The American arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.com secured $200M in seed funding at a $4.5B valuation. The funding is Binance.US’s first since its establishment in 2019. The crypto exchange offers 72 crypto assets on its platform and is certified to trade across 45 states. More: - Binance.US’s 24-hour trading volume averages $306M, as compared to the $3B and $197M trading volumes of peers Coinbase and FTX US.
- RRE Ventures, Foundation Capital, Original Capital, VanEck, and Circle Ventures participated in the funding.
- Gaingels and Gold House also backed the investments.
- Incoming funds will be used to further develop the spot trading platform, accelerate the development of new products, hire additional team members, and supplement its marketing budget.
- CEO Brian Shroder indicated a possibility of a public listing in 2024/2025, subject to its performance and prevailing market conditions.
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Tiger Global led a $350M financing into blockchain developer Near Protocol. Near provides a high throughput proof-of-stake blockchain network that supports smart contracts, rivaling other Layer 1 solutions, including Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche. Its token traded at around the $16 mark at the start of the trading day. More: - Near Protocol has a market cap of over $10B.
- Across five DeFi projects, its total value locked (TVL) sums to $315.5M.
- Incoming funds will be used to sustain growth across key regions.
- Participants in the funding included FTX Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital.
- It last raised $150M in mid-Jan this year, bringing its total funds raised this year to $500M.
- Three Arrow Capital led the previous round with participation from Alameda, a16z, and others.
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 A message from EQUITYBEE When you leave a startup job, you only get 90 days to decide whether you’d like to exercise your options. NOT an easy decision. In fact, 55% of US startup employees give up on exercising their ESOs. Some aren’t aware of the potential. For others, the cost of exercising ($50K on average) is too steep. Exercising when the future of your workplace is uncertain can feel risky. Still, you don’t want to be that person who lost out big just because they didn’t have the foresight (or the budget). That’s why Equitybee can be great when there’s no clear exit in sight: The good part? You only need to pay Equitybee and the investors back in case of a successful exit. Yup, that’s right. Apply for funding
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Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese gaming developer behind Axie Infinity, announced it had raised $150M in financing to compensate the victims behind the recent ~$625M hack of its play-to-earn gaming platform. Crypto exchange Binance led the funding in participation with investors Animoca Brands, a16z, Dialectic, Paradigm, and Accel. More: - The Axie Infinity gaming platform, which has over 2.2 million monthly players, suffered losses when hackers exploited the Ronin sidechain, extracting over 173,600 ether and $25.5M worth of USDC stablecoin.
- Cash from Sky Mavis’ balance sheet, along with the incoming funds, will be used to reimburse all victims of the exploit.
- The company’s revenue for the last 12 months to February totaled $1.3B.
- Axie Infinity itself has a $1.6B of “community treasury,” which could have been liquidated to compensate users, although it would have required a majority vote to do so.
- A16z last led a $152M Series B investment at a $3B valuation into Sky Mavis, in participation with Paradigm and Accel.
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German product-to-consumer software startup Productsup raised $70M (€65M) in Series B financing. Bregal Milestone led the financing round in participation with Nordwind Capital. Productsup works with over 900 global brands, assisting them with their omnichannel eCommerce retail strategy. More: - The Productsup platform processes over two trillion products each month.
- Prominent clients include IKEA, Sephora, ALDI, Superdry, HP, and others.
- The company intends to use the incoming funds to accelerate product development, back acquisitions, bolster partner networks, and expand its presence in new regions.
- The company claims to have grown by an ARR of 60% in the last 12 months.
- Per Pitchbook, the company has raised less than $24M since establishing itself in 2010.
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 A message from MALWAREBYTES Top trends in remote work and collaboration. Remote work has changed our use of tools across cloud collaboration, cybersecurity, backup, and other solutions. We asked people who look after security* for their organizations what is changing in their environment: - 78% report an increase in the use of cloud storage platforms
- 76% saw in increase in the use of video conferencing
- 73% noted an increase in the use of identity management and cloud access tools
- 72% reported an increase in the use of instant messaging
- 71% noted an increase in the use of cybersecurity and antivirus tools
There has never been a better time to get your team’s data, devices and servers protected. Scan, clean and protect all your devices and servers in one easy-to-use console. During our Spring Sale, save 25% for a limited time. Compare Savings *Malwarebytes 2022 Still Enduring From Home report
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Bain Capital Ventures led a $60M Series B funding into London-based fintech company Fidel API. The firm facilitates secure transactions through identity, data, and payment products. The funding was backed by previous investors NYCA Partners, QED Investors, and others, joining a new batch of investors that include Citi Ventures, RBC Capital, and Commerce Ventures. More: - The identity product is able to authenticate the cardholder’s identity, while the payment API facilitates reimbursement of payments.
- Fidel intends to use the incoming funds to double the workforce, accelerate product development, and develop additional product capabilities.
- Including the current funding, the firm has raised $88M to date.
- The company already serves the North American, European, Asia Pacific, and the Middle Eastern regions.
- Notable customers include Google, Royal Bank of Canada, and British Airways.
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Munich-based healthtech platform Avi Medical received $54.5M (€50M) in funding. The Series B funding was led by Balderton Capital. The company leverages healthcare data to gather insights about patients and provide evidence-based diagnostics and preventative care programs. More: - Incoming funds will help expand operations and increase the number of clinics to 100 across Germany by 2024.
- The company has raised over $87M (€80M) in capital so far.
- Avi Medical is currently operating in four German cities and serves 20,000 patients.
- Existing investors Heal Capital and Addition joined new investors Picus Capital, Vorwerk Ventures, Eurazeo, and 3VC in the funding.
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Quick Hits - Base10 partners received $460M worth of commitments towards its third fund. It last raised a $300M growth fund in 2021. The firm will continue to invest into the food, retail, logistics, and fintech sectors, averaging 25 investments per fund. With the new fund, the firm’s assets under management totaled $1B.
- San Francisco headquartered growth equity and buyout firm Turn/River Capital raised $1.35B toward its fifth fund, closing the oversubscribed fund at its cap. Employees and their relatives contributed $100M towards the fund. The firm also announced the acquisition of cybersecurity automation company Tufin for $570M.
- Waltham, Mass.-based AI-driven molecular and immune profile testing platform BostonGene secured $150M in Series B funding led by NEC Corporation. Impact Investment Capital and Japan Industrial Partners participated in the funding.
- Quincy, Mass.-based nurse staffing platform IntelyCare received $115M in Series C financing led by Janus Henderson investors. The firm was valued at $1.1B at the funding. The platform leverages advanced data science tools to estimate nursing requirements, which, in effect, gives scheduling flexibility to nurses.
- Illinois-based autonomous drone software provider vHive raised $25M in Series B funding led by PSG.
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 |  | Karan Chafekar is a Management Consultant, Business enthusiast, and Licensed Pilot. | | | | 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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