Despite ongoing market volatility, several crypto startups have successfully closed significant funding rounds, signaling continued investor confidence in the potential of decentralized technologies. These investments have gone into different sectors, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain infrastructure.

Yupp, a new platform focused on comparing outputs from the leading AI models, just closed a $33 million seed round. The round was co-led by a16z Crypto, the crypto arm of Andreessen Horowitz. The round was supported by DACM, Delphi Ventures, Arche Capital and Lvna Capital.

As a new AI evaluation platform, Yupp hopes to change how AI models get rated and tested by letting users earn cryptocurrency rewards for testing AI models. Indeed, the relatively young platform has plans to launch its mainnet in the third quarter of this year.

"Human judgment into a renewable economic resource." - a16z team, Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm

Frachtis, a new $20 million pre-seed fund, has emerged to support startup founders in the decentralized AI, infrastructure, and consumer application space. Underwritten by Theta Capital and RockawayX, Frachtis is spearheaded by Xavier Meegan, previously of staking provider Chorus One.

She led over 40 investments during her tenure at Chorus One. This experience perfectly positions him to most efficiently identify promising blockchain use cases. This fund is intended to go beyond traditional sources of support in providing important early-stage capital to high-potential, innovative projects.

In the DeFi sector, Blueprint Finance, a multichain infrastructure developer, has raised an additional $9.5 million to expand its product suite. This investment serves as a testament to the continued evolution and maturation of DeFi infrastructure.

Rails, another new cryptocurrency exchange, has locked up $20 million in venture funding over two rounds. This latest funding is a positive indicator of ongoing interest in the burgeoning exchange and trading ecosystem within the crypto market.

The DeFi sector has been one of the strongest performers in the ongoing crypto recovery from 2022’s bear market. Total value locked (TVL) on DeFi platforms has rebounded sharply from the depths. It’s still shy of the sector’s all-time high hit three years ago. Looking back shows us that the sector is nothing short of resilient, as sector inflows are expected to be near ~$130 billion by years end.

"Blockchain infrastructure remains the lead story in the crypto space." - Kaden Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo Platform

It was Yupp’s smart decision to build on Solana that won him investments from big players like Pantera and Multicoin Capital. This strategic decision underscores the need to focus on developing and deploying projects on the most suitable blockchain platform to achieve project objectives.

It’s not all smooth sailing for firms looking to raise capital.

"Some firms are struggling to close new funds in a challenging macro environment." - Sarah Austin, Co-founder, Titled

The current investment environment is extremely competitive. Only the most promising and best-positioned projects are getting funding.