Summary of VC Roundup: AI-blockchain solutions winning investors’ hearts

TLDR:

• The first quarter of 2024 shows improved sentiment surrounding cryptocurrencies due to the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January.
• Venture capital investment in crypto and blockchain startups is on the rise, with a focus on solutions combining artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies.

The first quarter of 2024 is showing signs of improved sentiment around cryptocurrencies, particularly due to the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds at the beginning of the year. This positive market trend could potentially boost venture capital investment, which has seen a resurgence after a period of stagnation. In 2023, venture capital firms in the crypto and blockchain space raised $5.75 billion across 58 funds, a decrease from the record-breaking $37.7 billion raised in 2022 across 262 funds. However, the last quarter of 2023 saw a 2.5% increase in venture funding – the first growth since early 2022.

Investors are increasingly interested in startups that offer solutions combining artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies. Some key startups that secured funding in the first half of March include Utila, Synnax, Sahara, TON Foundation, UXLINK, and TEN.

Utila

Utila, an enterprise-focused wallet provider, raised $11.5 million in seed funding for its institutional wallet platform. The platform serves institutional investors across various chains and has facilitated over $3 billion in transactions in the past six months.

Synnax

Synnax secured $1 million in pre-seed funding for its credit intelligence platform in the digital asset industry. The startup uses decentralized artificial intelligence models to establish an unbiased credit rating standard for blockchain technology.

Sahara

Sahara raised a $6 million seed funding round for its decentralized AI network, focused on creating autonomous Knowledge Agents for data analysis and offering data services for AI model training.

TON Foundation

Mirana Ventures invested $8 million in Toncoin, the native token of The Open Network, a blockchain project by Telegram’s team. This partnership aims to support the integration of Toncoin into Bybit’s offerings and Telegram’s self-custodial wallet, TON Space.

UXLINK

UXLINK, a Web3 social platform, secured nearly $10 million in funding for its social network platform that emphasizes two-way interactions and features a decentralized exchange for digital asset trading.

TEN

TEN, an Ethereum layer 2 network, raised $9 million in funding from a banking consortium for its encrypted layer 2 platform that combines optimistic rollups and zero knowledge rollups, offering privacy levels in smart contracts for developers.

Overall, the growing interest in AI-blockchain solutions among investors has led to a surge in funding for startups in the crypto and blockchain space.