Funding Wrap: Morpho announces $50M raise

One big raise led the pack of this week’s funding announcements: Morpho. The crypto lending firm said it raised $50 million in a round led by Ribbit Capital. 

A16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Brevan Howard, Kraken Ventures and Pantera were among a long list of participants in the raise. 

“The potential impact of Morpho extends far beyond current DeFi markets, as the protocol is capable of becoming decentralized infrastructure to underpin a truly global, internet-native financial system,” the firm wrote .

Read more: Gauntlet will become a Morpho Labs Risk Curator days after its fallout with Aave

Morpho Blue, the lender said, has surpassed $1.7 billion in total deposits in the six months following its Ethereum launch and hit $120 million in deposits roughly a month after it launched on Base. 

Another notable raise this week comes from Hyperbolic, a Web3 AI cloud firm, which raised $7 million in seed funding. 

Polychain Capital and Lightspeed Faction led the round, while Bankless Ventures and Nomad Ventures were among participants.

Read more: Empire Newsletter: Is crypto vs AI a zero-sum game?

Hyperbolic previously raised a little under $1 million in pre-seed funding. It currently offers an AI inference service that allows “builders and researchers to access powerful open source AI models through a simple API call, achieving performance comparable to well-known centralized solutions,” according to a press release .

“Hyperbolic’s dual focus on GPU accessibility and open-access AI services sets it apart in the industry, promising a collaborative future for AI development. As they expand their GPU Marketplace and develop AI services for developers and researchers worldwide, the team is just scratching the surface of what’s possible,” Hyperbolic CEO Jasper Zhang said. 

Other notable raises:

• DePIN project Daylight raised $9 million in a Series A round led by a16z Crypto. Lattice Fund and Framework Ventures were among participants.
• Icebreaker, an “open professional network,” announced a $5 million seed round led by CoinShares. Legion Capital and Accomplice also participated in the round. 
• Pichi Finance said it raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital and Mantle Network.
• Lava said it raised an undisclosed amount from investors including Susquehanna, HashKey Capital and Hivemind Ventures.
• OKX Ventures and Aptos Foundation announced a $10 million growth fund aimed at growing the Aptos ecosystem and further supporting Web3 adoption.

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