Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62d0ffa6b3199" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The startup&#8217;s Series A follows a seed funding round in October where it was valued at the time for $110 million</li>
 <li>5ire&#8217;s CEO said the journey to unicorn status took around 11 months in total, making it the fastest of its kind to do so in the country</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain startup 5ire has become India&#8217;s latest blockchain unicorn in record time following a $100 million Series A funding round with a valuation of $1.5 billion.



UK-based international conglomerate SRAM &amp; MRAM was the sole investor for the self-styled 5th generation &#8220;sustainable&#8221; blockchain ecosystem, according to a statement on Friday.



5ire joins crypto exchanges CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX in assuming unicorn status, whose valuations need to exceed $1 billion in order to qualify.



India is fast becoming a fintech hub for newly established businesses. As of June 29, the country is home to 104 unicorns with a total valuation exceeding $ 336 billion, according to research firm <a href="https://www.investindia.gov.in/indian-unicorn-landscape#:~:text=Unicorns%20Of%20India,unicorns%20coming%20each%20year%2C%20respectively." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Invest India</a>.



Funding will go towards business expansion while extending its footprint across three continents including Asia, North America and Europe, the startup said. India is to remain its main hub of operations and core focus.



The round extends upon its $21 million seed valuing it at $110 million in October of last year. Its fresh injection of capital will also go towards bolstering its blockchain dubbed 5ireChain as well as hiring efforts, the startup said. 



Valuations and raises like these in crypto are fast becoming rare given the economic outlook paired with <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-industry-layoffs-may-have-unintended-consequences/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">industry-wide layoffs</a>. Still, some see a vision for continued growth during the crypto market downturn.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;The 5ire team has worked round-the-clock to develop a platform that combines both technology and processes for the benefit of humankind,&#8221; 5ire&#8217;s CEO Pratik Gauri said. &#8220;Becoming the world’s first and only sustainable unicorn born out of India, in just 11 months, is testimony that we are on the right path.&#8221;</blockquote>



Up until now, little has been known about the startup. Its ecosystem includes a blockchain and venture capital arm as well as its research and development hub, 5ire Labs, according to its <a href="https://www.5ire.org/about-5ire" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">webpage</a>.



Founded by blockchain proponents Gauri, Prateek Dwivedi and Vilma Mattila in August of last year, 5ire said it aims to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Those lofty goals include a collection of 17 interlinked global aims designed to reduce poverty, affect climate change and improve gender equality, among others.



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India’s Latest Blockchain Unicorn 5ire Valued at $1.5B

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_614a5ef36b22c" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue, it said</li>
 <li>One of the largest industrial-scale Bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, plans to expand mining operations in the US and Nordic countries</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain infrastructure company Blockdaemon has raised $155 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the company said in an announcement Tuesday.&nbsp;



The new fundraising brings Blockdaemon’s total valuation to $1.255 billion, adding it to the list of companies that have reached unicorn status, which consists of having a valuation of $1 billion or greater.&nbsp;



Over the past year, Blockdaemon has increased its valuation over 70 times and had a 20 times increase in revenue. Additionally it has averaged more than $10 billion in staked assets across the over 40 protocols it supports, the company said.&nbsp;



Additional participants in this round were Matrix Capital Management, Sapphire Ventures, and Morgan Creek Digital. Pre-existing seed round investors who also increased their investments this round are Boldstart Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Greenspring Associates, CoinFund, Kenetic, Kraken Ventures, Borderless Capital and Lerer Hippeau.



“We are committed to a future of decentralized financial infrastructure and accelerating the ease of integration to bridge traditional banking to the crypto ecosystem. As regulations get further defined, a backer of the caliber of SoftBank and Masa’s experience is crucial,” said Konstantin Richter, CEO and founder of Blockdaemon, in a statement.



The capital will be used to expand the company’s presence in Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany. Additionally, it will help the company make acquisitions to build out its tech stack.



“Blockdaemon will also expand into providing liquidity solutions for large scale institutional adoption, starting with ETH 2.0, where Blockdaemon is active and running over 12,000 validators. This makes Blockdaemon the largest operator in the ETH 2.0 space,” according to a company blog <a href="https://blockdaemon.com/blog/announcing-blockdaemons-155-million-series-b-funding/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">post</a>. Since each validator requires 32 $ETH staked on Ethereum&#8217;s &#8220;beacon chain&#8221; (which is planned to merge with the current Ethereum mainnet in early 2022), that represents some 384,000 ether locked, worth over $1.1 billion as of today&#8217;s $ETH price. 



Tuesday was a busy day for SoftBank. Separately, the Japanese-based firm <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/softbank-leads-680m-series-b-for-nft-soccer-platform-sorare/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">also announced</a> it led the latest $680 million round for the NFT soccer platform Sorare. Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer. 



In May, SoftBank tripled the size of its Vision Fund 2 to $30 billion, according to a previous statement by Navneet Govil, chief financial officer of SoftBank Investment Advisers. The fund is the company’s second massive venture capital-based portfolio.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Genesis Digital Assets New Funding&nbsp;</h3>



One of the largest industrial-scale bitcoin mining companies, Genesis Digital Assets, has announced a strategic raise of $431 million on Tuesday.&nbsp;



The round was led by Paradigm and included investments from NYDIG, Stoneridge, FTX, Ribbit, Electric Capital, Skybridge, and Kingsway Capital, who invested <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$125 million</a> in a previous round earlier this year. Investors in Kingsway Capital include the family offices of Paul Tudor Jones, Paul Marshall, and Winter Capital, the company said.&nbsp;



In addition to the round, Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm, joined the company’s board of directors.&nbsp;



The company has been around since 2013, just a few years after the crypto industry began. Since then it has built over 20 industrial-scale mining farms and brought over 300,000 miners online. To date, it has mined over $1 billion in bitcoin, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genesis-digital-assets-lolli-and-prime-trust-raise-new-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.&nbsp;



&#8220;As we work towards our goal of bringing 1.4 gigawatts online by 2023, the capital raised from this round will be used to expand our bitcoin mining operations in locations where clean energy is easily accessible,” which includes the US and Nordic countries, Marco Streng, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Digital Assets, said.&nbsp;



As of September, the company’s data center capacity was over 170 megawatts, which equates to a total hashrate of more than 3.3 exahashes or about 2.4% of the global bitcoin mining hashrate, it said.&nbsp;



During the next 12 months, the Bitcoin mining company expects another 8.6 exahashes to go online and by the end of 2023 it anticipates reaching a capacity of over 1.4 gigawatts.



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Funding News: Blockdaemon Secures $155M, Genesis Digital Assets Raises $431M

<div id="highlights-block_6124fc3a1a656" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The funding comes in tandem with Blockstream’s acquisition of the intellectual property of a bitcoin mining manufacturer called Spondoolies</li>
 <li>The new capital will help expand the company’s mission to build additional infrastructure in the future with a focus on the Liquid Network and bitcoin financial products</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream announced it has raised $210 million in a Series B funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $3.2 billion and officially making it a unicorn.&nbsp;



The funding was raised by two investors; an investment management company, Baillie Gifford, and iFinex, the parent company of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex.&nbsp;



“In some ways this valuation is an affirmation of our focus to build on top of Bitcoin and our vision of rearchitecting finance with Bitcoin as the base layer. We still have a long way to go in achieving our goals and now we’re able to accelerate on multiple fronts,” the company’s Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow said in an interview with Blockworks.&nbsp;



The company has raised a total of $299 million to date, including the latest $210 million, Mow said. “We raised a seed round in 2014 for $21 million, a Series A in 2016 for $57 million, and then added a $11 million convertible note,” he added.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Unicorns abound</h3>



Blockstream joins multiple other crypto-based companies that reached unicorn status during the month of August. CoinDCX became India’s first crypto-related unicorn with a valuation of $1.1 billion and FalconX raised $210 million in Series C funding, which brought its valuation to $3.75 billion, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/falconx-coindcx-hit-unicorn-status-amid-uncertain-regulatory-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. 



Earlier this month, Singapore-based crypto financial service platform <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/matrixport-raises-100m-and-hits-unicorn-status-with-1b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Matrixport</a> announced it closed its $100 million Series C funding round also with a valuation over $1 billion. Bitpanda also shared a new, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-exchange-bitpanda-valuation-spikes-242-to-4-1b-in-five-months/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">higher valuation of $4.1 billion</a> after closing a funding round of $263 million, just five months after its last valuation of $1.2 billion. 



The funding comes in tandem with Blockstream’s acquisition of the intellectual property of a bitcoin mining manufacturer called Spondoolies. This buyout will include rights to Spondoolies’ five different mining products, which the company says delivers energy-efficient mining equipment and the core team joining the company to build out Blockstream’s application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) arm.



“We see a great deal of demand for both our enterprise-grade hosting of miners, as well as our financial products like the BMN (Blockstream Mining Note). With the new round of funding we should be able to expand in both financial products and mining, but the new ASIC we plan to bring to market will likely be our most disruptive endeavor to date,” Mow said. He also said they’re working with security token exchanges to list the BMN for trading.



The raise and acquisition will be used to add staff and advance Blockstream’s other mining products and services. The new mining infrastructure will be used for global partnerships, including a collaboration with <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/blockstream-and-square-partner-on-solar-powered-bitcoin-mine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Square</a> to develop an open-sourced, solar-powered mining facility in the US, the company said. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Expanding its mission</h3>



Blockstream said the new capital will help expand the company’s mission to build additional infrastructure in the future with a focus on the Liquid Network and bitcoin financial products. The <a href="https://help.blockstream.com/hc/en-us/articles/900002016823-What-is-the-Liquid-Network-#:~:text=The%20Liquid%20Network%20is%20a,1%2Dto%2D1%20peg." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Liquid Network</a> is a sidechain-based settlement network that enables faster, confidential bitcoin transactions and the issuance of digital assets for traders and exchanges, the company said. Since its launch, the Liquid Network has amassed more than $1.1 billion in network value and has seen growth with a number of platforms being built on the sidechain, it added. 



In the future, Mow said the company will focus on launching additional products through Blockstream Finance like a Bitcoin Alpha Fund, as well as work with the Liquid Network’s ecosystem to expand use of its assets.&nbsp;



“In the next few years, bitcoin adoption around the world will increase rapidly and our goal is to make all our bitcoin products and services more intuitive and easily accessible to those new users,” Mow said.&nbsp;



Want more investor-focused content on digital assets? <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/">Join us</a> September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket. <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/">Buy it now</a>.

Bitcoin Infrastructure Firm Blockstream Reaches Unicorn Status With $3.2B Valuation

<div id="highlights-block_611bbc90aa229" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The seven-year-old company is one of Europe’s fastest growing financial technology companies and was the first Austrian-based company to pass the billion-dollar valuation mark, the company said</li>
 <li>In August, multiple other cryptocurrency exchange platforms reached unicorn status &#8212; and it’s not even the end of the month. </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Bitpanda has its “hypergrowth mode on” as it announced its new valuation of $4.1 billion and funding of $263 million in a Series C round, just five months after its last valuation and raise, the company’s co-founder and co-CEO Eric Demuth said in a post Tuesday.&nbsp;



The new valuation raises the company about 242% from its previous valuation of $1.2 billion in March, when the crypto exchange company <a href="https://blog.bitpanda.com/dear-pandas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first marked</a> its unicorn status after raising $170 million in a Series B round.&nbsp;



The Series C investment round was led by Valar Ventures, with the participation of billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard and REDO Ventures, as well as existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital, Demuth said. The funding will be used to build the team, open new offices and launch new markets and products as the company continues to scale, he said.&nbsp;



The seven-year-old company founded by Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer, is one of Europe’s fastest growing financial technology companies and was the first Austrian-based company to pass the billion-dollar valuation mark, the company said.&nbsp;



It began as a crypto-trading company and has grown into an investment platform of 3 million users where investors can trade stocks, cryptocurrencies and precious metals with any amount of money, Demuth said.&nbsp;



Although Bitpanda hit unicorn status in March, this new valuation enhances its place on a list of over 900 private companies with valuations of $1 billion or more, according to <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/lists/crunchbase-private-unicorn-company-list/f406c855-fff9-419b-9b44-324e1bfe3081/organization.companies" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> on the Crunchbase Unicorn Board.&nbsp;



In August, multiple other cryptocurrency exchange platforms reached unicorn status &#8212; and it’s not even the end of the month.&nbsp;



Last week, Cryptocurrency exchange platform CoinDCX, scored $90 million in Series C funding, making it India’s first crypto-related unicorn, while FalconX raised $210 million in Series C funding to expand into Asia, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/falconx-coindcx-hit-unicorn-status-amid-uncertain-regulatory-environment/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



Earlier this month, Singapore-based crypto financial service platform <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/matrixport-raises-100m-and-hits-unicorn-status-with-1b-valuation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Matrixport</a> announced it closed its $100 million Series C funding round also with a valuation over $1 billion.



In late July, the first non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea also reached unicorn status after raising $100 million in a Series B funding round led by a16z, which brought its valuation to $1.5 billion, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/a16z-leads-100m-round-for-nft-unicorn-opensea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. These crypto-companies are some of the latest organizations to join the growing list of unicorns in the global marketplace.



Want more investor-focused content on digital assets?&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Join us</a>&nbsp;September 13th and 14th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) in NYC. Use code ARTICLE for $75 off your ticket.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://cms.blockworks.co/events/digital-asset-summit-2021-2/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Buy it now</a>.