The crypto venture capital community had a bustling week with several startups securing significant funding. From Aug. 18 to Aug. 24, over 32 blockchain startups attracted more than $202 million in investments.
Story Protocol Secures $80 Million
Story Protocol, a San Francisco-based startup, raised $80 million in its series B round. Leading the round was Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Polychain Capital, Hashed, Samsung Next, and SparkLabs Global. This series B funding brings Story Protocolβs total funding to $140 million, valuing the company at $2.25 billion.
Story Protocol aims to address intellectual property theft, particularly in the era of generative artificial intelligence. The companyβs blockchain network allows IP owners to store their creations on the platform, embedding licensing terms directly into smart contracts. This ensures that IP owners are compensated whenever their content is used.
Sorella Labs Raises $7.5 Million
Sorella Labs, another San Francisco-based startup, secured $7.5 million to develop tools designed to identify and process maximum extractable value activities on the Ethereum blockchain. The funding round was led by Paradigm, with participation from Nascent, Uniswap Ventures, Robot Ventures, and Bankless Ventures.
Sorella Labs will use the funds to expand operations and accelerate the development of its key products, Brontes and Angstrom.
Corn Gathers $6.7 Million
Corn, an Ethereum layer-2 network using hybrid tokenized Bitcoin as gas, raised $6.7 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital. Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal also participated in the round.
Corn aims to create a βcrop circleβ ecosystem that matches users, applications, and token holders to address challenges like insufficient liquidity and limited token utility.
BSX Exchange Secures $6.2 Million
BSX Exchange, a decentralized derivatives protocol built on the Ethereum L2 network Base, raised $6.2 million through pre-seed and seed funding rounds. Blockchain Capital led the $4 million seed round, with additional support from Bankless Ventures and Maelstrom.
BSX plans to expand beyond derivatives trading, launching a spot aggregator in September and several earn-and-stake products soon after.
Orderly Network Raises $5 Million
Orderly Network, developing a web3 liquidity layer, raised $5 million with backing from OKX Ventures, Manifold Trading, and Origin Protocol. The funds will bolster its capabilities in creating a permissionless liquidity layer for web3 trading across multiple blockchains.
Orderly currently supports six chains, including Ethereum mainnet and Polygon, and aims to provide deep liquidity for any asset across these networks.
Other Notable Funding Rounds
Other significant funding rounds include:
- Soulbound: Raised $4 million for its web3 social gaming ecosystem to enhance gaming partnerships, grow social interactions, and expand streamer bounties and social questing.
- Stork Network: Secured $4.705 million in seed funding to develop its open data market.
- Thalex: Raised 3 million euros ($3.3 million) in a series A extension for its crypto derivative exchange.
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