As the crypto markets bounced back this year,VC funding into Web3 projects has touched $6 billion.
As the crypto market has rallied to new highs this year, investors have made special note to pump funds into promising projects. According to Crunchbase’s Web3 Tracker, venture capital (VC) firms have already put over $6 billion into Web3 startups.
With only one month into this quarter, Crunchbase reveals over $600 million being invested in October alone. The third quarter of 2024 saw a whopping $1.4 billion dedicated by VC firms to Web3 projects. A lot of these funds have been flowing into startups that find themselves in the intersection of Web3 and artificial intelligence (AI) industries, highlighting VCs focusing on emerging markets.
Two Projects Bagged Over $50 Million in October Alone
In October, a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) project called Glow secured $30 million in funding from Framework Ventures and Unison Square Ventures. The DePIN firm is less than a year old. It aims to decentralize energy grids by tapping into the energy created by solar farms globally. This firm partners with solar farms barely making profits and connects them to those willing to finance them.
Then, it sets aside tokenized rewards for the financiers while having the solar power pooled with the solar power generated by other such farms. Those operating the solar power are rewarded, too, via the added incentivization derived from issuing carbon credits. Since these farms replace energy produced via highly emitting processes with sustainable energy, carbon credits roll in, attracting funds from the carbon markets.
October also saw another project raising millions. The privacy blockchain platform Nillion network raised $25 million from a group of VCs, like Hack VC, Distributed Global, and Hashkey. Influential crypto people like Ansem, Arthur Hayes, and Meltem Demirors, alongside executives from Worldcoin, Sei, and Injective, also pumped money into the project.
Nillion encrypts high-value data using decentralized methods like privacy-enhancing technology (PETs), multi-party computation (MPC), and homomorphic encryption. Essentially, it creates a private cloud environment for data that needs to be secured using decentralized nodes. However, it also offers non-blockchain variants for those wanting to secure their data through centralized means.
Other notable Web3 investments from this year include the fitness app Moonwalk receiving funding from Binance, the workforce-related platform Craftt securing $2 million, the payments network Borderless.xyz receiving $3 million, and more. Investors see tremendous potential in emerging niches within Web3, like DePIN, which have the capabilities of bringing change in real-world use cases. With two months left in 2024, more investments can flow to such niches.
