi) February 28, 2024

The round was led by Bullish Capital and CoinFund, with participation from OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Consensys, and Amber.

According to DeFiLlama, the total value locked in Ether.Fi is $2.2 billion, ranking it 16th.

Web3 Company Baanx Raises $20 Million from Tezos

UK-based cryptocurrency payments company Baanx has closed a Series A funding round amounting to $20 million, reports CoinDesk.

According to the publication, the investment was provided by Ledger, Tezos Foundation, Chiron, and British Business Bank. The company’s total funding has exceeded $30 million.

The funds will be used to roll out services in the US and Latin America by the end of 2024. Baanx’s user base exceeds 150,000 people.

Crypto Ecosystem Backpack Raises $17 Million at $120 Million Valuation

Backpack, the company behind the eponymous cryptocurrency wallet and exchange, as well as the NFT collection Mad Lads, has closed a Series A funding round amounting to $17 million.

We’re happy to announce our $17 Million strategic series A round led by @placeholdervc. pic.twitter.com/bn3EWsAIj5

— Backpack ? (@Backpack) February 28, 2024

The round was led by Placeholder VC, with participation from Hashed, Robot Ventures, Amber Group, Wintermute Ventures, Selini Capital, and Delphi Digital.

The company’s valuation has reached $120 million.

L2 Project Taiko Raises $15 Million

The Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution project Taiko has closed a Series A funding round amounting to $15 million.

We’re excited to announce that Taiko Labs, the core development team behind the Taiko protocol, has raised $37M in total capital across three rounds!

1/ pic.twitter.com/1F6gD6l3Bh

— Taiko ? (@taikoxyz) March 2, 2024

The round was led by Lightspeed Faction, Hashed, Generative Ventures, and Token Bay Capital, with participation from Wintermute Ventures, Presto Labs, Flow Traders, Amber Group, OKX Ventures, GSR, and WW Ventures.

The project’s total funding has reached $37 million. In June 2023, the team announced the closure of two investment rounds totaling $22 million. 

Taiko is developing a scaling solution for Ethereum that is “as close as possible to the design and ideology” of the network. The company describes the development as a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine of the first type (zkEVM Type 1).

In January 2024, Taiko launched the Katla (Alpha-6) testnet, which will lay the foundation for the mainnet.

Blockchain Initia Raises $7.5 Million

Former developers of Terra and Cosmos have raised $7.5 million for the blockchain Initia, focused on rollup technology.

Interwoven rollups will bind together the modular future.

Initia is proud to announce our $7.5m seed fundraise led by @Delphi_Digital and @hack_vc along with prominent angels @cobie, @dcfgod, and @SplitCapital to build a network for interwoven rollups. pic.twitter.com/9RWxaqWbFu

— Initia (@initiaFDN) February 27, 2024

The investment was provided by Delphi Ventures and Hack VC, with participation from Nascent, Figment Capital, Big Brain, and A.Capital.

At the time of writing, the blockchain platform is in a closed testing phase. The open version is expected in the first quarter of 2024.

The project’s goal is to facilitate the creation of a Layer 2 network with instant support for various functions and Ethereum and Cosmos blockchains.

Also on ForkLog:

• Microsoft invested $2.1 billion in AI startup Mistral AI.
• Media reports: AI startup Figure raised $675 million from Microsoft and Jeff Bezos.
• Biotech startup raised $14 million for AI-driven vaccine development.
• Venture capital investment in crypto startups surpassed $90 billion.