Crypto projects raised $1.1B in February
VC activity was slightly down month over month, according to TIE data
Deacons docs/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
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To end the first week of March, let’s look back at venture capital activity in February, shall we?
Perhaps we can sum it up to a shorter month, but overall venture capital funding in February was down slightly from January, though the number of companies raising was up marginally.
Last month, $1.11 billion was raised by 137 companies, though we saw $1.57 billion go to 132 companies to kick the year off, per TIE Terminal data.
DeFi paved the way last month, with 20 companies raising around $175 million. Perhaps that’s a sign of a trend of where money’s going, because DeFi also led deals in January, with 21 companies raising $339 million.
But it’s not just DeFi receiving the attention. There were notable raises from a couple of other firms, including Bitwise, which raised $70 million through an equity raise in a round led by Electric Capital.
And Raise, the gift card company looking to use its $63 million round to beef up its blockchain-based gift card offerings. I don’t choose favorites when it comes to VC rounds, but this one certainly caught my eye when it was announced late last month.
When comparing the raises (not just the gift card company) to January, the rounds are smaller. Phantom and Movement Labs both had rounds of $150 million and $100 million, respectively.
When looking at the deal sizes so far this year, there is a noticeable drop.
I’m cautious to read too much into it yet, given the overall bullish environment and the fact that I’ve had plenty of conversations with VCs in which they affirm that they’re pretty active, but this is the trend we’re currently looking at.
As you can see, the number of larger deals seems to have peaked in December of last year, though we’re still seeing deals above $50 million — take Raise and Bitwise, for example.
The average deal size, if we’re looking this week, sits at $9 million. On the last day of February, it was slightly higher at $10 million.
We’re only two months into the year, so I’m cautious to call any of this data a trend yet, and we’re still a ways off from the peak of crypto VC activity, which topped $23 billion in 2022.
But consider my interest piqued, especially because PitchBook’s Robert Le told us last year that he expected more of a bull market in 2025.
Bring it on.
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