VC Roundup: Crypto fundraising grows, but investors are more wary

This edition of Cointelegraph’s VC Roundup features Parfin, Andrena, Blockscout, and Cartridge.

The crypto fundraising landscape experienced a notable increase in volume in July. According to data from Messari, month-over-month deal volume rose 72.9% to $1.44 billion, despite a slight drop in deal count to 177. Among venture firms, Pantera Capital and Mirana Ventures were behind the largest early-stage investments.

However, the growth comes amid increasing caution among venture capitalists. Adam Cochran of Cinneamhain Ventures noted that limited partners (LPs), primarily interested in outperforming index fund returns, are finding a better risk-reward ratio on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) holdings than on early-stage startups.

LPs are also increasingly concerned about returns. A recent survey by law firm Barnes & Thornburg revealed that investors are now more focused on liquidity and better earnings, with many pushing for more favorable financing terms.

This edition of Cointelegraph’s VC Roundup examines some of the startups that secured capital during the first weeks of August, with decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) among the highlights.

Parfin closes $10M Series A funding

Digital asset infrastructure provider Parfin has announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round led by ParaFi Capital. Other investors in the round include Framework Ventures, L4 Venture Builder, and Núclea. 

According to the startup, the total funding is expected to reach $16 million at the end of the second closing. Parfin will use the funds to grow its operations in Asia, Latin America, and Europe and to support the development of its enterprise-grade blockchain Rayls — an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain system that integrates permissioned and public blockchains for institutional clients.

To date, the company has raised $38 million in funding. Among its clients are B3 Digitas, a digital asset subsidiary of the Brazilian Stock Exchange, and Banco BV.

Andrena raises $18M to offer decentralized wireless internet 

Wireless internet service provider Andrena has secured $18 million in funding to launch DAWN, a decentralized autonomous wireless network. The investment was led by Dragonfly, with participation from CMT Digital, Castle Island Ventures, Wintermute Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, ParaFi, and other investors. 

According to the startup, DAWN offers decentralized broadband with multi-gigabit wireless technology, allowing individual homes to operate as network hosts through their own internet infrastructure. The protocol uses proof of location and proof of frequency to achieve trustless consensus. Andrena currently provides internet services across 10 states in the United States and has recently launched a Proof of Backhaul Validator Chrome Extension that allows users globally to participate as a validator node and test DAWN operator’s network speeds.

According to the company, participants earn rewards for staying connected, referring friends, and participating as validators on the network.

Blockscout secures $3M Seed Round for data exploration across EVM chains

Open-source block explorer Blockscout has closed a $3 million seed round led by 1kx, along with other investors such as Primitive Ventures and Gnosis, as well as angels including Evan Van Ness, Alex Svanevik, Kartik Talwar, Anton Bukov, and Stefan George. The platform offers an open-source block explorer specifically designed for EVM networks, thus allowing users to view more information about blockchain transactions, blocks, addresses, and other onchain data. 

The funds will be used to improve the startup’s product suite, improve user experience, and expand its Explorer-as-a-Service (EaaS) offering. Blockscout is said to support over 600 networks, with both an open-source option for self-hosting and a hosted explorer service. Its portfolio of clients includes protocols such as Conduit, AltLayer, Gelato, Chainstack, Astria, Arbitrum, Filecoin, OP, Base and Immutable.

BITKRAFT Ventures leads $7.5M Series A funding for Cartridge’s onchain games

Game developer Cartridge has secured $7.5 million in a Series A funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with additional participation from Fabric, Dune, StarkWare, Primitive, and Ergodic. 

The funding will support the recently launched Dojo 1.0, an open-source framework and toolset for developers working on blockchain-based games. According to the startup, Dojo simplifies the development and deployment of onchain virtual worlds, speeding up development time. The company is also behind a rollup-as-a-service designed specifically for onchain games dubbed Slot and Controller, a gaming-specific smart contract wallet.