Silicon Valley Funding News - Week of August 15, 2022. CleverTap Raised $105M Series D

Being in Asia this past week gives me new perspectives in terms of Web3 adoption and the venture landscape.

Here's 5 great reads for this week:

• 🇰🇷 Land of NFTs - No one needs to explain what a NFT is in South Korea.  While campaigning, president-elect Yoon issued 22000 NFTs to attract younger voters.  South Korea’s Hoseo University issued diplomas in NFT form to its 2,830 graduating students. Why is NFT adoption so high in South Korea?
• 📺 How Venture Capitalists are Shifting Strategies after the Crypto Meltdown - Check out my comment on CNBC discussing our investment strategy in the wake of the crypto meltdown, Ethereum’s merge, and why I think blockchain gaming is gaining traction in Asia.
• 🌪️ Tornado no more - Tornado Cash (Tornado) is a virtual currency mixer that operates on the Ethereum blockchain and indiscriminately facilitates anonymous transactions by obfuscating their origin, destination, and counterparties, with no attempt to determine their origin. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, which has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019. This includes over $455 million stolen by the Lazarus Group, a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) state-sponsored hacking group that was sanctioned by the U.S.
• 📝 VC Fund Decks that Close LPs  - In the world of venture capital, fund managers (general partners) are salespeople and the pitch deck is the primary sales tool. It’s often the hook to capture enough interest to secure a meeting with LPs. Check out this post 13 VC fund decks that close LPs.
• 🇸🇬 is a “miniature Silicon Valley” - Singapore has attracted many American and Chinese tech giants to setup their Asia headquarters here including Google, Bytedance, and Facebook.  The government is also promoting Singapore as Asia’s family office hub. The number of family offices multiplied 5X from 2017 to 2019. There are currently about 400 SFOs in Singapore. 

This week a total of 14 startups raised $379.8M in funding, 0 M&As:

• $175M goes to 4 Enterprise startups
• $72M goes to 2 FinTech startups
• $4.3M goes to 1 Blockchain/Crypto startup
• $36M goes to 1 eCommerce startup
• $3M goes to 1 Marketplace startup
• $32M goes to 2 Healthcare startups
• $35M goes to 1 BioTech startup
• $9M goes to 1 Construction startup
• $13.5M goes to 1 Logistics startup