Fresh startup rounds
New funding shows continued early‑stage flow into crypto tooling — recent rounds named include noise ($7M), veryAI ($10M) and zodl ($25M). ( )
Paradigm led Noise’s seed syndicate and the round included strategic backers Figment Capital, Anagram, GSR, JPEG Trading and KaitoAI plus angels such as Jordi Hays, Jackson Dahl and Kain Warwick. (noise.xyz) Noise reported its invite‑only beta began in May 2025, with over 1,300 users trading across 14 attention markets, a first‑month retention rate of 62% and average sessions of 17 minutes. (noise.xyz) Polychain Capital led VeryAI’s seed and the company published its funding announcement on March 12, 2026, naming Berggruen Institute and Anagram as participating investors. (very.org) VeryAI said its initial product is a hardware‑free palm‑scan biometric built to run on standard smartphone cameras and to pair with AI deepfake‑detection tools as a “Proof of Reality” layer. (very.org) The Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), led by former Electric Coin Company CEO Josh Swihart, closed a seed that drew participation from Paradigm, a16z Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital and a roster of angel investors including Balaji Srinivasan and David Friedberg. (zodl.com) Markets reacted to the ZODL announcement with ZEC price moves reported in the single‑ to low‑double digits across trackers, with outlets noting rallies in the roughly 5–10% range following the funding news. (msn.com) ZODL said the new capital will accelerate work on the Zodl mobile wallet (formerly Zashi) and core Zcash protocol engineering, and public filings show Cypherpunk Technologies disclosed a $5 million investment into the group. (zodl.com) Noise is preparing a public mainnet launch on Base that it says will enable trading with real capital in the coming months, while VeryAI highlighted statements from Polychain’s Olaf Carlson‑Wee endorsing the company’s palm verification approach as a building block for platform‑level trust. (noise.xyz)
