Be Safe and Be Secure, The Top 10 Crypto Venture Capital Raises in October

Introduction

According to DeFi Llama, 53 cryptocurrency projects secured funding in October. The total capital raised decreased month over month, with $310 million raised in October compared to $352 million in September, marking a 11.93% decrease. This decrease can be attributed to the uncertainty that we had at the start of October had.

Now, let's focus on the standout performers of October. Certain projects, particularly those focusing on security and modularity, attracted significant interest and capital.

Let's now introduce the top ten projects that successfully raised capital in October despite market turbulence. These projects demonstrate that innovation and determination can still triumph in the face of fluctuating market dynamics. Let's explore their stories and celebrate their achievements.

InitiaFDN

InitiaFDN (website) is a Layer 1 blockchain project that has recently stepped out of stealth mode, catching the industry's attention with its innovative approach. The project is designed to support modular rollups, aiming to change the crypto landscape by enabling developers to create interconnected Layer 2 scaling solutions. This initiative is set to address the scalability challenges that blockchain networks often face, fostering a seamless and efficient platform for decentralized applications.

The development team behind Initia has secured a pre-seed investment from Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Although the exact amount raised has not been disclosed, the investment signifies a strong vote of confidence in Initia's potential to impact the industry positively.

With the funds, Initia plans to accelerate the growth of its platform, which operates within the Cosmos ecosystem. The project will leverage the Move programming language, known for its security and robustness, to ensure the integrity of smart contracts on its network. This strategic choice aligns with other Layer 1 chains, like Aptos and Sui, which have also adopted the Move language.

Blackbird

Blackbird (website) is a loyalty and membership platform tailored for the world's most vibrant restaurants. It's an app that rewards dining experiences with access, perks, and its own cryptocurrency, $FLY. Blackbird's vision is to enhance the connection between restaurants and their patrons, fostering a community where good service and loyalty are mutually rewarding. Their mission is to reshape the restaurant economy by incentivizing beneficial behaviors and creating a more interconnected ecosystem.

Blackbird's initiative represents a significant step forward in integrating blockchain technology into everyday experiences, making it an exciting development to watch in the hospitality industry.

Recently, Blackbird has successfully raised $24 million in a Series A funding round. This significant capital injection, led by one of the prominent crypto venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), will be pivotal for Blackbird's expansion. Built on Coinbase's Layer-2 Base blockchain, Blackbird allows customers to tap their phone on a near-field communication (NFC) reader at participating restaurants, creating a unique non-fungible token (NFT) membership on the spot. This NFT membership opens the door to exclusive rewards and insider perks, such as special menu items and a personal concierge service.

With the funds raised, Blackbird plans to broaden its reach, aiming to sign up more restaurants and enhance its platform's features. The company has already made significant strides by enlisting around 80 restaurants in New York City.

Hadean

Hadean (website) is a spatial computing startup that's carving a niche in the metaverse and gaming industry. Their product is a distributed compute platform that empowers organizations to harness cross-cloud capabilities to tackle complex problems. Hadean's vision is to bridge the physical and virtual worlds, creating a seamless integration that enhances the user experience in various sectors, including gaming, entertainment, and defense. Their mission is to deliver scalable solutions that unlock the full potential of businesses and services, leveraging their technology to simulate real-world scenarios and support decision-making processes.

The company's technology is particularly focused on enabling mass concurrency, which allows a vast number of players to participate in online environments simultaneously. This capability is crucial for the development of expansive virtual worlds like the Otherside metaverse game, which Hadean is helping to scale.

Although the exact amount of capital raised in their latest funding round has not been disclosed, it is described as "meaningful" in the context of Hadean's previous funding rounds. The startup had previously raised $5 million in March, following a $30 million Series A raise in September 2022. With the strategic investment from Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT brand, Hadean plans to establish a U.S.-based team. This team will collaborate closely with Yuga Labs to enhance the Otherside metaverse, focusing on creating unique, live experiences in entertainment and gaming.

Neutral Exchange

Neutral Exchange (website) is an innovative platform that facilitates the trading of environmental assets such as tokenized carbon credits, renewable energy credits, and carbon forward contracts. Their mission is to bring efficiency, transparency, and trust to these markets, which are becoming increasingly important in the global push towards sustainability. Neutral's product is a sophisticated exchange platform that allows users to trade these tokenized assets with ease, providing a high-performance execution backbone for marketplaces and embedded offsetting APIs for consumer applications.

The company recently secured $3.2 million in funding from a consortium of investors led by North Island Ventures. This capital will be instrumental in launching a regulated exchange in Europe, with plans to expand into North America and Asia. Neutral aims to use this investment to build advanced market infrastructure for environmental asset markets, aligning with the growing demand for sustainable investment opportunities following the Paris Agreement.

Neutral's approach is to work closely with partners to create liquid instruments that mirror those in traditional commodity and debt markets, making them available for trade on its platform. By doing so, Neutral addresses the challenge of designing effective liquidity instruments for environmental assets, which often differ in methodology, location, and the year of intervention. This initiative is expected to enhance trade efficiency and catalyze growth in the environmental asset markets.

Convergence RFQ

Convergence RFQ (website) is a Solana-based on-chain crypto trading platform that is innovating the way trading is conducted. Their product is designed to support both spot and derivatives trading through a request for quote (RFQ) system. This system is distinct from the central limit order book (CLOB) and automated market maker (AMM) methods, as it allows buyers to request price quotes from sellers directly, thereby mitigating issues like slippage and front-running. Convergence RFQ's vision is to create a more robust crossover between centralized exchange liquidity and decentralized pricing mechanisms, aiming for a hybrid model that ensures the best execution for traders.

The platform is being built to be highly efficient and secure, with a focus on providing a fast trading experience without compromising on reliability. It boasts zero fees for trading and swapping on-chain assets and is designed to be capital efficient, allowing under- and cross-asset collateralized RFQs. Convergence RFQ's mission is to enhance the trading experience by providing transparent, secure, and free transactions, with the added benefit of zero knowledge transactions that allow for hedging before settlement.

Convergence RFQ recently raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round at a fully diluted valuation of $30 million. The round saw participation from C² Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Israel Blockchain Association, Auros Global, and others. The funds are intended to support the development and launch of their trading platform on Solana and eventually on the Ethereum Layer 2 network, Arbitrum. The capital will also aid in expanding their team, particularly in marketing and growth, to further their mission and vision.

Myshell

Myshell (website) is a decentralized platform that aims to democratize the creation and use of AI-native apps. It offers a comprehensive environment for users to discover, create, and stake in AI applications. With Myshell, anyone can transform their ideas into AI-native apps in seconds, leveraging state-of-the-art generative AI models. This empowers users to become creators, take ownership of their work, and earn rewards for their innovations. The platform is designed to be user-friendly, allowing for voice and video interactions with AI, and providing tools for AI developers to make their models accessible to a broader audience.

Recently, Myshell raised $5.6 million in seed funding, led by INCE Capital and supported by Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, SevenX Ventures, OP Crypto, and others. This funding round has brought Myshell's valuation to $57 million. The capital injection will be used to further develop the platform's infrastructure, expand its features, and grow its user base. Myshell also aims to foster a creator ecosystem on the blockchain, addressing challenges such as transparency and fair compensation for creators.

The investment reflects confidence in Myshell's vision to bring a creator economy to the blockchain, where users genuinely own their creations and receive fair compensation for their work. With over 30,000 creators and 400,000 users since its launch, Myshell is on a path to reshape the AI landscape by aligning incentives and cultivating a community where creativity and ownership go hand in hand.

Vaas

Vaas (website) is a Brazilian RegTech SaaS company that specializes in transactional monitoring to prevent fraud and suspicious activities in the financial sector. Their product integrates on-chain and off-chain data to protect institutions and their clients from high-risk transactions. Vaas's platform allows for real-time risk assessment of transactions, including cryptocurrency and instant payments like Pix, and can automatically block those that are deemed high-risk. Their mission is to safeguard the financial ecosystem with cutting-edge technology, providing a comprehensive compliance toolbox that includes payment monitoring, risk engines, and case management, all accessible via an API for seamless integration into existing systems.

The company has recently secured approximately $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by ABSeed. This capital will be channeled into the development of new products and the expansion of Vaas's business into traditional financial sectors, such as banking. With this funding, Vaas aims to enhance its platform's capabilities and reach, ensuring that financial institutions can operate with the highest levels of security and compliance.

Vaas's approach to combining on-chain and off-chain data for fraud prevention and its expansion into traditional finance reflect a strategic move to bridge the gap between the emerging world of crypto and established financial systems.

Noble

Noble (website) is a specialized blockchain, or app-chain, designed for the issuance of digital assets within the Cosmos ecosystem and the broader Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) network. It aims to provide a stable, secure, and seamless platform for asset issuers, drawing an analogy to noble gases for its stability and reliability. The project is a collaborative effort involving key contributors from the Cosmos community and has undergone rigorous development, testing, and third-party audits to ensure its robustness.

With a vision to supercharge the Cosmos network by facilitating native asset issuance, Noble has positioned itself as a cornerstone in the Cosmos and IBC ecosystem. Its mission is to create an environment where asset issuers can leverage the opportunities within this rapidly growing space. Noble's technical infrastructure supports essential functions like minting, burning, and managing digital assets, with security measures in place to maintain the integrity of the network.

In terms of funding, Noble, through NASD Inc., has successfully raised $3.3 million in a seed funding round. This financial boost, led by Polychain Capital and supported by other notable investors, is set to propel Noble's development further. The funds are earmarked for advancing the chain's capabilities, particularly in asset issuance and integration with other blockchains within the Cosmos network. The introduction of Circle's USDC on Noble is a testament to its growing role in the ecosystem, and the team is preparing for more asset integrations and the deployment of the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).

The Noble team is also engaging the community through campaigns and airdrops, emphasizing their commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive ecosystem.

SMLX

SMLXL (website) is a company that's carving a niche in the realm of public computing, with a focus on making decentralized computing more transparent, accessible, and useful. At its core, SMLXL is developing proprietary techniques to analyze Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode and contracts. This involves a combination of static and dynamic analysis, symbolic execution, instrumentation, and simulation, all designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of blockchain accounts and contracts. Their mission is to harness the inherent transparency and determinism of blockchains to create a more open computing infrastructure.

The company's vision is to enable a future where smart contracts and blockchain transactions are as searchable and interactive as the web is today. They aim to create user-friendly interfaces that simplify interactions with blockchains, making it easier for users to find applications and for applications to find users. SMLXL's approach is to go beyond the current norm of indexing logs and events, instead offering a deeper, more nuanced understanding of blockchain operations.

On October 24, 2023, SMLXL announced a significant milestone in their journey, having raised $13.4 million in a seed funding round. This round saw contributions from prominent investors such as a16z crypto and Greylock, as well as a host of angel investors.

The capital injection is earmarked for the expansion of their existing products, like evm.storage, and the introduction of new offerings that leverage their unique iEVM, data streaming platform, and program analysis tools. With these funds, SMLXL is poised to further their goal of making public computers more transparent, accessible, and useful, ultimately contributing to a more open and interconnected digital world.

Ryder

Ryder is changing the world of crypto wallets with its innovative and secure approach, aiming to make transactions simpler and more secure. With the launch of Ryder One, they are introducing a hardware wallet that combines strong security measures with a user-friendly interface.

Industry experts are recognizing Ryder's potential. Joe Vezzani, CEO of LunarCrush, likens the transition to using Ryder to moving from flip phones to smartphones, highlighting the significant shift in user experience. GM Chung from DeSpread also praises the Ryder team for their exceptional work and is excited about the never-before-seen Wallet UX that Ryder is bringing to the Web3 space.

Ryder's unique features set it apart from other hardware wallets. The TapSafe Recovery feature allows users to set up and recover assets with a simple NFC tap, eliminating the need for manually writing down seed phrases. The device itself is robust, with a security chip that safeguards every transaction and defends against malicious threats. The device is also designed to be tamper-proof, with no physical buttons, ports, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi, further enhancing its security.

Ryder has closed a $1.2 million round and launched its flagship Ryder One hardware wallet. The round was led by Oak Grove Ventures, the Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Muneeb Ali from Trust Machines, and SBX Capital among others.

October Crypto Venture Capital

According to DeFi Llama, 53 cryptocurrency projects secured funding in October. The total capital raised decreased month over month, with $310 million raised in October compared to $352 million in September, marking a 26.7% increase.

What can we expect in the coming month? We anticipate the venture side to rise signifcantly. This is is due to the great performance of the market. Bitcoin recently broke out of its year range and we will se more and more companies able to raise capital.

Nonetheless, there's still a substantial buzz around modular blockchain, and an increasing number of industries are trying to get into it. This should keep investors engaged.