Deal Flow – July 2019

According to our research, approximately 39 companies raised traditional equity investment in June 2019, and 27 of them disclosed financial details of their raises. These 27 companies raised over $311M. The largest raise ($63M) was conducted by the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) Project, also known as Fnality. June saw nine more companies than May (30) raise capital. More companies in June disclosed the financial details of their deals. Comparatively, there was also a much higher amount of capital raised, as we recorded only $67.2M in May.

A range of notable blockchain and cryptocurrency investors made investments in June. Multicoin Capital made three investments, Galaxy Digital made two investments from its own fund and two investments from the EOS fund. Other major crypto and blockchain funds that made an investment in June include Bitmex Ventures, NEM Ventures, Medici Ventures, FBG Capital, Digital Currency Group, Placeholder Capital, BnkToTheFuture, Binance Labs and FinLab EOS VC. June also saw many traditional Venture Capital firms and institutions make investments, including Kleiner Perkins, TechStars, Fidelity, DocuSign, Draper Associates, General Motors Ventures, TIMES Group, Intel Capital, BNP Paribas, and Gary Vaynerchuck.

The USC Project which raised $63M is led by major world banking institutions such as BNY Mellon, Barclays, Credit Suisse, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, MUFG Bank, Nasdaq, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS amongst others. The aim of the USC Project is to develop a platform to facilitate blockchain-based currency issuance. Of the 27 companies that disclosed the raise amount, nine of them raised over $10M and raised $242M between them. The remaining 19 companies raised $69M between them and had an average raise of $3.6M. Eighteen of the 39 companies that raised capital in June are based in the USA, seven are based in England while the remaining 14 are spread across 10 other countries.

There were five major token sales conducted in June, with the largest being conducted by Algorand for $60M on the CoinList platform. The four remaining token sales were IEOs which were conducted on KuCoin, OKEX, Bittrex and Tokinex. Collectively these four IEOs raised $11.35M, with an average raise amount of $2.8M. Tokinex hosted their first IEO of 2019 and raised $5.1M for Ampleforth. Three of the five companies that did token sales are based in the US, while the other two are based in Israel and China.

Equity and Token Sale Amounts for Different Industries in June 2019

The graph above displays the distribution of the disclosed capital raised and token sales over various industries. Companies in the Blockchain sector raised just under $150M and token sales accounted for 42.4% of those. The next largest sector was the Financial Services sector which raised just over $73M. There were three equity raises and three token sales in the Financial Services sector, but the equity raises contributed 89% of the $73M. The ‘Other’ category which raised $62M, consisted of companies in the Gaming, Media and Entertainment, Governance, HR and Communications industries.

In June we saw one security token offering which was a tokenized building. AnnA Villa, a luxury building in Paris valued at $7.3M (€6.5M), was tokenized and sold to French real estate companies, Sapeb Immobilier and Valorcim. Since April, we have seen at least one security token offering conducted per month, while many more are being announced. M&A activity picked up again as we recorded six acquisitions in June. None of the six disclosed any financial details of their deals. CoinMarketCap, BnkToTheFuture, Blockchains, Paysend, Celsius Network and Coin Metrics were the companies that made the acquisitions. Two of the acquired companies are data companies, while the other companies are in the Blockchain, Trading and Investment, Enterprise Solutions and Financial Services industries.

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Equity Capital Raising

Over $311M was raised in traditional equity offerings in June 2019.

03/06/2019 | Samourai Wallet | $100,000 | Cryptocurrency | England

Samourai Wallet, a privacy focussed bitcoin wallet, has raised $100K from Cypherpunk Holdings.

03/06/2019 | Utility Settlement Coin (USC) | $63,000,000 | Financial Services | England

The USC project, which is led by major world banking institutions such as BNY Mellon, Barclays, Credit Suisse, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, MUFG Bank, Nasdaq, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS amongst others, has formed a new firm called Fnality International as founding shareholders. The aim of the USC is to develop a platform to facilitate blockchain-based currency issuance. Fnality has closed a Series A round of $63.2M (£50M).

03/06/2019| PDAX | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment | Philippines

PDAX, the Philippines Digital Asset Exchange, has partnered with and received investment from BitMEX Ventures, the venture arm of the crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX.

04/06/2019 | Mobi | Undisclosed | Transport | Australia

Mobi, an Australian ridesharing startup that is using blockchain to manage payments within the app, has raised an undisclosed seed investment from NEM Ventures.

04/06/2019 | Archax | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment | England

Archax, a forthcoming institutional tokenized securities exchange, has raised an undisclosed sum from Bletchley Park Asset Management, a Jersey-based growth-oriented blockchain investment firm.

04/06/2019 | Fluree | $4,700,000 | Blockchain | USA

Fluree, a startup aiming to bring the immutability offered by distributed ledger technologies to traditional database management, has raised $4.7M in a seed round led by 4490 Ventures with participation from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

05/06/2019 | Azarus | $1,800,000 | Gaming | USA

Azarus, a startup building a blockchain-based ‘Smart Challenge’ platform, has raised $1.8M in a seed round from Galaxy Digital’s Galaxy EOS VC Fund, Kleiner Perkins, and SVK Crypto, among others.

06/06/2019 | BanQu | Undisclosed | Blockchain | USA

BanQu raised a Series A extension round from ZX Ventures/AB InBev to continue its geographic expansion and product development in the supply chain transparency and traceability space for global brands.

06/06/2019 | Voatz | $7,000,000 | Governance | USA

Voatz, a mobile-focused voting and citizen engagement platform, announced today that it has raised $7 million in Series A funding led by Medici Ventures and Techstars with participation from Urban Innovation Fund and Oakhouse Partners.

10/06/2019 | BiKi Exchange | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment | China

Biki Exchange has received investment from FBG Capital and Genesis Capital.

10/06/2019 | Breez | Undisclosed | Cryptocurrency | Israel

Breez Development, an Israeli firm that has developed an online cryptocurrency wallet with the aim of improving crypto payment processing, has raised an undisclosed amount from Recruit Co, through the Recruit RSP Fund №6.

10/06/2019 | Propy | Undisclosed | Property | USA

Propy, a blockchain-based real estate startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from REACH accelerator, the venture capital arm of the US National Association of Realtors.

11/06/2019 | Most Caffeine | $50,000,000 | Blockchain | Saudi Arabia

Most Caffeine, a blockchain firm that has developed the ABS blockchain, has raised $50M from a Saudi investment firm to expand ABS into the Middle East market to provide data security solutions.

11/06/2019 | Fireblocks | $16,000,000 | Cryptocurrency | USA

Fireblocks, a firm that has built a platform to secure digital assets in transit, has raised $16M in a Series A round with participation from Cyberstarts, Tenaya Capital, and Fidelity’s investment arm, Eight Roads.

12/06/2019 | Funderbeam | $4,500,000 | Trading and Investment | England

Funderbeam, a funding and trading platform for private companies that uses blockchain technology for its ledger, has raised $4.5M in a Series A round led by Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and includes new investors such as GK-Plug and Play Indonesia, and Pandan Ventures. Existing investors Draper Associates, Draper Venture Partners, IQ Capital, and Mistletoe also followed on.

12/06/2019 | Helium | $15,000,000 | Wifi | USA

Helium, a company building a peer-to-peer wireless network that pays people who operate hotspots in Helium tokens, has raised $15M in a Series C round co-led by Union Square Ventures and Multicoin Capital.

12/06/2019 | Spring Labs | $23,000,000 | Blockchain | USA

Spring Labs, a firm developing the Spring Protocol, has raised $23M in a Series A round led by GreatPoint Ventures with participation from August Capital, as well as General Motors Ventures, RRE Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, The Pritzker Group, and CardWorks.

13/06/2019 | Bitrefill | $2,000,000 | Financial Services | Sweden

Bitrefill, a company that issues cryptocurrency gift cards and is working on lighting enabled payment services, has raised $2M for global expansion in a round led by Coin Ninja, with participation from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Fulgur Ventures and BnkToTheFuture.

13/06/2019 | Uplandme | $2,000,000 | Gaming | USA

Uplandme, a startup making a digital property trading game on EOS, has raised investment from the FinLab EOS VC Fund and angel investors.

17/06/2019 | BlockClaim | $630,000 | Financial Services | England

BlockClaim, an AI and blockchain insurance solution, has raised a seed round of $630k (£500k) from investors including Amadeus Capital Partners, Pragmatica and insurance business angels Toby Clarke, Alan Armitage, and Ninety CIC.

18/06/2019 | BlockCerts | $25,000,000 | Enterprise Solutions | Canada

BlockCerts, a company that provides an integrated blockchain SaaS solution, has raised $25M in investment from Hillcore Group and Robson Financial Group.

19/06/2019 | Elrond | $1,900,000 | Blockchain | Malta

Elrond, the sharding-based public blockchain network, has raised $1.9M from Binance Labs, Electric Capital, NGC Partners, Maven 11, and Authorito Capital. The round included investments from angel investors in the UK, India, Israel, Asia, and Europe.

19/06/2019 | Indorse | $6,500,000 | HR | Singapore

Indorse, a skills-based endorsement platform built on a blockchain, has raised $6.5M from Brand Capital, the strategic investment arm of The Times Group, an Indian media house.

19/06/2019 | Livepeer | $8,000,000 | Media & Entertainment | USA

Livepeer, an Ethereum based video encoding platform, has raised $8M in a Series A round led by Northzone. Digital Currency Group, Libertus, Collaborative Fund, Notation Capital, Compound, North Island and StakeZero also contributed to the round.

20/06/2019 | Streamanity | Undisclosed | Media & Entertainment | England

Streamanity, a video platform built on Bitcoin SV, has raised investment from Calvin Ayre.

20/06/2019 | Token | $16,500,000 | Cryptocurrency | USA

Token, a firm building a platform to facilitate low-cost cross border payments with stablecoins, has raised $16.5M from Opera Tech Ventures, the venture arm of BNP Paribas, Octopus Ventures and EQT Ventures.

20/06/2019 | Roll | $1,700,000 | Media & Entertainment

Roll, a social cryptocurrency startup built to help content creators monetize their relationships with followers, has raised a $1.7M seed round. The round was led by Arthur Hayes, the CEO of BitMEX. Other investors include Gary Vaynerchuk, Techstars Ventures, Hustle Fund, and Techstars NYC.

21/06/2019 | ReCheck | Undisclosed | Enterprise Solutions | Netherlands

ReCheck, a startup building a tool for secure document storing and management on the blockchain has raised investment from æternity Ventures, the investment arm of the æternity Blockchain.

24/06/2019 | Ockam | $3,200,000 | Enterprise Solutions | USA

Ockam, a company building enterprise-level IoT and blockchain products for a connected future, has raised $3.2M in a seed round from SGH Capital, Okta Ventures, Future Ventures, and Core Venture Group.

25/06/2019 | SCI Ventures | Undisclosed | Financial Services | Philippines

SCI Ventures, a blockchain and digital asset platform that was funded by Kakau Investment, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from P.J. Lhuillier, Inc. (PJLI), parent company of Cebuana Lhuillier, the largest non-bank financial services provider in the Philippines with 2,500 branches nationwide.

25/06/2019 | Kraken | $13,500,000 | Trading and Investment | USA

Kraken, a regulated spot and futures crypto exchange, has raised $13.5M in a funding round on the investment platform Bnk To The Future.

26/06/2019 | Atlas City Global | $4,000,000 | Blockchain | England

Atlas City Global, a startup focusing on building a full suite of blockchain products, has raised $4M in seed investment from Robert A Hefner III and a number of other high net-worth individuals.

26/06/2019 | ICOFY | $5,000,000 | Trading and Investment | Seychelles

ICOFY, a company that has created an Initial Dapp Offering platform to connect investors and blockchain projects has raised $5M in a private funding round.

26/06/2019 | dfuse | $3,500,000 | Enterprise Solutions | USA

dfuse, a blockchain API company, has raised a $3.5M seed round led by Multicoin Capital and Intel Capital. dfuse was co-founded by Diagram Ventures, which also participated in the round. Also participating in the round were BoxOne Ventures, Panache Ventures, and White Star Capital.

26/06/2019 | imgur | $20,000,000 | Media and Entertainment | USA

Imgur, a well-known image hosting site, has raised $20M in venture equity from Coil, a crypto micropayment tool for content creators. In addition to the investment, Imgur will build Coil into its platform.

26/06/2019 | iownit.us | $4,500,000 | Trading and Investment | USA

iownit Capital and Markets, a platform built on a permissioned blockchain to provide investment infrastructure for investors into privately held companies, today announced the closure of a funding round worth $4.5M, led by a group of private investors.

27/06/2019 | Balance | Undisclosed | Financial Services | Canada

Balance, a firm with plans to become the first institutional-grade cryptocurrency custodian with integration for the Aion Blockchain, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bicameral Ventures.

27/06/2019 | Clause | $5,500,000 | Enterprise Solutions | USA

Clause, a startup building blockchain-powered solutions for business to manage the creation, storage, and maintenance of digital contracts, has raised $5.5M in a Series A round led by Galaxy Digital, participants in the round also included DocuSign, Galaxy Digital’s EOS Venture Capital Fund, BN Capital at Lerer Hippeau and London-based Seedcamp.

27/06/2019 | 3Box | $2,500,000 | Blockchain | USA

3Box, a startup building ID tools for Dapp devs, has raised a $2.5M seed round led by Placeholder Ventures. Venrock, Northzone, and CoinFund also participated in the round.

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Token Offerings

Over $71M was raised in token sales in June 2019.

04/06/2019 | COTI | $3,000,000 | Financial Services | Israel

COTI conducted an IEO on KuCoin’s Spotlight platform selling 46M tokens (2.3% of the total COTI supply) and raising $3M.

10/06/2019 | En-Tan-Mo | $2,500,000 | Blockchain | China

En-Tan-Mo conducted an IEO on the OKEx Jumpstart platform and raised $2.5M by selling 25M tokens.

11/06/2019 | Standard Tokenization Protocol| $750,000 | Blockchain | USA

Standard Tokenization Protocol conducted an IEO on Bittrex, selling 75M tokens within 8 seconds to raise $750k.

13/06/2019 | Ampleforth | $5,100,000 | Financial Services | USA

Ampleforth conducted an IEO on the Tokinex platform, the first on the platform. The sale sold out in 11 seconds and raised $5M, but due to high demand, Tokinex conducted a “Last-Chance” sale on the 27th of June and raised a further $100k.

19/06/2019 | Algorand | $60,000,000 | Blockchain | USA

Algorand, a proof-of-stake blockchain, has raised over $60M in a token sale on Coinlist.

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Security Token Offerings

30/06/2019 | AnnA Villa | $7,300,000 | Property | France

AnnA Villa, a luxury building in Paris valued at $7.3M (€6.5M), was sold to French real estate companies, Sapeb Immobilier and Valorcim in a Security Token Offering.

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Mergers and Acquisitions

04/06/2019 | Slock.it | Undisclosed | Blockchain | Germany

Blockchains, a company dedicated to conceptualizing, building, and incubating blockchain-powered ideas, today announced its acquisition of slock.it, a leading innovative German blockchain development company focused on connecting real-world devices to the blockchain.

08/06/2019 | Bletchley Indexes | Undisclosed | Data | USA

Coin Metrics, a crypto data company, has acquired Bletchley Indexes. As part of the acquisition, the Bletchley Indexes will be rebranded to Coin Metrics Bletchley Indexes (CMBI).

14/06/2019 | Altcoin.io | Undisclosed | Trading and Investment | USA

Altcoin.io, a decentralized exchange, has been acquired by BnkToTheFuture.

20/06/2019 | BSave | Undisclosed | Financial Services | England

BSave, a digital platform that provides earned interest income on cryptocurrency, has been acquired by Celsius Network, a crypto lending, and borrowing platform.

24/06/2019 | Rapid SD | Undisclosed | Enterprise Solutions | Australia

Rapid SD, a blockchain development company focussed on the Stellar platform, has been acquired by Paysend, a regulated payment platform.

26/06/2019 | Hashtag Capital | Undisclosed | Data | USA

Hashtag Capital, a company building a technology to provide the true price of cryptocurrencies, has been acquired by CoinMarketCap as their very first acquisition.

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Editorial Disclosure: A version of this article originally appeared on Techemy Advisory’s Medium blog. Author Nawaz Ahmed is the Product and Marketing Manager at Techemy Advisory. Brave New Coin’s parent company, Techemy Limited, is a shareholder in Techemy Advisory.

Disclaimer: Deal Flow is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide commercial, financial or legal advice. Nothing in this article constitutes an offer of securities or regulated financial products or financial services to any person.