Ruceto tracked over $70 million in institutional
investments into crypto or web3 companies last week. Links to the target
company website, investment announcement, and token info are provided via
hyperlinks on the Target Name, $ Raised, and Token columns respectively.
| Target Name | $ Raised | Lead Investors | Description | Token |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Binance Labs |
Open, permission less, user-driven token security detection platform |
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Hack VC, Blockchain Capital |
Software platform built specifically for businesses to bring digital assets onto their balance sheet and into their business processes |
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Polychain Capital, Variant |
Perennial is a cash-settled derivatives protocol. It allows developers to launch any synthetic market with just a few lines of code. |
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Decasonic |
Building the first ever web3-powered universal loyalty platform for consumers and brands |
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Acuitas Group Holdings |
A decentralized, unified package manager |
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a16z crypto, Variant |
Web3 content studio and creator platform |
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Animoca Brands, Liquid 2 Ventures, ACTAI Ventures, Sangha Capital, and others |
The NFT for social good platform bringing together causes and their communities |
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Gumi Cryptos Capital |
Uniswap-based, perpetual, oracle-free options protocol |
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Jump Crypto, TCG Crypto |
A decentralized talent community built on Solana, leveraging tokens to make remote work equitable for web3 talent globally |
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Luxor Technologies, BT Growth Capital |
Bitcoin mining software and services company |
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Stillmark, Block, Inc. |
Bitcoin Mining in Africa |
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Infinity Ventures Crypto, Spartan Group |
P2P NFT exchange founded by Bored Ape Yacht members |
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Panoptic is a Uniswap-based perpetual options protocol. Liquidity providers deposit a single type of assets into Panoptic’s liquidity pool and receive an ERC20 receipt. These deposits can be borrowed by option sellers (who can borrow up to 5x the collateral value that they deposited) in return for a fixed commission fee. Short options (options sold by the option seller) are minted by moving liquidity from the Panoptic pool to the Uniswap V3 pool. Long options are minted by removing liquidity from the Uniswap V3 pool and moving it back to the Panoptic pool. Option buyers can only purchase an option if it has been sold by an options seller first.
Metagood is an impact web3 company. Per the co-founder, Bill Tai, “We launched the company on the concept of using NFTs as an expression where everyone does good things for each other and the good stuff is tokenized and exchangeable.” The company’s flagship NFT collection is OnChainMonkey.
Outdefine will be a member-governed decentralized hiring network for the web3 labor market that utilizes a native token, and is built on Solana. A prospect’s educational, skill, and work histories are translated into NFTs which are minted to their wallets. Tokens are also issued as compensation for referrals and community bounty projects, and can be spent or staked in return for premium services such as learning courses.
Perennial is a DeFi automated market maker with traders taking positions against pools of capital. Pools are funded by users who choose to be liquidity providers in return for fees paid by traders. When traders and liquidity providers settle up, the losing side pays the winning side in $USD cash rather than crypto.
Shibuya is a web3 content studio and creator platform that utilizes blockchain tech to distribute and monetize long-form visual content. This content is funded by selling NFTs called “producer passes” that allow holders to vote and impact the production of visual content, and represent shared ownership of the final product. Shibuya’s first in-house IP is an interactive ongoing animated series called “White Rabbit,” and the eventual fractionalized NFT for this series will be $WRAB.
Institutional Investors of Crypto
Aave Companies, the creator of a decentralized, open-source, and non-custodial liquidity and lending protocol on Ethereum called Aave, acquired the metaverse company Sonar at undisclosed terms. Sonar developed a mobile metaverse where players can create and use NFT avatars called Mojis.
CVP NoLimit Holdings Fund I is targeting $100M for a new fund launched in July 2022 “focused on global crypto assets based on a deep conviction that blockchain technology will drive value creation across most business sectors over the next decade.” The fund is managed by ClearVue Partners based in Shanghai. Per the Founding Partner and former Strategy Officer of Binance, Gin Chao, “We liked valuation trends in August, so we like them even better now.” The fund’s check sizes will generally be between $250k and $3M. Their existing portfolio includes Sui, Binance.US, and IQ Protocol.
Maitri Captial is launching two Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) regulated hedge funds with one investing in equity and tokens, and the other investing in NFTs. Matri will diversify across “DeFi, Metaverse, collateralised lending, security protocols and much more.”
Picus Capital, a global VC that is based in Germany and founded in 2015, launched a new crypto/web3 fund called picus.xyz. Their investment focus is “early-stage (Pre-seed to Series A) across web3 infrastructure and consumer, through both equity and tokens.” The investors believe that “the next major inflection point in the growth and adoption of web3 comes from the abstraction of complexity at the level of consumers and developers,” and they are looking for founders who will make web3 easier to adopt for the next billion users.
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Disclaimer: The content presented is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or professional advice. The content is provided ‘as is’ without any representations or warranties, express