Avalanche rakes in £167m of funding led by Polychain

Avalanche

Avalanche, a proof-of-stake and smart-contract enabled cryptocurrency, has received £167 million in funding through a private sale led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital.

R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly and CMS Holdings also invested substantially by buying up the company’s native AVAX token.

Avalanche is an ultra-fast and eco-friendly blockchain protocol with a growing ecosystem of decentralised finance (DeFi) products.

Avalanche has experienced monumental...

17 September 2021 | Blockchain

Blockchain start-ups see record Q2 despite crypto plunge

Plant growing from coins

Blockchain start-ups worldwide raised a record £3.2 billion in funding during Q2 2021, in spite of the significant decline the cryptocurrency market has been experiencing since mid-April.

This data, collected by analytics firm CB Insights in its 'State of Fintech' report, represents a 50% increase over last quarter and a ninefold increase compared to the same time last year.

The global fintech industry also reached new heights in this quarter, with £22.4 billion being...

26 July 2021 | Blockchain

Blockchain Technology Partners raises £2 million for distributed ledgers tech

A collection of Sterling notes.

Enterprise blockchain firm Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP) has closed a seed round of £2 million.

BTP was founded in 2018 with the mission to bring the benefits of distributed ledger technology to business. BTP enables organisations to build multiparty applications by taking care of the underlying technology infrastructure. The company’s flagship offering, Sextant, radically simplifies the deployment and management of enterprise blockchain infrastructure.

Drastic...

22 July 2021 | Enterprise

Chainalysis valued at £3.6 billion after series E funding

ICO - ICOBox

The blockchain analytics and intelligence firm, Chainalysis, has raised $100 million (£72m) after its fifth round of funding, bringing its total valuation to $4.2 billion (£3.6bn).

Funding was led by investment management company Coatue, with further funds being provided by Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, Sequoia Heritage and SVB Capital.

This latest round of funding follows on from a successful series D round back in March 2021 in which Chainalysis raised $100m...

6 July 2021 | Big Data

Blockwall creates venture capital fund for blockchain startups

a pile of Euro notes.

Blockwall Management, a Bafin-registered asset manager, has closed its Blockwall Capital II fund. 

The target volume for the venture capital fund, which invests in pioneering blockchain startups, is up to €50 million (£42.97). The final closing is scheduled for the end of 2021.

The new fund focuses on equity investments in early-stage startups that can advance tangible applications based on blockchain technology and thus add real value to businesses. The venture...

29 June 2021 | Funding

Competition launched to uncover next big blockchain star

A group of trophies.

A competition, titled The Next Top Blockchain Startup, has been created to find the best startup working in the blockchain sector.

The inaugural competition is powered by GDA Capital in partnership with leading blockchain organisations. 

The two month program has the goal of accelerating the next wave of blockchain startups from around the world by connecting emerging entrepreneurs with the access to capital, relationships to industry experts, and a systematic...

23 June 2021 | Blockchain

Argo blockchain co-founders launch London IPO of new DeFi investment company

Dispersion Holdings, an investment company specialising in decentralised finance (DeFi) established by the co-founders of bitcoin mining company Argo, has launched its IPO on the London-based Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market (AQSE).

Intending to place 200 million shares at 5p each, Dispersion aims to raise approximately £10 million before expenses in a float that will value the company at around £25 million with first dealings in the shares expected to commence later this...

28 April 2021 | Cryptocurrency

How blockchain can accelerate the United Nations’ most sustainable development goals

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are becoming increasingly relevant in today’s world. The desire to both do good and do well is driving so many types of organisations and individuals to play their parts. Governments, impact investors, individual donors, high-net-worth philanthropists, foundations, non-profits, social enterprises and even many for-profit corporations have upped their game in improving society and the environment.

It is heartening to...

26 April 2021 | Applications

Singapore fintech STACS secures $3.6m to develop blockchain solutions for financial sector

Singapore-based fintech Hashstacs Pte (STACS) has raised $3.6 million (£2.6m) in pre-series A funding to develop blockchain platforms that can work with financial institutions’ existing infrastructure.

The round was led by Wavemaker Partners, which focuses on enterprise and deep tech companies in Southeast Asia, with participation from the Tribe Accelerator, a program for blockchain startups with support from the Singaporean government.

Since being founded in 2019,...

23 April 2021 | Applications

Weekly NFT roundup April 14-20: real-world applications grow through postage and insurance

The last week saw practical real-world applications of NFTs grow with the certification of CaseMail's NFT postage technology, as well as the development of an insurance system for NFTs, solidifying their growing importance in the blockchain industry.

CaseMail’s NFT postage labels first to be certified by USPS

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has certified CaseMail’s NFT-based postal tracking and content verification technology.

CaseMail tokens can be...

21 April 2021 | Blockchain