The Edge of Tech5 Israeli crypto blockchain startups that raised money in 2024
The Edge of Tech
5 Israeli crypto blockchain startups that raised money in 2024
Utila, Lava Network, Fhenix, Oobit, and WaveBL have all raised funding this year to revolutionize the blockchain ecosystem
This year has seen some considerable funding announcements from Israeli blockchain companies which has secured it as a global powerhouse in the space. Here, we take a look at some of the biggest names and numbers that caught our interest so far in 2024
Utila
Sector: Crypto Operations | Established: 2022 | Founders: Bentzi Rabi and Sam Eiderman | Funding: $11.5 million from NFX, Wing VC, Framework Ventures, and other leading web3 and fintech VC funds and angel investors
Utila, an enterprise-grade crypto operations platform, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $11.5 million in Seed funding from NFX, Wing VC, Framework Ventures, and other leading web3 and fintech VC funds and angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan, Charlie Songhurst and Surojit Chatterjee.
Utila’s platform allows institutions and developers to manage their digital assets with its non-custodial, secure, and chain-agnostic wallet. Utila said its platform is already used by dozens of leading institutional investors and crypto-native firms to store and transact billions of dollars. Utila’s all-in-one self-custody wallet platform gives companies complete control of their digital assets across various chains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, EVM chains, Solana, and many others under one umbrella. It offers a secured wallet infrastructure that removes complexity without compromising security.
The platform is powered by MPC key management, a self-serve policy engine, and a seamless user experience. Among the long list of Utila’s customers can be found leading hedge funds, OTC desks, market makers, and prime brokers utilizing Utila for their trading operations, as well as crypto-native organizations like custodians, exchanges, and token issuers leveraging Utila infrastructure as a tech provider, or even businesses who manage crypto payments.
Lava Network
Sector: Blochchain | Established: 2023 | Founders: Yair Cleper and Gil Binder | Funding: $15 millon from Jump Capital, Hashkey Capital, and Tribe Capital.
Lava is building a modular network to make it easy for developers and users to access blockchain through RPC (Remote Procedure Call) & indexing. RPC is critical for web3. All crypto applications must make RPC requests to send and retrieve blockchain data; indexing offers more specialized data requests.
Lava is a permissionless three-sided marketplace for blockchain data. Consumers get data from Lava; RPC Node Providers join Lava, serve data and receive rewards; and Champions add more modules for Providers to serve, extending Lava to in-demand chains and APIs.
In the future, Lava aims to bring its modular approach to oracles, sequencing and other data infrastructure, serving as a permissionless everything store for any web3 service. This initiative, launched in October 2023, has already signed partnerships with NEAR, Evmos, Axelar, Starknet, Koii, Agoric and more.
Fhenix
Sector: Blockchain | Established: 2023 | Founders: Guy Zyskind | Funding: $22 million total from Hack VC with participation from Dao5, Amber Group, Primitive, GSR, Collider, and Stake Capital
Fhenix, which develops confidentiality-enabling Layer 2 blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption, has announced the close of a $15 million series A fundraising round led by Hack VC with participation from Dao5, Amber Group, Primitive, GSR, Collider and Stake Capital, among others. This brings the project’s total funding to date to $22 million. The company plans to use these funds to support the initial stage of its open testnet, dubbed Helium, which will enable developers to deploy smart contracts to the Fhenix network for the first time.
Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is a novel form of cryptography that allows data to be computed blindly without ever needing to be decrypted. Fhenix is the first blockchain to natively integrate FHE in order to deliver an EVM-compatible smart contract platform that allows developers to encrypt all or part of their Solidity-based applications using familiar tools without any prior knowledge of FHE encryption. Fhenix recently announced a technical partnership with EigenLayer around the development of FHE Coprocessors, which enable host chains–whether that be Ethereum itself, L2s, or L3s–to offload specific computational tasks to a designated processor, enabling developers on any EVM-compatible chain to integrate encrypted computation into their application logic.
Oobit
Sector: Crypto mobile payments | Established: 2017 | Founders: Amram Adar and Aharon Miller | Funding: $25 million from Tether, CMCC Global's Titan Fund, 468 Capital, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko
Israeli-founded crypto mobile payment app Oobit announced on Monday that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding amid expansion plans as it pushes to advance the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. Oobit's app allows crypto holders to tap and pay at more than 100 million retailers globally where Visa and Mastercard are accepted, while merchants receive fiat currency, according to the company.
Oobit, which is headquartered in Singapore, was co-founded in 2017 by CEO Amram Adar and COO Aharon Miller. Oobit said it has planned to expand into regions including Asia Pacific, United Arab Emirates, Canada and Australia beyond its primary markets of the European Union and UK, adding it would use the funds to focus on integrating external wallets and accelerating the development of a Web3 gateway.
WaveBL
Sector: Blockchain | Established: 2015 | Founders: Gadi Ruschin, Or Garbash, Yair Sappir | Funding: $37 million from NewRoad Capital Partners, ZIM, Marius Nacht, Contour Venture Partners, Frank Sica, and Techstars Central LLC.
WaveBL is a digital platform using proprietary blockchain technology to electronically transfer trade documents. The WaveBL solution enables the instant, encrypted, and authenticated transfer of electronic Bills of Lading and related trade documents. The platform complies with universal processes and regulations in use. The platform is designed to meet the needs of all parties involved in trade, including shipping companies, agents, brokers, and banks.
The Israeli startup’s platform enables the instant, encrypted, and authenticated transfer of electronic Bills of Lading and related trade documents. The platform is designed to meet the needs of all parties involved in trade, including shipping companies, agents, brokers, and banks
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