20 most active VCs and their largest investment in the 2023 bear market

Top 20 VCs and their biggest investment during 2023 bear market.

Source: innMind

Author: Ivan Orlov

Translator: Odaily Star Planet

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If you’re a founder of a Web3 project, I’m sure you’ve felt the difficulties of starting up in the Web3 space this year. You may be wondering when this tough period will end, and our recent survey on VC sentiment might have the answers you need.

It’s worth asking yourself a few questions before seeking answers. What should you do now? How to tackle the current environment? Should you delay funding or IPO? Or, should you forget about the market conditions and find signals from VCs in the list below?

I decided to write this article for two reasons. First, I believe that for those who have been in a bear market for over a year and have lost money on investments, seeing some success stories in the current market may have a positive effect; second, this article lists the most active Web3 VC firms currently making investments, and if you have a demand, you can contact them directly.

DWF Labs

DWF Labs is a rising star in the Web3 VC field.

DWF Labs was founded in 2022 and is a market maker and investment company focused on digital assets. In addition to direct investment in potential projects, the firm also provides comprehensive services such as token listing, market making, and OTC trading solutions.

Although DWF Labs is a very “young” fund, in April alone, it participated in 10 investments with a total investment amount of over 53 million US dollars. In 2023, one of DWF Labs’ biggest moves was to lead a $16 million financing round for RACA, a community-driven, virtual world platform for game studios.

Hashkey Capital

Since 2015, HashKey Capital has been investing in visionary and creative entrepreneurs, focusing on blockchain technology, fintech, and digital assets. With its global influence and deep understanding of the cryptocurrency field, HashKey Capital has helped institutions, entrepreneurs, and developers promote the adoption of blockchain technology worldwide.

In April 2023, Hashkey Capital invested in 10 Web3 projects, which raised a total of $63 million. Nibiru’s $8.5 million seed round was one of the largest recent financings in which Hashkey Capital participated. Nibiru is a PoS blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem and aims to become the center of decentralized finance (DeFi).

KuCoin Ventures

KuCoin Ventures is dedicated to investing in the most innovative cryptocurrency and blockchain projects of the Web3 era. As a community-driven and in-depth research-driven investment institution, KuCoin Ventures works closely with its invested projects during the investment cycle. KuCoin Ventures particularly favors DeFi, GameFi, and Web3 infrastructure projects.

In April of this year, KuCoin Ventures invested in 6 projects, which raised a total of $39 million. During this period, the largest financing KuCoin Ventures participated in was Polyhedra’s $15 million Series A financing. Polyhedra is a start-up project that provides Web3 infrastructure supported by zero-knowledge proofs and focuses on building blockchain interoperability, scalability, and privacy systems.

CMT Digital

CMT Digital Ventures is a branch of CMT Group that focuses on cryptocurrency trading and blockchain project investments, and also actively participates in legal and policy affairs in the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology industry.

In April of this year, CMT Digital participated in 6 financings, which raised a total of $24.5 million. Fractal’s $6 million seed round was the largest recent financing in which CMT Digital participated. Fractal is an institutional technology infrastructure provider, and through its services, customers will be able to monitor their counterparties’ positions in real-time to reduce risks. In theory, this means that the same collateral cannot be used to trade with multiple counterparties to avoid the problem of user losses due to lack of transparency, as happened with FTX and 3AC in the past.

NGC Ventures

NGC Ventures, established in December 2017, is a well-known investment institution in the blockchain and distributed ledger technology field. As one of the largest VCs in the Web3 field, NGC has invested in many top blockchain projects.

In April of this year, NGC Ventures participated in a total of 6 financings, which raised a total of $149 million. During this period, the largest financing in which NGC Ventures participated was LayerZero’s $120 million Series B financing. LayerZero is positioned as a cross-chain messaging protocol and aims to bridge the interoperability between different blockchains and facilitate seamless cross-chain messaging between blockchains.

BiXin Ventures

BiXin Ventures has a close relationship with China’s leading wallet service provider, Bitpie, and operates jointly with Bitpie, benefiting from the latter’s extensive resources and influence in the blockchain ecosystem. As an early participant in the blockchain industry, Bitpie offers a variety of products including wallets, exchanges, mining pools (previously accounting for 5% of the total network hashrate), media, and more.

In April of this year, BiXin Ventures participated in a total of 5 financings, which raised a total of $153 million. Among them, BiXin Ventures participated in a $30 million financing completed by Sei Network, a Layer1 blockchain specifically created for DeFi, aiming to become the underlying platform of the future financial system.

Spartan Group

Partners of Spartan Group have rich experience in various fields such as public market investment, venture capital, financial consulting, and regulatory analysis. With rich professional knowledge, Spartan Group hopes to identify potential opportunities and maximize value in the decentralized financial environment.

In April of this year, Spartan Group invested in a total of 5 Web3 startups, which raised a total of $32 million. During this period, the largest financing round Spartan Group participated in was the $9.5 million seed round financing completed by MetaGravity. MetaGravity is a new generation virtual world infrastructure provider based in London, aiming to create a technical foundation for scalable and decentralized virtual worlds by building distributed computing infrastructure.

Circle Ventures

Circle is a technology company specializing in peer-to-peer payments. Circle was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013 and offers a mobile payment platform called Circle Pay, which allows users to securely hold, send, and receive traditional fiat currencies.

Circle Ventures aims to provide funding, resources, and community support for cryptocurrency startups and founders to promote the development of an open economy.

In April of this year, Circle Ventures participated in a total of 5 financings, which raised a total of $146 million. Among them, Circle Ventures participated in a $10 million financing round for Rarify Labs. Rarify Labs is building Rarimo, an interoperability protocol that enables assets, identities, and dApps to run across multiple chains.

Cogitent Ventures

Cogigent Ventures is an investment firm focused on Web3 infrastructure, metaverse, GameFi, DeFi, NFT, and other complementary verticals. The firm prefers to invest in seed and earlier rounds.

In April 2023, Cogigent Ventures participated in a total of 4 fundraisings, which collectively raised $13 million. The largest fundraising that Cogigent Ventures participated in was the $2.1 million fundraising completed by Tribe3. Tribe3 is a social and gamified NFT futures DEX, where users can leverage trade any NFT perpetual contract and participate in community battles, earn items based on trading behavior, etc. The mission of this protocol is to be an attractive social NFT derivatives exchange.

Arcane Group

Arcane Group is a multinational venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore. The firm is composed of diverse roles, such as analysts and development engineers, who focus on different verticals. Their collective expertise allows Arcane Group to find and invest in the next generation of innovators.

In April of this year, Arcane Group participated in a total of 4 fundraisings, which collectively raised $25 million. The largest fundraising that Arcane Group participated in was the $5 million fundraising completed by Gameta. Gameta is a Web3 gaming platform providing infrastructure and distribution services for casual games. The project mainly provides simple and fun mobile games for players to participate directly on their phones.

Alchemy Ventures

Alchemy Ventures aims to empower the Web3 ecosystem, developers, creators, and builders. The firm is more interested in investing in teams that lead the development of next-generation finance, computing, and ownership solutions.

In April of this year, Alchemy Ventures participated in a total of 4 fundraisings, which collectively raised at least $11 million. The largest fundraising was the $5 million fundraising completed by Intmax. Intmax is an Ethereum-based Layer2 network that aims to achieve security, low cost, and scalability using zkRollup.

Polychain Capital

Polychain Capital is dedicated to delivering outstanding returns to investors by actively managing their cryptocurrency asset portfolios.

In April of this year, Polychain participated in three financings, which raised a total of $74 million. The largest of these was the $42 million financing completed by Berachain. Berachain is a Layer1 network based on Cosmos SDK, compatible with EVM, and uses Proof of Liquidity consensus mechanism to provide protection.

Coinbase Ventures

Coinbase Ventures is the investment arm of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. They have provided funding support for many early cryptocurrency startup teams and have accumulated an impressive list of investment portfolios.

In April of this year, Coinbase Ventures participated in three financings, which raised a total of $15 million. The largest financing in which Coinbase Ventures participated was the $5.5 million financing completed by Dflow. DFlow allows market makers to purchase order flow directly from wallet applications and ensures that market makers will provide execution at the best price. DFlow defines the best price as the lowest common price aggregated for centralized and decentralized trading platforms.

Shima Capital

Shima Capital is an investment fund headquartered in San Francisco. It was very active during the bull market period in 2021 and has continued to make moves during the crypto winter of 2022-2023.

In April of this year, Shima Capital made a total of three moves, raising a total of $53.5 million for the projects it invested in. The largest financing was the $8.5 million financing completed by TinyTap. TinyTap is currently a subsidiary of blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands, which acquired TinyTap last year for $38.88 million in cash and stock. The company aims to enable mutual learning between family members, teachers, and students by creating personalized learning applications.

6th Man Ventures

6th Man Ventures was established in 2021 and is led by Mike Dudas and Serge Kassardjian. It is an early investment fund focused on innovative economic models in various fields such as cryptocurrency, technology infrastructure, media, entertainment, art, games, and creators.

In just the first half of May 2023, 6th Man Ventures participated in three financings, which raised a total of $9 million. The largest financing was the $6.2 million financing completed by Fare Protocol. Fare Protocol uses probabilistic smart contracts to provide new ways to play with dynamic tokens. Its “win/loss” system is similar to betting and will destroy/mint FARE tokens based on transparent on-chain probability events, but all collected FARE will be redistributed, rather than owned by the banker.

SuperScrypt

SuperScrypt is a blockchain investment firm focused on early-stage rounds that aims to provide investment and assistance to entrepreneurs and projects throughout the blockchain ecosystem.

In April 2023, SuperScrypt funded two Web3 startups that together raised $7 million in venture capital. The largest round that SuperScrypt participated in was Catalyst’s completion of a $4.8 million funding round. Catalyst is a decentralized protocol that provides permissionless liquidity between modular blockchains.

Sino Global Capital

Sino Global Capital aims to accelerate the development and application of blockchain by leveraging strategic investment to cultivate China’s investor base and technical stack. They have a diverse cross-cultural team with experience in finance, technology, and entrepreneurship, bridging the gap between East and West in terms of capital, culture, and technology.

In April of this year, Sino Global participated in two rounds of funding, which together raised $14.3 million. The larger of the two funding rounds was completed by MetaGravity, which raised $9.5 million. The project’s business was already introduced in the previous paragraph.

MoonBlockingy

MoonBlockingy is a new window for converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency and a market that connects cryptocurrency exchanges with users.

In April of this year, MoonBlockingy participated in two rounds of funding, which raised a total of $10.1 million for both projects. The larger of the two rounds was completed by Absolute Lab, which raised $8 million. Absolute Lab is a Web3 CRM solution with users including LVMH, The Sandbox, MoonBlockingy, and Mocaverse. The solution aims to enable marketers to gain critical insights into potential customers, unify Web2 and Web3 on-chain data, identify actionable segments, and automate cross-channel activities, including NFT airdrops throughout the marketing channels.

Draper Associates

Draper Associates, established in 1985, is a venture capital firm focused on seed rounds.

In April of this year, Draper Associates invested in two early-stage projects that together raised $8.8 million. Among them, Draper Associates participated in the $4 million funding round completed by Amboss, a lightning network data analytics company that enables users to make strategic decisions in routing payments through lightning networks using data, analytics, and social components.

Robot Ventures

Robot Ventures, led by Robert Leshner, is an early-stage venture capital firm that supports fintech and cryptocurrency companies with ambitious goals and unconventional perspectives.

In April of this year, Robot Ventures participated in three funding rounds, which raised a total of $51.7 million for the funded projects. Among them, Robot Ventures participated in a $5.5 million funding round for Astria. Astria is a modular blockchain that aims to enable anyone to deploy their own censorship-resistant rollup without relying on centralized sequencers.

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