Venture capital firms are looking for new ways to invest in early-stage projects by partnering with blockchain ecosystems, as investor interest in the sector continues to grow heading into 2025.
In December, layer-2 ecosystem Morph announced a joint initiative with 14 venture firms, including 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 aims to accelerate projects on the network’s ecosystem, providing startups with access to investors and mentorship from the early stages to token launch. “We’re not just providing access to venture capital, but also compiling all the resources builders need,” a spokesperson for Morph told Cointelegraph.
The Web3 ecosystem has seen a surge in investor interest in early-stage startups, with venture firms launching new funds to support blockchain-based companies. Some of the firms that have recently raised capital include Portal Ventures, DragonFly, Pantera Capital, Hack VC, VanEck, and Parafi Capital. Collectively, these funds are expected to invest around $2 billion in crypto startups in the coming months.
In this edition of Cointelegraph’s VC Roundup, we highlight some of the startups that raised capital in December.
Brighty secures $10 million for crypto payments in Europe and the UK
Fintech platform Brighty has announced a $10 million funding round led by Futurecraft Ventures to expand its crypto-card payment services in Europe and the United Kingdom.
The startup offers users European IBAN accounts linked to credit cards, as well as custodial wallet addresses on Ethereum, Tron, Polygon, and Arbitrum networks.
“Europe and the UK have shown an increase in the use of crypto for everyday spending. […] We want to make crypto payments in the real world simple,” said Brighty CEO Roger Buerli. The platform reportedly has nearly 200,000 users across more than 30 European Union countries.
AgriDex raises $9 million to tokenize agricultural commodities on Solana
AgriDex, a Solana-based marketplace for real-world assets (RWAs), has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Sycamore Gap, with participation from Endeavour Ventures, Hawkwood Capital, FS Ventures, HU Investments, and angel investors from Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Palantir.
AgriDex enables on-chain agricultural trades, facilitating transactions in wine, coffee, olive oil, livestock, and even royal animals from Gatcombe Park. The platform offers instant settlements, transaction fees below 0.5%, and records on non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
According to AgriDex, it is targeting a $4.5 billion market for agricultural turnover. Some of the startup’s partners and clients include Circle, Plume Network, the Imperial Shipping Group, Parrogate Group, and Future Farm.
Yei Finance secures $2 million 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, along with angel investors.
The funding will support the launch of Yei Finance v2, an omnichain money market designed for borrowing and lending across different blockchains. The platform integrates Circle’s CCTP for native USD Coin (USDC) transfers, eliminating the need for wrapped tokens and third-party bridges. According to the startup, its v2 introduces isolated lending pools for specific assets and risk profiles, as well as yield-bearing tokens like yUSDC.
VanEck leads Superform’s $3 million 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, offering passive returns across leading protocols. In November 2022, Superform raised $6.5 million in a seed round, bringing its total funding to $9.5 million to date.
Waterfall Network raises $11.6 million 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 efforts to enhance node simplification, infrastructure, and blockchain scalability. The announcement comes after Waterfall Network achieved a performance of 12,778 transactions per second (TPS).
According to the startup, Waterfall Network is Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible and utilizes directed acyclic graph (DAG) architecture for parallel transaction processing and consensus.
As of December 2024, Waterfall reported 8,647 active validators across various jurisdictions, including South and North America, Australia, Africa, Eurasia, British and Japanese islands, and Taiwanese islands.
Union raises $12 million Series A for crosschain ZK layer
Union, a settlement layer based on zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, 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 joined the round, bringing Union’s total funding to $16 million.
Union utilizes 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. Additionally, 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.