Hello world, and welcome to Dove Dispatch #15!
Today, we are digging into the South American crypto fundraising ecosystem.
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Back in May, BairesDAO, an Argentinan group of 16 prominent crypto builders (Sebastian Aldasoro, Patricio Worthalter, Facu Spagnuolo, Alejo Salles, and others) announced they would join forces to start actively investing in DeFi and NFTs projects. Since then, they have invested in Tally and Exactly Finance.
More than $300M has been raised by South American projects in 2021, across 9 deals.
July alone contributed to 75% of the total amount, with some noteworthy deals:
Lemon (Argentina | $16M) — with participation from Kingsway Capital, Draper Associates, Valor Capital Group, Cadenza Ventures, Draper Cygnus, Coinbase Ventures, and Grupo Supervielle.
Buenbit (Argentina | $11M) — with participation from Libertus Capital, Scott Wood, Edward Moncada, FJ Labs, Galaxy Digital, Jaime Gutierrez, Jonathan Chu, Matias Nisenson, Nicolás Mindlin, and Patricio Worthalter.
2TM Group (Brazil | $200M) — with participation from SoftBank.
South America only represents 2% of the total amount raised by crypto companies in 2021, and 1% of the crypto-related fundraising deals announced.
CeFi is clearly the most attractive vertical with more than 97% of the fresh capital in 2021. With Mercado Bitcoin’s strong appetite for expansion in Chile and Argentina, along with exploding trading volume since launch in 2013, CeFi should stay the top vertical.
Last week 18 projects announced fundraising rounds:
Alethea AI ($16M) | Trusted synthetic media - with participation from Metapurse, Multicoin Capital, Crypto.com Capital, Alameda Research, Mark Cuban, BITKRAFT Ventures, Dapper Labs, Galaxy Interactive
OpenSwap ($1.5M) | One-stop DeFi hub offering the best on-chain pricing and multi-chain arbitrage and trading - with participation from NGC Ventures, Coin98 Ventures, BR Capital, Legos Capital, Double Peak, PrimeBlock Ventures, Illusionist Group, Leo Cheng
RSS3 | Open protocol designed for content and social networks in the Web 3.0 era - with participation from Sky9 Capital, Mask Network, Hash Global
DeFi Warrior ($2.3M) | Play to earn game - with participation from Signum Capital, HyperChain Capital, OKEX
Vera Labs ($3M) | Open financial platform for NFT's - with participation from Animoca Brands, OKEX, Shima Capital
CertiK ($24M) | A cybersecurity company, using cutting-edge Formal Verification technology on smart contracts and blockchains - with participation from Coatue Management, Shunwei Capital, Coinbase Ventures
Chainflip ($6M) | Powering cross chain swaps - with participation from Framework Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Distributed Global, Delphi Digital, Hypersphere Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, DeFi Alliance, Altonomy, Maven 11 Capital, Eden Block, Morningstar Ventures
Yield Guild Games ($4.6M) | A gaming guild that brings players together to earn via blockchain-based economies - with participation from a16z
Catalog ($2.2M) | NFT marketplace serving independent musicians - with participation from 1confirmation, Inflection, Delphi Digital
Fractional ($7.9M) | Buy, sell and mint fractions of NFTs - with participation from Paradigm, Divergence Ventures, FlamingoDAO, Variant, Delphi Digital
ARterra | Digital Collectible Hub for Esports - with participation from Woodstock Fund, YouBi Capital, LD Capital
Mobilecoin ($66M) | Secure payment systems for mobile - with participation from Alameda Research, Blocktower Capital, Coinbase Ventures, TIME Ventures, Vy Capital, General Catalyst, Future Ventures
Highstreet ($5M) | Digital marketplace where users can shop in group in virtual reality - with participation from Mechanism Capital, NGC Ventures, Jump Capital
Philippine Digital Asset Exchange ($12.5M) | Philippines based crypto exchange - with participation from CMT Digital, Ripple
Bitpanda ($263M) | Austria based crypto exchange - with participation from Valar Ventures, Alan Howard, REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners, Jump Capital
Ondo ($4M) | Risk-isolated, fixed-yield loans backed by digital assets - with participation from Pantera Capital, CoinFund, Protoscale Capital, The LAO, Digital Currency Group
Cyclos ($1M) | The first AMM bringing concentrated liquidity to Solana - with participation from CMS Holdings, Hashkey Capital, Coin98 Ventures, Huobi Capital, MXC Exchange, Gate.io
Figment ($50M) | Blockchain infrastructure and services provider - with participation from Senator Investment Group, Liberty City Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Declaration Partners, Bonfire Ventures, 10T Fund, GSR, Hard Yaka
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See you on Thursday for Thursday Thoughts #12,
The Dove Team