Hello world, and welcome to Dove Dispatch #13!
We recently published our H1 2021 Crypto Fundraising Report. Go check it out!
Today, we are digging into the Celo funding landscape. More than 155 projects are building on Celo but we decided to focus on projects that have announced a fundraising round this year (we also excluded infrastructure and validation services).
Celo Dollar’s market capitalization went from $16.2M in December 2020 up to $53M+ today, showing how much traction the Celo ecosystem has been gaining over the last few months.
2021 has been a big year for Celo. It all started back in February when Celo raised $20M from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Greenfield One, and Electric Capital (bringing its total funding to $66M+). Another big milestone occurred more recently when Valora raised a $20M Series A, with Andreessen Horowitz, NFX, Polychain Capital, SVAngel, Nima Capital, Valor Capital Group, and others participating. Valora is a digital wallet for Celo that spun out of cLabs, the team behind the Celo blockchain.
Celo is no longer only focused on developing mobile crypto payment systems, and the network is now a true smart contract-powered that a number of DeFi and Web3 applications have decided to build on. The ecosystem is still nascent from a funding perspective - out of the 32 Celo projects founded in the past year, only four have announced fundraising rounds this year.
While Celo has historically focused on financial applications, a growing number of NFTs projects are building on Celo, including AwardPool. Some other promising projects have raised funds via grants, but haven’t announced fundraises yet, including Infibridge, Cent, and AgriUT.
While the Celo capital market is still in its infancy, there are large ecosystem initiatives aiming to drive projects into the ecosystem:
CeloStarter: a decentralized fundraising community, incubator, and launchpad — Symmetric, Pamp, and GaneshaToken have been seeded so far.
Celo Community Fund: launched in 2021, supporting projects that share Celo’s mission — Xeggo, Lovecrypto, Figment, and DuniaPay have received funding across two batches.
Celo Ecosystem Venture Fund: a Polychain-led venture, supported by founding investors Andreessen Horowitz and Celo, with the goal of investing in and developing the Celo ecosystem.
Celo Camp: a virtual 8-week boot camp with mentorship from industry leaders like Andreesen Horowitz, Polychain, Winklevoss Capital, and Dragonfly capital — Wildchain, Coinprofile, Paychant, and Kotani Pay have received helped across the last three batches.
Celo Foundation Grants Program: has supported 90+ projects in 54 countries, with $4.9 million in funding across the last three waves. IDEO CoLab Ventures is a partner.
DeFi Alliance Ecosystem Partnership Program: announced in July 2021, it provides mentorship and other specific resources.
Moreover, venture funds focused on Celo have recently been founded:
Virtuous Ventures: launched in 2020 by Amy Slawson, investing in early-stage companies that develop products for positive impact.
Flori Ventures: launched in 2021 by Maria Alegre, supporting a more inclusive financial system.
It’s also worth noting that many Celo projects are being launched in countries that have historically had poor access to venture capital. We’re optimistic that these ongoing initiatives will help to close that gap.
Last week 12 projects announced fundraising rounds:
Nakji Network ($8.8M) | An indexing protocol for organizing blockchain data — with participation from Animoca Brands, CMS Holdings, Primitive Ventures, One Block Capital, PANONY, and others.
Messari ($21M) | Providing the top research, news, metrics, and live data for crypto — with participation from Point72 Ventures, Alameda Research, Blockchain.com, Galaxy Digital, Gemini, Kraken, Diogo Monica, CMS Holdings, Nascent, and Underscore VC.
MakersPlace ($30M) | An authentic and unique digital creation platform powered by blockchain technology for digital creators — with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Uncork Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Sony Music Entertainment.
Nine Chronicles (2.6M) | A fully decentralized RPG powered by the players — with participation from Animoca Brands, Divergence Ventures, IDEO Colab Ventures, Sfermion, Hypersphere Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Sneaky.VC, Zilliqa Capital, Taureon Capital, ROK Capital, Cultur3 Capital, BlockCrafters, Stani Kulechov, Jeffrey Zirlin, and DSRV Labs.
Krystal ($6.6M) | A platform that brings you the best DeFi services under one roof. Swap tokens, earn passive income & manage your portfolio; all whilst benefiting from a rewards program — with participation from Hashed, Crypto.com Capital, Signum Capital, Blocktower Capital, HyperChain Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, LD Capital, DeFi Alliance, ArkStream Capital, and Coin98 Ventures.
TrustToken ($12.5M) | A platform to create asset-backed tokens that can be used for buying and selling around the world — with participation from Blocktower Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Alameda Research.
Aspen Digital ($8.8M) | An innovative technology-driven digital & crypto asset management platform — with participation from Token Bay Capital, Cherubic Ventures, RIT Capital Partners, Liberty City Ventures, Somerley Capital Holdings, Chatchaval Jiaravanon, and Chaval Jiaravanon.
Sense Finance ($5.2M) | Introducing a practical design that allows users to decompose a yield-bearing asset into its principal and yield components and package them behind two maturing assets, a Zero, and a Claim — with participation from Dragonfly Capital, Robot Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Nascent, Variant, The LAO, Collab+Currency, Jai Bhavnani, DeFi Dad , Ryan Adams, Noah Zinsmeister, and Mr. Block.
Onramp Invest ($6M) | A crypto-asset iPaaS (integration platform as a service) solution for financial advisors and investment advisory firms — with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Eterna Capital, Galaxy Digital, Fox Ventures, Gemini, Ritholtz Wealth Management, and WisdomTree.
ZenLedger ($6M) | An analytics startup that simplifies cryptocurrency taxes to help investors and tax professionals in portfolio management — with participation from Vestigo Ventures, Radical Investments, Migration Capital, Karl Muth, Jon Staenberg, G1 Ventures, Fourth Revolution Capital, Darren Lau, CoinGecko Ventures, and Centrality.
Matrixport ($100M) | Digital economy where you can trade, entrust, invest, and borrow crypto assets all in one place — with participation from DST Global, C Ventures, K3 Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners, CE Innovation Capital, Tiger Global Management, Cachet Group, Palm Drive Capital, Foresight Ventures, A&T Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Polychain Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital, and IDG Capital.
We have also added the following investors: Cultur3 Capital, BlockCrafters, DSRV Labs, Fox Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and many angels.
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See you on Thursday for Thursday Thoughts #10,
The Dove Team