Financing Weekly | 11 Public Financing Events, Prediction Market Platform Kalshi Completes New Round of Over $1 Billion Financing, Valuation Reaches $22 Billion

Highlights of this Issue

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, last week (3.16-3.22), there were 11 blockchain investment and financing events worldwide, totaling over $1.086 billion. Overview as follows:

DeFi sector announced 1 investment event, with Ironlight Group completing a $21 million Series A funding round;

AI + Web3 sector announced 3 investment events, including Gency AI completing a new round of $20 million funding, with investors including TikTok and others;

Infrastructure & Tools sector announced 1 investment event, with Web3 API platform Uniblock raising $5.2 million, with participation from SBI and others;

Centralized Finance sector announced 2 investment events, including stablecoin cross-border payment platform TransFi raising $19.2 million;

Prediction Market sector announced 2 investment events, including prediction platform Kalshi completing a new round of over $1 billion in funding, with a valuation of $22 billion;

Other Web3 + AI sector announced 2 financing events, including Republic securing a new round of funding from Hamilton Lane, totaling $202 million.

DeFi

Ironlight raises $21 million to expand compliant tokenized securities infrastructure

Fintech company Ironlight Group, focused on tokenized securities infrastructure, announced the completion of a $21 million Series A funding round. The funding was participated in by Wall Street and financial services executives, including former TD Bank President and CEO Greg Braca, as well as institutional investors like Sei Development Foundation and Laidlaw Private Equity. The funds will be used to expand its SEC Regulation ATS and FINRA-regulated alternative trading system (ATS), Ironlight Markets, and to develop Ironlight Technologies, a platform for tokenized securities issuance, distribution, and settlement. Ironlight currently supports tokenization and atomic on-chain settlement of private equity, structured products, fixed income, private credit, and real estate assets.

AI

Gency AI completes $20 million funding, building decentralized advertising network

AI and blockchain infrastructure company Gency AI announced the completion of a new round of $20 million funding, with investors including TikTok, HF0, XYZ, Streamlined Ventures, Hat-Trick Capital, Arksteam, MH Ventures, ViaBTC, and Basics Capital. The company will use the funds to expand its decentralized ad execution and settlement network, strengthen its privacy computing tech stack, and accelerate product deployment and ecosystem collaborations across North America, Asia, and Europe. Gency AI uses on-chain verifiable credentials and smart contracts to automate and transparently settle ad impressions, conversions, and revenue sharing, addressing issues like long settlement cycles, attribution opacity, and data ownership.

Derivio completes $6 million funding to advance intelligent agent trading platform

AI-native trading platform Derivio announced the completion of $6 million in funding, with investors including YZiLabs, CMT Digital, Big Brain VC, Signum Capital, UOB Venture Management, Everstake Capital, and Proximity. Derivio plans to build infrastructure around “agentic trading,” utilizing AI agents to process high-speed, large-scale market and on-chain data for more automated strategy execution and trading decisions.

Web3 Smart Asset OS Platform OptiView completes strategic financing

Web3 smart asset OS platform OptiView announced a new funding round led by Honey Capital, LandScape Capital, and Super Labs. The project centers on its proprietary sovereign AI Agent, which has served over 100,000 users with 5,000-7,000 daily active users. CEO Sammy stated that the AI engine will soon be fully deployed to help users shift from passive holding to autonomous intelligent wealth management.

Infrastructure & Tools

Uniblock, a Web3 API platform, raises $5.2 million, with SBI and others participating

Uniblock completed a $5.2 million funding round, with participation from SBI, AllianceDAO, BFF, and NGC. Previously, in November 2023, Uniblock raised $2.3 million in a round led by Cadenza and others.

Capital B, TOBAM, and UTXO Management jointly raise €3 million

French publicly listed companies Capital B, TOBAM, and UTXO Management jointly raised €3 million, and adjusted the conversion prices of TOBAM’s A-03, A-04, and A-05 convertible bonds to accelerate their Bitcoin treasury strategy. The deal is expected to enable the companies to acquire approximately 36 additional BTC.

Centralized Finance

Singapore stablecoin payment infrastructure company Dtcpay completes $10 million Series A

Singapore-based stablecoin payment infrastructure company Dtcpay announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India. The company has obtained a Luxembourg electronic money license to expand regulated payment services within the European Economic Area. Dtcpay builds stablecoin payment infrastructure for businesses and consumers and has partnered with Visa to launch a card connecting digital and traditional finance. Its platform supports real-time settlement between stablecoins and fiat currencies.

Stablecoin cross-border payment platform TransFi raises $19.2 million

TransFi, a stablecoin cross-border payment platform, completed $19.2 million in funding, including $14.2 million in Series A equity and a $5 million committed liquidity facility. The round was led by Turing Financial Group, a strategic investor in digital payments and financial infrastructure. TransFi uses stablecoins as a settlement track, providing an alternative to traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT systems for emerging markets, supporting over 40 fiat currencies and 100 digital assets, integrating more than 250 local payment methods, operating in over 70 countries, serving more than 1 million end users across 200,000 terminals. The new funds will be used to expand into Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, deepen regulatory licensing, and grow liquidity networks.

Prediction Markets

Kalshi, a prediction market platform, completes over $1 billion in new funding, with a valuation of $22 billion

Kalshi announced a new funding round exceeding $1 billion, with a valuation of $22 billion, doubling from its December valuation of $11 billion. Sources say the round was led by Coatue Management. Kalshi’s annualized revenue is now $1.5 billion.

Founded in 2018, Kalshi gained popularity after being allowed by courts in 2024 to offer election trading. As a CFTC-regulated financial exchange, it can operate nationwide under federal rules. In February, its trading volume surpassed $10 billion, a 12-fold increase over six months. Despite recent legal and regulatory challenges from states like Arizona, investors remain optimistic about the rapidly growing market.

Myriad, a prediction market platform, completes seed funding, with Tom Lee and others participating

Myriad announced the completion of seed funding, with undisclosed amounts. Participants include MoonPay Ventures, Auros, EVG, Verda Ventures, Side Door Ventures, Wave Financial, Walrus, OFR, and individual investors like Tom Lee (Fundstrat co-founder), NFT collector Blondish, and Luca Netz (CEO of Pudgy Penguins).

This funding follows the launch of Myriad Season 3, which migrated event contracts to BNB Chain. The platform’s liquidity model has upgraded from an automated market maker to a central limit order book, adding features like slippage control, limit orders, and dynamic fee rates.

Others

Republic secures new funding from Hamilton Lane, totaling $202 million

According to official announcements, Hamilton Lane announced a strategic investment in on-chain investment platform Republic, strengthening collaboration on private market “on-chain” and retail investor access. Total funding for Republic has reached approximately $202 million, including a $150 million Series B in October 2021 with investors like CoinFund, Tribe Capital, and Galaxy Interactive; and a $11 million ICO in July-August 2020, raising tokens at $0.12, locked until Q3 2020.

Robinhood Ventures invests about $14.6 million in Stripe

According to The Block, Robinhood’s Robinhood Ventures Fund I, traded on NYSE, announced an investment of about $14.6 million in Stripe Class B common stock, and invested $20 million in AI audio company ElevenLabs, purchasing its Series D preferred stock. The fund aims to provide retail investors exposure to private companies, and also holds positions in crypto trading services provider Revolut, as well as Airwallex, Boom, Databricks, Ramp, and others. The report notes that Stripe owns a stablecoin platform, Bridge, and Robinhood leadership plans to continue investing in cutting-edge fintech and AI companies.