 Of the top 25 highest-valued crypto startups, 20 have made at least one investment in another startup, according to The Information. Moreover, 15 of those have either already launched VC arms or are in the process of doing so. The dynamic highlights a growing gray zone between startups and investors. More: - Flush with cash from investors and token sales, these crypto startups have made 840 investments and have more than $10B in aggregate deployable capital.
- They include up-and-coming household names such as OpenSea, Solana Labs, and FTX.
- By far, the largest known investment arm comes from FTX, which has $2B in earmarked funds.
- The venture arms of crypto startups differ from traditional investors in two key ways: They usually invest from their own balance sheets, making their funding pot prone to shrinkage. Beyond that, they are more often looking for future partners or acquisitions, as opposed to lucrative exits.
- The effect these funds will have on the larger crypto scene is currently unclear.
It stands to reason that they could maintain the slew of massive rounds and high valuations of recent months despite falling prices for well-known tokens. - There is a source of stress for the companies that take checks from these companies: Eventually, they could grow up to become rivals.
- For the time being, most companies seem willing to take the cash and deal with the potential conflict later.
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New York-based insurtech PolicyGenius raised $125M in fresh capital, bringing its total raised to date up to $225M. The round saw participation from existing investors, including KKR, Norwest Venture Partners, and Revolution Ventures, in addition to insurance carriers such as Brighthouse Financial and Global Atlantic Financial Group. More: - The 2014-founded company offers a platform allowing consumers to compare and purchase insurance. Since it began operations, it has seen $160B worth of insurance products purchased through its portal.
- Since the beginning of the pandemic, PolicyGenius expanded into no-exam life insurance.
- This new business has grown by 30x in volume since its introduction, with the company writing $40B of new life insurance coverage in 2021, nearly 70% more than it wrote in 2019.
- Other sources of growth included home and auto insurance, which saw new written premiums increasing more than 6x from 2019 to 2021.
The wider lens: - Global insurtech funding took off in 2021: It set a new annual funding record at $13.4B, nearly double the $7B capital invested in 2020.
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 Crunchbase data show that funding for restaurant tech has risen from $800M in 2017 to $2.3B in 2021. The number of annual deals fell from 126 to 110 in the same period after growing to 145 in 2019. The average funding round correspondingly grew to $20.9M. More: - The main source of investor enthusiasm is the pain point in all restaurants: the kitchen.
- With high competition and tight margins, digitizing kitchens can make the difference between a restaurant surviving or going under.
- Digital kitchens can store recipes, track orders, and manage inventory, in addition to reducing food waste, cutting costs, and bringing in new revenue streams. This is particularly true for delivery-only restaurants.
- Uber founder Travis Kalanick identified this dynamic as a money maker with his new company CloudKitchens, which was given an $850M vote of confidence from investors last November.
- In addition to kitchen digitization, restaurants are shopping around for new POS systems, delivery infrastructure, customer loyalty programs, and other techniques to get a leg up on competitors.
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Optimism, an Ethereum scaling platform, raised $150M Series B led by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz. The round valued the company at $1.65B and comes just over a year after its Series A, which Andreessen Horowitz also led. More: - Offering a Layer 2 solution, Optimism’s tech is a response to the rapidly increasing popularity of the Ethereum network.
- Increased demand has strained the protocol’s ability to serve as the basis for decentralized apps, mint NFTs, and store/move money.
- With almost $500M in total locked value (TLV), Optimism is still a far cry from the leader in the Ethereum Layer 2 market. That position goes to Offchain Labs’ Arbitrum, with nearly $3B in TLV.
- The total TLV for all Layer 2 platforms exploded to $5.75B last year.
- As opposed to competitors, Optimism is a Public Benefit Corporation with an open-source codebase.
- That has already generated several popular forks.
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 Today’s Funding 💸 AI/ML - Synthetaic (Delafield, Wis.), end-to-end pipeline for AI-enabled solutions for data: $13M A led by Lupa Systems, participation from TitleTown Tech, Betaworks, Booz Allen Hamilton, Esri.
- Archeon (Besançon, France), CPR AI platform: $6.1M A from Karot Capital, Majycc eSanté Invest, Daphni, et al.
AR/VR - Ramen VR (San Francisco, Calif.), MMORPG developer: $35M B led by Anthos, Dune, participation from Makers, Andrew Chen, James Gwertzman.
Biotech/Health - Volta Labs (Cambridge, Mass.), streamlining platform for workflows in genomic sequencing: $20M A led by Maverick Ventures, participation from Illumina co-founder John Stuelpnagel, Khosla Ventures, Casdin Capital, et al.
- Apollo Neuro (Pittsburg, Pa.), wearable that improves the body’s resilience to stress: $15M A led by Noetic Fund.
- Nectar (New York, N.Y.), allergy care platform: $8M Seed led by Juxtapose, Obvious Ventures.
Blockchain - NexGen Cloud (Marbella, Spain), open-source, public Blockchain and decentralized storage platform: $14M from DARMA Capital.
Climatetech - Heirloom (San Francisco, Calif.), direct air capture company permanently removing CO2 from the atmosphere: $53M from Carbon Direct Capital Management, Ahren Innovation Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, participation from The Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund.
Consumer - Dscout (Chicago, Ill.), remote experience research technology platform: $70M C led by Guidepost Growth Equity.
- PingPod (New York, N.Y.), ping pong-on-demand: $10M A led by Sequoia Heritage, participation from KittyHawk Ventures, Draper Gain Family Office.
Enterprise - Cresta (San Francisco, Calif.), real-time intelligence platform for contact centers: $80M C led by Tiger Global, participation from Genesys, Five9, J.P. Morgan Chase, CarMax, Zoom, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Porsche.
- Shufti Pro (London, U.K.), AI-powered IDV solutions: $20M A led by Updata Partners.
- Anywell (Tel Aviv, Israel), workspace-as-a-servicer: $15M A led by Pitango, Viola Ventures, participation from Emerge.
- Sesame HR (Madrid, Spain), human resources software provider; $11.1M A from PSG.
- Mastt (Sydney, Australia), real-time analytics for construction portfolios and individual projects: $7M led by OIF Ventures.
- Rolebot (Los Angeles, Calif.), AI-powered job board for smart sourcing of diverse and top-performing teams; $4.5M from Data Point Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Jason Calacanis, LAUNCH fund.
Femtech - Dorian (San Francisco, Calif.), women-first game platform for creators, streamers, and players: $14M A led by The Raine Group, participation from March Gaming, London Venture Partners, VGames, Gaingels, et al.
Fintech - Kyash (Japan), mobile financial app: $41.2M D from Post Investment Corporation, Block, Greyhound Capital, SMBC Nikko Securities, Altos Ventures, Goodwater Capital, StepStone Group, JAFCO Group, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, et al.
- Payrails (Berlin, Germany), operating system for payments and financial services: $6.4M Seed led by Andreessen Horowitz, participation from HV Capital, Delivery Hero CFO Emmanuel Thomassin, et al.
- Onuu (Austin, Texas), banking and insurance solutions: $6M A led by Global Partners, participation from Ulu Ventures, SV LATAM Capital, Jumpstarter Ventures, Verso Capital, Capital Factory Ventures.
Foodtech - MeliBio (San Francisco, Calif.), non-bee honey producer: $5.7M Seed led by Astanor Ventures, participation from existing investors Big Idea Ventures, 18 Ventures, Skyview Capital, XRC Labs, Collaborative Fund, et al.
Gaming - Frvr (Malta), casual gaming platform: $76M led by Hiro Capital.
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Quick Hits - Connect with racing fans, car enthusiasts, and real racing legends.*
- Chrysler parent company Stellantis has created a $329M (€300M) VC fund to place bets on early and late-stage startups in the automotive and mobility sectors.
- Amazon has closed its $8.45B acquisition of MGM, despite criticism from anti-monopoly activists. The FTC decided not to challenge the deal.
- Google has acquired Raxium, a startup that develops light-emitting diodes for the displays used in AR/XR devices, for an undisclosed sum.
- A group of 250 French founders has raised $33M (€30M) toward a new France-focused seed-stage fund. Called Galion.exe, the maiden vehicle has a target of $88M (€80M).
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Inside VC's writer/curator Stephen currently lives in Berlin and is pursuing a Master's degree in philosophy. He otherwise spends his time trying his hand at recipes from India and Southeast Asia, escaping it all at the kickboxing gym, and offending aural sensibilities with his band. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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