Crypto Funding: A $46M Week With Top-Gaining Crypto Exchange

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Seven crypto startups raised just over $46 million this week, with Web3 payment platforms and an interoperability protocol among the fray.

Bit2Me, a Spanish crypto exchange, attracted the most capital this week to $15 million in a bid to grow its home-based business and expand into Latin America, a region of the world that venture capital firms are starting to consider as a crypto hotbed.

The raise was carried out by Investcorp with participation from Telefnica Ventures, Stratminds VC, Cardano and the YGG fund.

Leif Ferreira, co-founder and CEO of Bit2Me, said in a statement that his company has been working for more than two years to improve product quality while maintaining regulatory compliance.

This financing will boost our acquisition of new customers, in particular thanks to Investcorp, an international partner with significant financial power, and Telefnica, which will give us more channels in Latin America.

This fresh money news for Bit2Me comes a week after crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance came under SEC scrutiny for allegedly selling unregistered securities. Bit2Mes services are not available in the United States, according to its website.

A focus on crypto payments

Two startups focused on streamlining crypto payments raised funds this week.

First, Poko secured $4.5 million from top investors Y Combinator, NAZCA, and Global Founders Capital. Its two main products at present are a direct payment tool for smart contracts and an onramp aggregator.

Poko told Tech in Asia that it has more than 11 million active wallets using its payment rails in Latin America, India and Southeast Asia.

A second crypto payment processor, BoomFi, raised $3.8 million in a round led by White Star Capital with other investors including Kraken Ventures, Layer Zero and people affiliated with MoonPay and Stripe.

BoomFi allows businesses to accept a wide range of crypto tokens as payment. And the startup has an ambitious goal.

By 2028, it wants to enable one million businesses and merchants to accept digital currencies, according to a statement.

Other Notable Fundraisers Connext, a modular chain and Layer 2 interoperability protocol, brought in $7.5 million at a $250 million valuation. ResearchHub, a token social network focused on scientific discovery, raised $5 million. The platform allows anyone to earn crypto if they contribute new information to science. It was co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Data and analytics platform Mnemonic has locked down a $6 million starter expansion. Salesforce was the lead investor but partnered with Polygon Ventures, Orange DAO and others. Collectibles.com received $5 million from Blockchange Ventures and Peter Thiel to bring blockchain technology to the collectibles market.

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