Techemy Advisory Capital Chronicles: April 2019
Welcome to Techemy Advisory Capital Chronicles where we analyse and list capital raises, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), ICOs, IEOs and STOs that occurred in the blockchain space over the past month.
In April approximately forty-seven companies raised traditional capital amounting to just over $368M, but 55% of this amount ($200M) was raised by just one company. It has been reported that the parent company of the crypto exchange, Bithumb, received $200M in funding from Japan’s ST Blockchain Fund. This is the largest amount raised by an individual company in the year to date that we have recorded. Not counting Bithumb, over $168M was raised by forty-six companies, with thirteen of those companies not disclosing financial details of their deals. Eighteen more companies than the number in March (29) raised capital in April, and the total amount raised was also greater. April has ended being the best month year to date in the number of companies that have completed raises and the total amount raised.
In April, Digital Currency Group made four investments, Pantera Capital made three investments and SBI Holdings made two investments. Another notable investor in April was Samsung, who invested in the crypto hardware company, Ledger. Of the thirty-four deals that disclosed financial details, only six deals raised over $10M while the average amount raised of the remainder of the deals was $4M, indicating that a large proportion of the disclosed deals were seed rounds.
As predicted there was an increase in IEOs in April. Techemy Advisory recorded the larger raises and the IEOs held on recognisable exchanges. There were nine token sales in April that raised just over $100M, and six of them were IEOs. The largest token sale raise in April was Gate.io who raised $64M in an IEO on their own exchange. This is the largest IEO that we have recorded to date, as most IEOs have been around $5–7M.
The graph above displays the distribution of the disclosed capital raised over various industries. As seen over the last quarter the Trading and Investment sector is leading the way and in April it raised just under $79M raised, after discounting the $200M raised by Bithumb. Approximately 90% of the Trading and Investment raises this month were done via token sales, with Gate.io raising $64M in IEO. Approximately half of the companies in the Blockchain sector raised via token sales, with Celo raising $25M in a private sale.
We also recorded three security token offerings in April, amounting to just under $25M, with the Provenance STO raising $20M. 20|30 conducted their STO on a platform owned by the London Stock Exchange, raising $3.9M.
Nine companies were acquired in April, two less than March. The biggest name involved in an acquisition this month was Bakkt, who acquired Digital Asset Custody Company, a cryptocurrency custodian for institutions. Hu-manity, a company focused on providing consumers with the power to control and monetise their data, acquired Betterpath, a company which works on behalf of patients to search, find, and improve healthcare data. Four of the ten acquisitions involved cryptocurrency and securities exchanges.
Thanks for reading, we hope that you’ll find Capital Chronicles valuable. If we have missed a deal that you know of, let us know. You can access more data and insights from Brave New Coin. Feel free to share or signup to our newsletter for more insights. Remember to check back next month for the latest of Capital Chronicles.
Nawaz Ahmed | Techemy Advisory
Equity Capital Raising
Over $360M was raised in traditional equity offerings in April 2019.
01/04/2019 | VELIC | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment
VELIC, a Singapore based digital asset platform, has raised investment from B Dash Ventures.
02/04/2019 | Cambridge Blockchain | Undisclosed | Identity
Cambridge Blockchain, a digital identity enterprise software provider, announced today that PayPal has joined its Series A funding round. The funding is an extension of Cambridge Blockchain’s Series A funding round, which includes new investments from Omidyar Network and Flourish, a venture of The Omidyar Group. Previous Series A investors include Foxconn’s HCM Capital, Partech Partners, Future Perfect Ventures and Digital Currency Group.
02/04/2019 | Lucid Sight | $6,000,000 | Gaming
Lucid Sight, a blockchain games developer, has raised $6M to expand its digital scarcity-powered games to traditional game platforms. Leading investment bank and wealth management firm Salem Partners participated in the new funding round, as well as crypto and blockchain venture capital funds such as Digital Currency Group and the Galaxy EOS VC Fund.
03/04/2019 | Liquid |Undisclosed | Trading and Investment
Global cryptocurrency platform Liquid.com announced the first close of an ongoing Series C funding that puts the company valuation at over US$1 billion. This latest round of funding is led by investment firm IDG Capital, with participation from Bitmain Technologies.
03/04/2019| Offchain Labs | $3,700,000 | Blockchain
Offchain Labs, a startup building a unique smart contract privacy and scaling layer called Arbitrum, announced that it has raised a $3.7M seed round led by Pantera Capital. The funding will be used to grow the team of developers to build Arbitrum.
03/04/2019 | HealthVerity | $25,000,000 | Health
HealthVerity, a foundation for the rapid creation, exchange and management of healthcare and consumer data, announced its closing of $25M Series C funding round led by existing investor Foresite Capital with participation from Flare Capital Partners, Greycroft Partners and other existing investors. The new capital will support continued growth and investment in HealthVerity’s technology platform and go-to-market activities.
04/04/2019 | Blockskye | Undisclosed | Travel
Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) has announced an investment in Blockskye, a travel industry-focused blockchain solution developer. The Series A investment marks ARC’s first significant round of venture capital financing.
04/04/2019 | GEO Protocol | Undisclosed | Financial Service
GEO Protocol, a financial technology startup, has announced an investment in its seed round by CoinFund, a premier New York-based cryptoasset investment firm. The deal, which will entail close collaboration with CoinFund, follows more than three years of aggressive self-funded development of the project’s own technology and validates the team’s efforts and product thesis.
04/04/2019 | Trusted Key | Undisclosed | Identity
Trusted Key, a startup that offers decentralised digital identity solutions, has raised an undisclosed sum from Okta Ventures Fund.
04/04/2019 | MineHub Technologies | $190,000 | Mining
MineHub Technologies, an emerging technology company leveraging technologies, including blockchain, to develop a new generation of cost-saving applications, has raised $190k (CAD$200k), from Block X Capital. The MineHub platform manages high-value assets from mine to end buyer across the mining and metals supply chain.
04/04/2019 | O(1) Labs | $15,000,000 | Blockchain
Coda protocol, the first project of the startup O(1) Labs, has raised $15M from investors Accomplice, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and General Catalyst. With Coda, O(1) Labs has been building a blockchain that allows every user to participate in consensus.
04/04/2019 | Acre Software | $6,500,000 | Financial Service
Acre Software, a UK startup developing a mortgage and insurance application process for advisers using blockchain technology, has raised $6.5M (£5M) from Aviva and Sesame Bankhall Group.
08/04/2019 | Sparkswap | $3,500,000 | Trading and Investment
Sparkswap, a San Francisco-based decentralised exchange, is the first North American exchange to fully integrate the lightning Sparkswap network. They have raised a $3.5M seed round led by Initialized Capital, with involvement from venture capital firms such as Pantera Capital and Foundation Capital.
08/04/2019 | Next Big Thing | $13,500,000 | Internet of Things
Next Big Thing AG (NBT), a Berlin-based IoT and Blockchain Company Builder, has raised $13.5M (€12M) in a series A round led by Industrial insurer HDI.
08/04/2019 | Veratrak | $1,300,000 | Health
Veratrak, a London-based startup attempting to digitise the pharmaceutical supply chain, has raised $1.3M (£1M) in seed funding. The round was led by Force Over Mass, with participation from Seedcamp, Ascension Ventures, Blockchain Valley Ventures and TrueSight Ventures. A number of individual investors have also backed the company.
09/04/2019 | Bilaxy | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment
Bilaxy has raised an undisclosed strategic investment from LD Capital, BTC12 Capital, ZMT Capital and Origin Capital.
10/04/2019 | Moonlighting | $5,000,000 | Marketplace
Moonlighting, a marketplace for freelance professionals, has raised a $5M funding round led by the FinLab EOS VC fund, a joint venture of FinLab AG and Block.one. The investment will be used to grow their user base and to integrate EOS with its existing structure.
10/04/2019 | Robot Ventures | Undisclosed | Investment
Robot Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm has raised money from Bain Capital Ventures, Ripple Xpring, and “fintech-obsessed” angel investors.
11/04/2019 | Flexa | $14,100,000 | Financial Service
Flexa, a payment network uniting retail and blockchain technologies, announced that it has raised $14.1M in funding, led by Pantera Capital, 1kx, Nima Capital, Access Ventures, and other strategic partners.
11/04/2019 | Horizen Labs | $4,000,000 | Blockchain
Horizen Labs, a tech firm that helps businesses build distributed ledger platforms and intends to develop sidechain-as-a-service products, has raised $4M in funding. Horizen Labs initially aimed to raise $2M in seed funding, but overshot its goal and received $4M from Digital Currency Group, seed stage fund Liberty City Ventures, and other independent investors.
11/04/2019 | Monetizr | $520,000 | Gaming
Monetizr, a San Francisco based company that enables game publishers to increase and diversify their income, has raised $520k in funding from Alfabeat Venture Fund.
11/04/2019 | Path Network | $1,000,000 | Security
Path Network has raised in excess of $1M of seed funding, in order to increase capacity for mitigation services globally and to expand into the European and APAC regions. This seed round is a precursor to a Series A capital raise planned for Q3 of 2019.
11/04/2019 | Wisecoin | $7,000,000 | Blockchain
WISeCoin, has raised $7M in a pre-security token offering round. WISeCoin aims to launch its STO by Q2 of this year. The blockchain company is targeting to raise around $17.6M with the STO; however, this amount is not final yet. WISeCoin is the blockchain subsidiary of the Swiss cybersecurity company WISeKey.
15/04/2019 | Bithumb | $200,000,000 | Trading & Investing
The parent company of Bithumb, a major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, has received $200M in funding from Japan’s ST Blockchain Fund.
15/04/2019 | FXcoin | Undisclosed | Trading & Investing
FXCoin, a Japanese crypto startup, has completed a third-party allotment of shares with SBI Holdings. The development contributes to FXCoin’s target of launching a crypto exchange in Japan. FXCoin currently focuses on providing market information for investors.
16/04/2019 | Chainalysis | $6,000,000 | Enterprise Solutions
Chainalysis, cryptocurrency compliance startup based in New York, has raised $6M in funding from Japanese financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and venture capital firm Sozo Ventures.
17/04/2019 | Bolt Labs | $1,500,000 | Blockchain
Bolt Labs, a startup named after the BOLT protocol that aims to give lightning hubs shielded addresses for anonymous payment channels, has launched with a $1.5M seed round led by Dekrypt Capital and support from Ripple’s investment arm, Xpring, Lemniscap and Access Ventures.
17/04/2019 | Centbee | $1,300,000 | Trading & Investing
Centbee, a South African-based Bitcoin company, announced that it has closed its Series A round with entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, founder of Antigua-based investment firm, Ayre Ventures and CoinGeek. Ayre invested $1.3M (£1M).
17/04/2019 | KZen | $4,000,000 | Cryptocurrency
KZen, an Israeli cryptocurrency developer building a smartphone wallet app, has raised $4M from backers including Samsung, Elron and Benson Oak Ventures.
18/04/2019 | Prime Trust | Undisclosed | Cryptocurrency
OKCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, has invested an undisclosed sum in r Prime Trust, a cryptocurreny custody provide.
19/04/2019 | Utop | $3,000,000 | Enterprise Solutions
FPT Corporation and SBI Holdings have signed a memorandum of understanding to invest $3M into joint venture Utop, a Vietnamese start-up that bridges loyalty point programmes among merchants.
22/04/2019 | Artory | $7,300,000 | Art
Blockchain-baser art registry, Artory, has raised $7.3M in Series A funding from 2020 Ventures, Hasso Plattner Capital, and several private equity firms.
22/04/2019 | DRIVE Markets | Undisclosed | Trading & Investing
DRIVE Markets, an institutional crypto and fiat exchange, have raised funding from entrepreneur Calvin Ayre, founder of Ayre Group and CoinGeek.
22/04/2019 | Unitopia | $5,000,000 | Gaming
Unitopia, the blockchain research arm of Chinese game developer Electronic Soul, has reportedly received a strategic investment of $5M from Shuimu Fenghua Fund, Link Hui Capital, Jun Joint Venture, Digital Chain Capital and Super Brain Fund.
23/04/2019 | Alt Thirty Six | $10,000,000 | Financial Service
Alt Thirty Six, a digital payment and compliance platform built to help the cannabis industry go cashless, has raised $10M in a Series A round to help accelerate company growth and enhance development capabilities. The round was led by a private equity firm.
23/04/2019 | SOMA | $1,230,000 | E-commerce
SOMA, a blockchain-based software startup that integrates social interactions, e-commerce, and the tracking and authentication of items, has successfully closed a $1.23M (€1.1M) bridge funding round, which includes substantial investment from the Finnish Government as well as private angel investors.
24/04/2019 | New Internet Labs | $500,000 | Blockchain
New Internet Labs Limited, one of the earliest open-source contributors to Blockstack, has raised $500k from Blockstack.
24/04/2019 | Uniswap | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment
Uniswap, a decentralised exchange protocol, has raised funding from crypto hedge fund Paradigm.
25/04/2019 | Biki.com | $5,000,000 | Trading and Investment
Biki.com, a fast-growing new exchange headquartered in Singapore, has recently received $5M as a personal strategic investment from Jun Du, the Huobi Co-Founder and current CEO of Node Capital and Jinse.
25/04/2019 | Guesser | $1,100,000 | Prediction Markets
Guesser closed a $1.1M seed round to fuel the growth of their prediction markets platform. The investment was raised from Version One, Compound and Boost VC. Boost’s investment also represents the first ever venture capital deal done using DAI.
25/04/2019 | Ledger | $2,900,000 | Cryptocurrency
Samsung has invested $2.9M (2.6M euros) into Ledger, the crypto hardware startup. This investment gives the startup a valuation of roughly $290M.
25/04/2019 | MakersPlace | $2,000,000 | Art
MakersPlace, a startup with an easy-to-use blockchain platform for digital creators, has raised $2M in seed financing. The funding was led by Uncork Capital with participation from Draper Dragon Fund, Abstract Ventures, and a number of high-profile angel investors.
29/04/2019 | Experimental | $500,000 | Gaming
Experimental, a blockchain gaming studio based in Argentina, has successfully completed its seed round, raising over $500k from high profile angel investors, and Argentina’s government-backed venture capital firm YAVU, among others.
29/04/2019 | Phishfort | Undisclosed | Security
Phishfort, a tool which protects high-risk companies, such as crypto exchanges and token platforms from phishing attacks and scams, has raised an undisclosed sum from Binance Labs.
29/04/2019 | Truffle | $3,000,000 | Blockchain
Truffle Blockchain Group, a spin-off from ethereum incubator ConsenSys, and maker of the most widely used ethereum developer tools, has raised $3M to expand into enterprise-grade solutions.
30/04/2019 | Digital Assets Data | $6,000,000 | Financial Service
Digital Assets Data, a crypto-focused fintech and data firm, has launched after raising $6M from industry backers such as Digital Currency Group, Morgan Creek Digital Assets and contributions from Distributed Global, Galaxy Digital, CMT Digital and Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Joshua Brown, among others.
30/04/2019 | Editional | $1,500,000 | Gaming
Editional, a New York startup founded by a group of Facebook veterans, who have launched a mobile app powered by ether, that supports the creation and trading of unique digital collectibles, has reportedly raised a $1.5M seed round with backing from industry backers that include ConsenSys Ventures, Digital Currency Group and CoinFund.
Token Offerings
Over $100M was raised in various token offerings in April 2019.
01/04/2019 | DEXON | $3,000,000 | Blockchain
The DEXON public sale sold 15 million DXN in 5 days raising the hard cap of $3M on the Cobinhood platform.
02/04/2019 | Harmony | $18,000,000 | Blockchain
Harmony announced that it raised $18M in a token presale from Hong Kong’s Lemniscap VC, Australia’s BCA Fund, Singapore’s UniValues Associates and Silicon Valley’s Consensus Capital, among others.
03/04/2019 | Veriblock | $7,000,000 | Blockchain
Veriblock IEO hosted on Bittrex sold out in 10.4 seconds, raising $7M.
03/04/2019 | Celo | $25,000,000 | Blockchain
Celo is a decentralised Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol, with a mobile-friendly, ultralight client experience allowing anyone to securely send stable-value digital assets to any phone number, anywhere. Celo has raised over $25M in a private token sale of Celo Gold. a16z crypto has purchased $15M of Celo Gold and Polychain Capital has purchased $10M of Celo Gold, alongside additional Celo Gold purchases from several other leading institutions spanning the Americas, EMEA, and Asia, during a recently closed round.
04/04/2019 | MultiVAC | $4,200,000 | Blockchain
MultiVAC conducted their IEO on KuCoin Spotlight, becoming the first company to do so and raising a total of $4.2M. The first round raised $3.6M, selling 600M tokens, which was followed by a second special round to allow investors that missed out another chance. This round raised $600k selling 100M tokens.
17/04/2019 | Gate.io | $64,000,000 | Trading & Investing
Crypto exchange Gate.io has raised $64M in seven days for its own exchange cryptocurrency. Gate.io claimed that it was heavily oversubscribed with orders totalling $2.99B for the so-called Gate Points.
23/04/2019 | Bitsdaq | $5,000,000 | Trading & Investing
Bitsdaq, Bittrex’s exchange partner in Macau, Singapore, and Canada, announced that they’ve raised $5M in a private sale initial exchange offering of its platform token, BQQQ, on its platform.
24/04/2019 | Matic Network | $5,000,000 | Blockchain
Binance hosted the Matic Network IEO which raised $5M by selling 10B tokens.
29/04/2019 | Roobee | $1,000,000 | Trading and Investment
Roobee, a Blockchain-Based investment service closes the first IEO private round with $1M (200BTC) invested by a top Bitcoin Whale.
Security Token Offerings
$25M was raised over three security token offerings in April 2019.
10/04/2019 | Provenance | $20,000,000 | Blockchain
Provenance Blockchain, the administrator for the Provenance.io blockchain, announced it has completed a $20M security token offering to support the continued development and expansion of the Provenance.io ecosystem. The STO included broad participation from both blockchain and traditional technology investors.
15/04/2019 | 20|30 | $3,900,000 | Venture Studio
2030.io, a United Kingdom-based blockchain startup, has raised $3.9M (3M GBP) through a platform owned by the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The startup secured the funding by selling tokenised shares on the LSE-owned equity trading platform Turquoise.
15/04/2019 | PopCom | $1,070,000 | Retail
PopCom, an automated retail technology company that has built a SaaS & IoT platform for vending machines and kiosks that provides deep consumer insights and engagement for machine operators, has raised $1.07M from more than 2,117 investors and an oversubscribed waitlist. It is the first project to raise funding via crowdfunded STO.
Mergers & Acquisitions
9 acquisitions of blockchain/cryptocurrency related companies were made in April 2019.
03/04/2019 | WEG Bank AG | Undisclosed
Nimiq announced that it has acquired a 9.9% stake in German WEG Bank AG. This acquisition solidifies the strategic partnership between Nimiq and WEG Bank on Nimiq OASIS, a crypto-to-fiat bridge.
03/04/2019 | Tarmin | Undisclosed
Switzerland-based blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) and cybersecurity firm WISeKey has acquired a 22% interest in American data infrastructure firm Tarmin through a multi-million USD transaction, exact amount unspecified.
04/04/2019 | Daplie | Undisclosed
ClearFoundation announced it has acquired Daplie in order to integrate both companies’ core competencies into one product line upon which ClearFoundation will release new physical and digital home security and personal data storage product lines.
08/04/2019 | Blockchain Innovations | $2,250,000
Graph Blockchain has announced that it has entered into a binding letter of intent in connection with the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of Blockchain Innovations (BIC) and its wholly-owned subsidiary The Games Company, for $2.25M (CAD$3M). BIC is a leading international supplier of revolutionary blockchain technology for the sports, casino and payments industries.
09/04/2019 | Securter | Undisclosed
Digatrade, a fintech company who also operates an OTC digital asset trade desk for institutions, has announced the acquisition of Securter, which is developing a patent-pending credit card payment platform as part of its goal to become a fintech innovation-driven company.
12/04/2019 | Skytree | Undisclosed
Blockchain game developer Animoca Brands has initiated the acquisition of a 75% stake in Skytree, a Hong Kong-based mobile games developer.
29/04/2019 | Digital Asset Custody Company | Undisclosed
Bakkt has аcquired, Digital Asset Custody Company (DACC), a crypto custodian service.
29/04/2019 | eXeBlock Technology | Undisclosed
The Peerplays Blockchain Standards Association (PBSA) has completed the acquisition of a suite of software that will power use cases and growth on the Peerplays blockchain. The acquisition includes the purchase of 5050Labs/Sweeps, Bitcoin sidechain, and eXeChain software from eXeBlock Technology Corporation.
30/04/2019 | Betterpath | Undisclosed
Hu-manity.co, the company bringing individuals and corporations into a consumer-inclusive data economy, announced the acquisition of Betterpath; a New York company with unique technologies that work on behalf of patients to search, find and improve healthcare data that is currently difficult to access.
Disclaimer: Capital Chronicles is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide commercial, financial or legal advice. Nothing in this post constitutes an offer of securities or regulated financial products or financial services to any person.
