Crypto VC funding: Huma Finance raises $38m, Fuse clinches $12m

At least 19 startups raised venture capital funds over the past seven days, with the largest round going to Huma Finance, a tokenized real-world assets platform.

Huma announced on Sept. 11 that it received $38 million in a fund-raising effort led by Distributed Global. Hashkey Capital, the Stellar Foundation, Folius Ventures, and Turkish private bank İşbank also participated.

The company plans to use the $10 million in equity financing and $28 million via yield-bearing RWAs to expand its PayFi network globally. It also plans to go live on Solana (SOL) and Stellar (XLM)’s smart contracts network in coming months.

This week’s crypto VC funding column pulls the latest announcements from X.com and the investment tracker, Crypto Fundraising. Here’s what was announced between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14:

Fuse (Project Zero), $12 million

Fuse, a London-based decentralized renewable energy developer, secured $12 million in a funding round led by Multicoin Capital.

PIN AI, $10 million

PIN AI, an AI infrastructure company, confirmed $10 million in pre-seed funding. The startup aims to develop the world’s first open-source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN).

The list of backers includes: A16z CSX, Hack VC, Blockchain Builders Fund (Stanford Blockchain Accelerator), NEAR Protocol founder Illia Polosukhin, SOL Foundation president Lily Liu, Symbolic Capital, Mysten CEO Evan Cheng, dcbuilder (Worldcoin Foundation), Foresight Ventures, Nomad Capital, Cresta co-founder Tim Shi, Espresso CEO Ben Fisch, Gitcoin co-founder Scott Moore, Alumni Ventures, and Dispersion Capital.

DRiP, $8 million

Drip Labs, the startup behind Solana-based creator platform DRiP, collected $8 million in seed funding on Sept. 9. NFX led the effort. Coinbase Ventures and Progression also drew participated.

Nytro Lab (Castile) CAST, $8 million

Hong Kong-based developer Nytro Lab nabbed $8 million in funds. Proceeds will likely go toward Nytro Lab’s inaugural blockchain game, Castile, which entered beta testing on Sept. 10.

SevenX and OKX Ventures led the round. Aptos Labs participated alongside Amber Group, HashKey and Leland Ventures. Matr1x, a co-publisher of Castile, is also backing Nytro Lab.

Infinit, $6 million

The Block reported that Infinit raised $6 million in a funding round. Electric Capital, Mirana Ventures, Hashed, and Arthur Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom, took part in the effort.

Moku, $5.35 million

Moku raised $5.35 million. Sky Mavis and A16Z GAMES led the round with participation from a long list of backers, including Contango Digital Assets, Arca, Framework Ventures, Bankless Ventures, DRW’s Richard Dai, Flori Ventures’ Holly Liu, 32-Bit Ventures and Phantom’s Jason Lee.

Rounds < $5 million

• Blocksense Network: $4 million in seed round funding led by Permutation
• Syrupal Protocol: $3.75 million seed round; valuation now $25 million
• Fountain Platform: $3.5 million in financing; Its backers include Foundation Capital, Caladan, Primal Capital, Druid Ventures, MHC, United Overseas Bank, NGC Ventures, Marin Ventures and Blockchain Founders Fund.V
• Wingbits: Stockholm-based protocol raised $3.5 million from Borderless Capital and Tribe Capital, alongside Antler and angel investors.
• Titan: The fundraise totaled $3.5 million and was led by Round13 Digital Asset Fund; RN Financial Corp also participated.
• T1 Protocol: The Ethereum scaling solution T1 Protocol has successfully raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. Investors include A16z, Espresso, Frax, Cow Swap, ETH Global, ENSO, Injective and Titan.
• Hyperbridge Protocol: The Web3 Foundation teamed up with Scytale Digital to lead a $2.5 million seed funding round for Hyperbridge.
• Ammalgam: The decentralized lending exchange closed a $2.5 million seed round co-led by Faction VC and Framework Ventures. Robot Ventures, Bodhi Ventures, NGC Ventures, Dewhales and Blockchain Founders Fund also participated.
• Orange Cap Games (Vibes): The $2 million pre-seed angel round will allow Orange Cap to bring IP to life through its upcoming trading card game Vibes featuring Pudgy Penguins.
• GasHawk: The startup raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed funding round from 3SE Holdings, AVID3, Artemis Capital, Appworks, Redbeard Ventures, Alchemy, and several angel investors.
• Universal Health Token: Animoca, Polygon, and Tezos supported the $1.2 million pre-seed funding round for UHT.
• Carrot CRT: The startup, whose mission is to “simplify earning top yields across Solana’s DeFi ecosystem,” collected $600,000 in a pre-seed funding round.

For last week’s column, click here.