VCs are betting on blockchain technology startups

Venture dollars continue to flow into cryptocurrency startups, even as markets remain largely muted.

Special, Uniswap Labs — the team behind the largest decentralized exchange (DEX), Uniswap — secured $165 million in a Series B round led by Polychain Capital, with participation from other investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant.

This fundraising, which is the largest funding round ever for a DeFi protocol, brings Uniswap’s total valuation to $1.66 billion, sources familiar with the matter confirmed with Blockworks.

Since Uniswap is not yet profitable, founder Hayden Adams said the company plans to use the capital influx to expand its products in an effort to become financially sustainable.

Crypto manager Coppermeanwhile drummed up $196 million as part of its ongoing Series C round.

The overall funding target for copper has not been publicly determined. But a spokesperson told Blockworks that the company has raised $181 million from new and existing shareholders. It also received a $15 million convertible debt-to-equity loan.

Copper’s latest fundraising was led by Barclays Ventures and Tiger Global Management. The company has previously received support from Alan Howard, Dawn Capital and Target Global.

On a smaller scale, Web3 infrastructure companies are also being watched by investors.

Chain safea firm focused on protocol implementation and cryptographic technology, secured $18.75 million in a Series A led by Round13.

Other investors that participated in the round included NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Sfermion, Jsquare, ConsenSys, Digital Finance Group and Fenbushi Capital. The funding will allow ChainSafe to accelerate its plans to develop Web3 infrastructure for gaming.

Scaling of startup Celestia was also on investors’ radars, closing a $55 million deal to continue development of modular blockchain technology.

The round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Spartan Group, FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

Other notable recent funding rounds include:

• Blockchain development platform Tatum secured $41.5 million in a Series A round led by 3VC.
• Singapore crypto investment startup Pillow raised an $18.1 million Series A led by Accel and Quona Capital.
• DeFi-focused hedge fund Edge Capital raising two separate funds of $66.8 million.
• Shardeuma split layer-1 blockchain based on the Ethereum virtual machine, closed an $18.2 million seed round at a valuation of $199 million.

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