Stripe buys Bridge, Bluesky bags $15m

Bridge, a stablecoin startup founded not even three years ago, announced a deal this week that would cause most crypto entrepreneurs to salivate.

Stripe, the San Francisco-based payment processing company, agreed to buy Bridge for $1.1 billion.

The transaction likely has crypto entrepreneurs wondering when their own ventures will be ripe enough to attract a big-name buyer. Until then, early-stage companies will have to continue courting venture capitalists to extend their runways.

Here are the latest startups doing just that, according to data from Crypto Fundraising collected between Oct. 20 and Oct. 26:

Bluesky, $15 million

• Bluesky completed a Series A funding round.
• The decentralized social media platform raised $15 million from lead investors like Blockchain Capital.

Variational, $10.3 million

• Variational is a peer-to-peer trading protocol that is created for perpetual and generalized derivatives.
• The firm has raised $10.3 million in a seed round led by investors like Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners.

Validation Cloud, $10 million

• Validation Cloud is a web3 infrastructure platform that focuses on scalable and compliant infrastructure for enterprises.
• The firm raised $10 million from True Global Ventures.
• Validation Cloud has raised a total of $15.8 million so far.

Crypto VC funding rounds < $10 million

• Web3 mobile gaming platform Party Icons raised $9 million.
• Digital investment marketplace STOKR raised $7.98 million from Fulgur Ventures.
• Karpatkey, which provides DAO Treasury services, raised $7 million.
• Full-stack decentralized platform Azura raised $6.9 million in a seed round.
• Non-custodial crypto trading platform Shuttle Labs raised $6 million from CMCC Global.
• Crypto exchange Hata raised $4.2 million in a seed round led by Castle Island Ventures and Nic Carter.
• Hana Network raised $4 million from investors like Binance Labs, Sushi, Orange DAO, etc.
• Decentralized borrowing platform Fluid Protocol raises $3.9 million in a seed round.
• Moonwalk Fitness has raised $3.4 million from lead investors like Hack VC.
• Borderless has raised $3.3 million in a pre-seed round led by Amity Ventures.
• Opti Games Studio raised $2 million with L1 Digital as the lead investor.
• NFT marketplace Ordzaar raised $2 million from lead investors like LongHash Ventures.
• Decentralized infrastructure platform Craftt raised $2 million in a seed round.
• Decentralized exchange BulbaSwap raised $1.3 million from lead investors like Foresight Ventures.
• Skyfire raised $1 million from Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto.

Check out our last week’s column from here.