Chaos Labs, Sahara AI each raise capital

Over $130 million was raised in various crypto VC funding rounds this week.

Here’s a breakdown of activities from Monday, August 12 through Saturday, August 17:

Chaos Labs, $55 million

On-chain risk management firm Chaos Labs has raised $55 million in a Series A funding round.

The effort was led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, F-Prime Capital, and Wintermute.

According to the Chaos Labs team, the project has tripled its customer base in the last year, and more than 20 protocols, including Aave (AAVE) and GMX (GMX), rely on the technology.

The platform has $860 billion in cumulative trading volume and $25 billion in loans to date. The team said it will use the new funding to improve real-time, contextualized risk management for DeFi protocols.

Sahara AI, $43 million

Decentralized artificial intelligence blockchain platform Sahara AI has made headlines by raising $43 million in funding co-led by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital.

Notable investors including Samsung, Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners also contributed.

Since its founding in April 2023, Sahara AI has grown rapidly and has partnered with more than 35 tech giants, including Microsoft and Amazon.

The company aims to disrupt the centralized AI landscape by creating a more “fair” and decentralized ecosystem.

The funding will further advance the mission of ensuring fair compensation for participants, protecting data sovereignty, and promoting inclusivity at all stages of AI development.

Sling Money, $15 million

Fintech startup Sling Money has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round, according to Axios.

Following a $5 million seed funding round, the initiative was led by Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and Slow Ventures.

The Sling Money platform uses stablecoin technology to enable money transfers to over 50 countries in Europe and Africa.

Platform users can instantly send money to others, between their own accounts, or even to non-Sling users.

Transfers are made using Pax Dollar, a US dollar-backed stablecoin regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Foundation, $11 million

Essential, the company behind the first declarative blockchain, also got a piece of this week’s VC funding pie.

The company raised $11 million in a Series A investment round led by Archetype.

We are excited to announce that Essential has closed an $11 million Series A financing round led by . @arketipvc🎉

This milestone brings us one step closer to web3’s goal of reimagining blockchain interactions for a declarative, intent-based future.

A big thank you to our investors… pic.twitter.com/yMnQe6gVbh

— Intentessential (@intentessential) August 13, 2024

Other companies participating in the round included IOSG, Spartan and Mirana, as well as numerous founders and angel investors from the web3 sector.

According to Essential, this funding will help accelerate the development of blockchain, which aims to reframe interactions in terms of outcomes rather than instructions.

Other notable crypto VC fundraisings

B2B cross-border payments platform Coinduit has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Helios Digital Ventures.

The capital injection will support the platform’s expansion into Africa and aims to help address the region’s cross-border payment challenges.

Ion Protocol has raised another $4.8 million to its name, after previously raising $2.2 million in another round of funding. The fresh capital was provided by Gumi Capital, Cryptos, and over 90 other investors.

The total amount raised by the liquidity protocol, which specializes in staked and re-stakeable assets, has now reached $7 million.

According to a post on X on August 12, the company will use the funds to develop Nucleus, a native yield primitive designed to address the monetization challenges faced by Ethereum (ETH) tokens.