VC Roundup: Investors tap blockchain ecosystems to reach startups

Venture capital firms are seeking new avenues to access early-stage projects by partnering with blockchain ecosystems, as investor shows renewed appetite heading into 2025.

In December, layer-2 ecosystem Morph announced a joint initiative with 14 venture firms, featuring names like Pantera Capital, Spartan Group, Foresight Ventures, MEXC Ventures, Social Graph Ventures, Rockaway, Levitate Labs, Every Realm, Bloccelerate, MH Ventures, Laser Digital, Paperclip Partners, Public Works, and Borderless Capital. 

The group will accelerate projects on the network’s ecosystem, facilitating startups’ access to investors and mentorship from ideation to token launch. “We’re compiling all of the resources builders need, not just access to venture capital,” a spokesperson for Morph told Cointelegraph.   

The Web3 ecosystem has seen a surge in investors interested in early-stage startups, with venture firms announcing new funds to back blockchain-based companies. Among firms with recently raised capital are Portal Ventures , DragonFly , Pantera Capital , Hack VC , VanEck , and Parafi Capital , to name a few. Combined, these funds are expected to pour around $2 billion into crypto startups over the coming months. 

This edition of Cointelegraph’s VC Roundup features some of the startups that raised capital in December.

Brighty secures $10M for crypto payments in Europe, UK

Fintech platform Brighty has announced a $10 million funding round led by Futurecraft Ventures in an effort to expand its crypto-card payments services in Europe and the United Kingdom.

The startup offers users European IBAN accounts tied to credit cards, along with custodial wallet addresses on Ethereum, Tron, Polygon, and Arbitrum networks.

“Europe and the UK demonstrate an increase in crypto usage for everyday spending. [...] We want to make crypto payments in the real world simple,” Brighty CEO Roger Buerli said in a statement. The platform is said to have nearly 200,000 users across over 30 European Union countries.

Related: VC Roundup: Web3 funding hits $5.4B in 2024

AgriDex raises $9M to tokenize agricultural commodities on Solana

AgriDex, a Solana-based real-world asset (RWA) marketplace, has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Sycamore Gap, including Endeavour Ventures, Hawkwood Capital, FS Ventures, HU Investments, and angel investors from Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Palantir.

AgriDex enables onchain agricultural trades, completing transactions in wine, coffee, olive oil, and livestock, including royal animals from Gatcombe Park. The platform offers instant settlements, transaction fees under 0.5%, and records on non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

According to AgriDex, it targets a market of $4.5 billion for agricultural turnover. Some of the startup’s partners and clients include Circle, Plume Network, the Imperial Shipping Group, Parrogate Group, and Future Farm. 

Source: AgriDex

Yei Finance secures $2M to develop v2 decentralized lending platform

Yei Finance has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Manifold with participation from DWF Ventures, Kronos Research, Outlier Ventures, Side Door Ventures, and WOO, among angel investors.

The funding will support the launch of Yei Finance v2, an omnichain money market designed for borrowing and lending across blockchains. The platform integrates Circle’s CCTP for native USD Coin ( USDC ) transfers, removing reliance on wrapped tokens and third-party bridges. According to the startup, its v2 introduces isolated lending pools for specific assets and risk profiles, along with yield-bearing tokens like yUSDC. 

VanEck leads Superform’s $3M round for SuperVaults

Onchain wealth app Superform has raised $3 million in a seed+ extension round led by VanEck Ventures with participation from Polychain Capital, CMT Digital, Amber Group, Node Ventures, BlockTower Capital, Heartcore Capital, Maven11 Capital, and UpTop Capital.

The funding will support the launch of SuperVaults, Superform’s native yield products that automate non-custodial, high-yield savings. The first product, SuperUSDC, is a stablecoin vault for USDC on Ethereum, promising passive returns across leading protocols. In November 2022, Superform secured $6.5 million in a seed round, bringing its total fundraising to $9.5 million to date.

Related: BVNK raises $50M to expand into US stablecoin market

Waterfall Network raises $11.6M for blockchain infrastructure

Layer-1 decentralized ledger Waterfall Network has raised $11.6 million from Bolt’s Capital, Alpha Token Capital, and Enflux. The funding will support research and development to improve node simplification, infrastructure, and blockchain scalability. The announcement follows Waterfall’s performance reached 12,778 transactions per second (TPS).

According to the startup, it is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and uses directed acyclic graph (DAG) architecture for parallel transaction processing and consensus.

As of December 2024, Waterfall reported 8,647 active validators across a range of jurisdictions, including South and North America, Australia, Africa, and Eurasia, as well as British, Japanese, and Taiwanese islands.

Union raises $12M Series A for crosschain ZK layer

Union, a zero-knowledge (ZK) settlement layer, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Longhash Ventures, with participation from Borderless Capital and other venture firms. Founders from Polygon, Movement, and Berachain also backed the round, bringing Union’s total funding to $16 million.

Union leverages ZK-proofs for secure message passing, asset transfers, and crosschain transactions. According to the startup, its Ethereum to IBC bridge facilitates liquidity between Cosmos and other ecosystems, including Polygon, Berachain, Arbitrum, and Movement Labs. In addition, the startup is said to be developing Bitcoin interoperability solutions.

The Series A round follows Union’s $4 million seed funding announced last year, led by Galileo Fund by Anagram.

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