Mid-December has seen a surge in crypto VC funding, headlined by Avalanche Labs’ $250 million raise.

This week marked one of the largest single investments in blockchain infrastructure this year. The period also saw significant investments across infrastructure, AI, and financial services sectors, with cumulative funding exceeding $400 million. This is close to $180 million more than last week’s fundraise.

Crypto.news collected the data from Crypto Fundraising to analyze the projects that took home the highest funds during this period.

Avalanche (Ava Labs), $250 million

• Secured $250 million in an unknown round
• Backed by Galaxy, Dragonfly, and other major investors
• Avalanche has raised a total of $540.5 million so far.

Nano Labs, $36.25 million

• Raised $36.25 million in private funding
• Nano Labs focuses on infrastructure and storage solutions

OpenAI employees would be allowed to cash out their company’s share worth $1.5 billion regarding the investment agreement with SoftBank.

SoftBank, a Japanese-based multinational investment company, is financing the world’s prominent artificial intelligence (AI) enterprise OpenAI with $1.5 billion. This agreement would allow the employee to gain a profit by selling their shareholding.

Through these corporate actions, SoftBank would have a bigger stake in the company, which is something that the CEO Masayoshi Son asked for quite a long time.

OpenAI’s employees who hold the share would have spare time before the end of the year, on Dec. 24. If the employees agree, they would benefit from around $210 per share, aligned with the most recent funding.

Current and previous employees could participate in the funding, but only those who had been granted restrictions and held the share for at least two years.

OpenAI, which has been considered a non-profit organization for a decade, is denied the issue that this funding is related to the newest company’s orientations, which will move to the profit-making enterprise.

SoftBank funding for emerging technologies

According to CNBC on Nov. 27, $1.5 billion in funding for OpenAI comes from SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

This funding was specifically used to invest in emerging technology and companies, including Nvidia, Uber, Exscientia, Glean, Perplexity, and Poolside. Through this investment, the company based in Tokyo will expand its horizon on investing in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 (SVF2) was initiated in 2019 and collected an investment commitment of up to $56 billion. In 2021, funding was invested in more than 250 companies, and the majority of the funding is a new investment.

Now, the funding is focused on accelerating the use of artificial intelligence, market leaders, and companies with a value over $1 billion or who have named a unicorn.

Binance Labs, the venture capital arm of Binance, has announced its investment in BIO Protocol, a platform designed to help early-stage scientific research startups access decentralized funding opportunities.

The investment sees Binance, powered by the native token BNB (BNB), make its first foray into decentralized science, the platform said in an announcement on Nov. 8.

According to Binance Labs, BIO Protocol is the equivalent of the “Y Combinator of on-chain science”, a reference to the U.S.-based VC firm and startup accelerator.

BIO Protocol advances the DeSci sector by providing a platform for scientists and investors to access collective funding and co-ownership opportunities.

The platform currently operates through a network of seven biotech decentralized autonomous organizations, (also known as BioDAOs) covering areas such as women’s health, mental health, and cryopreservation.

“BIO Protocol represents a significant step forward in DeSci by merging biotechnology and DeFi,” Andy Chang, investment director at Binance Labs, said. “At Binance Labs, we are dedicated to unlocking groundbreaking advancements that drive long-term, real-world impact by supporting projects building meaningful technology – an approach that closely aligns with our investment in BIO”.

The BIO Protocol team plans to use the funding to expand its BioDAOs further, with seed funding available for new entities. BIO will also offer community and tokenomics support as it seeks to broaden its presence and impact in scientific funding.

Binance Labs has recently increased its footprint in the VC ecosystem, backing multiple projects in various industry fields. This includes the investment platform’s backing of Lombard, a Bitcoin (BTC) liquid staking platform.

The crypto and blockchain-focused venture capital provider has also invested in Solana (SOL) staking protocol Solayer and Telegram mini-app Blum.