Europe has been at the forefront of the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, with several countries being home to innovative blockchain startups and research centres. The region has been proactive in creating supportive regulatory frameworks for blockchain and cryptocurrencies, leading to a thriving ecosystem of blockchain startups and projects, particularly in the areas of decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and digital identity.
In addition to the growing ecosystem, Europe also has a strong tradition of privacy and data protection, which aligns with the values of Web3. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has set a global standard for data privacy, and there are ongoing efforts to develop decentralised identity solutions that prioritise user control and privacy.
While crypto winter persists, many global VCs have been focusing on Web3 startups in recent times. With the surge in the number of Web3 startups, a significant number of investors have made their investments in these companies. In 2022, over $3.8 billion has been poured into startups in the Web3 space, despite the economic slowdown and recession.
Web 3 is also gaining traction globally. Recently, e-commerce giant Amazon’s Alexa Fund led a $20 million Series A4 funding round for the 3D character studio Superplastic, which creates synthetic celebrities, vinyl toys, and has previously released NFT collections on Ethereum. Also, Napster, which calls itself the original music disruptor and the longest-running independent music streaming service in the world, acquired Mint Songs, an NFT marketplace that helps artists build Web3 communities.
In the coming years, we can expect continued growth and innovation in this space in Europe as it takes advantage of Web3. Having said that, here are 10 Web3 companies from Europe to watch out for in 2023, compiled by TFN, based on data by Dealroom.
Copper (UK)
Founder/s: Dmitry Tokarev
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $281M
Crypto custodian Copper believes that the cryptocurrency industry should be available and accessible to everyone. The London-based company provides a secure infrastructure for the institutional digital asset investment community and enables off-exchange trading and settlement at tier-1 digital asset exchanges.
CopperConnect tool covers the “DeFi lifecycle” as an asset – an infrastructure system that provides security throughout the custody, transfer and lock-up process, as an asset makes its way to a DeFi smart contract.
Providing infrastructure for digital assets to institutions such as FTX and State Street, Copper snapped $196 million Series C funding, and have got backing from VC giants like Accel, SoftBank Group, Tiger Global and Barclays Plc.
Dune Analytics (Norway)
Founder/s: Fredrik Haga, Mats Olsen
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $79.4M
The community-first Web3 analytics platform Dune Analytics, enables anyone in the crypto community to easily query blockchains using SQL. One of the most popular dashboards is for measuring the trading volume on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
Currently, this platform supports data from Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Solana. Crypto-asset investors and analysts use it to research individual projects, decentralised finance (DeFi) and blockchain ecosystems.
Back in February 2022, Dune Analytics picked up nearly $70 million in Series B funding from Coatue Management and existing investors Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital and is already a Web3 unicorn.
Qredo (UK)
Founder/s: Anthony Foy, Brian Spector
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $95.6M
Headquartered in London and backed by Coinbase, Avalanche and Terra, Qredo is a digital asset management infrastructure and product suite, designed to unlock opportunities for institutional investors in cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance.
Qredo includes a novel Layer 2 blockchain protocol that enables users to seamlessly transfer and settle Bitcoin, Ethereum and other leading cryptocurrencies.
In an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by 10T Holdings with Strategic Investment from Coinbase, Avalanche and Terra early in 2022, the digital asset management company secured $80 million.
Tenderly (Serbia)
Founder/s: Andrej Bencic, Bogdan Habic, Miljan Tekic, Nebojsa Urosevic
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $55.3M
Tenderly offers Ethereum developers a means to monitor and test their smart contracts which power their decentralised apps. This is possible through its dashboard and API, which the company maintains, with a key focus on smart contracts.
Web3 developers can use the Tenderly platform to build, test, monitor, and operate smart contracts in one place. With the platform, smart contracts can be developed from conception to prototyping to production monitoring and on-chain use.
Founded in Belgrade, this cloud-based, end-to-end Ethereum development platform has raised $40 million in a Series B round led by Spark Capital, Accel, and Point Nine Capital.
Flowdesk (France)
Founder/s: Guilhem Chaumont, Paul Bugnot, François Cluzeau, Balthazar Giraux
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $30M
Over 60 cryptocurrency exchange platforms can be interconnected with Flowdesk’s trading infrastructure. With the AMF, the French financial markets authority, this French provider of financial technology for digital assets became the first to offer crypto market-making activities.
The company’s flagship service and differentiating product address the liquidity concerns of the vast majority of cryptocurrency issuers. Through Flowdesk, they can manage their own cryptocurrency token liquidity.
Eurazeo, Aglaé Ventures, ISAI, Speedinvest, Fabric.vc, Ledger, and Coinbase, and well-known business angels joined hands to invest $30 million in Flowdesk in June 2022.
21Shares (Switzerland)
Founder/s: Hany Rashwan, Ophelia Snyder
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $35M
Female-founded 21Shares is touted to be the world’s largest issuer of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) using its proprietary platform Onyx. It is used to issue and operate crypto ETPs for the company and third parties.
In an effort to bridge gaps in the crypto world, the company offers investors crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), the broadest token solutions, as well as a decentralized platform for creating, listing, and managing ETPs globally.
London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace led the $25 million round in 21.co, the parent company of the investment firm 21Shares and Switzerland’s largest crypto unicorn late last year.
Venly (Belgium)
Founder/s: Davy Van Roy, Gerbert Vandenberghe, Karel Striegel, Tim Dierckxsens
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $26.6M
This blockchain-agnostic technology provider, Venly offers products and services for wallets, NFTs, and marketplaces that can seamlessly integrate into any application.
Through its digital wallets, blockchain projects can store assets natively on mobile devices. Earlier this year, it launched the Venly Market, a user-friendly solution for scaling blockchain projects more quickly and securely. It is also touted to be the first-ever peer-to-peer NFT marketplace on Polygon.
Courtside Ventures backed the Belgian blockchain-based tool provider in the €21 million in a Series A round in April.
Calimero Network (UK)
Founder/s: Mario Halambek, Sandi Fatic
Founded year: 2022
Total funding: $8.5M
Calimero Network was spun-out of the Near protocol, a performant blockchain that launched on mainnet in 2020. It enables companies to store information on private shards while also enabling them to interact with the public blockchain.
In addition to developing open-source blockchain technology, Calimero’s founders, Sandi Fatic and Mario Halambek, built the first private shard infrastructure for the Near protocol.
In addition to targeting the Near ecosystem, the startup is also exploring the Ethereum Virtual Machine ecosystem through Aurora, a layer 2 scaling solution in Near that enables Ethereum compatibility.
Described as “AWS for private sharding,” Calimero offers a console that allows companies to manage private shards, in addition to a support and customisation solution geared more toward assisting web2 companies to scale up. In December 2022, the blockchain infrastructure startup netted $8.5 million in seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures, Lyrik Ventures and Near Foundation.
Arianee (France)
Founder/s: Alexandre Cognard, Christian Jorge, Emmanuelle Collet, Frederic Montagnon, Julien Romanetto, Luc Jodet, Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $30.6M
Arianee is an end-to-end Web3 solution developed to create, distribute and interact with NFTs. The platform and products enable brands to tokenise, distribute and leverage value through NFTs. The platform has grown to become a globally recognised reference owing to its innovative solutions.
The French platform is built on open-source protocol and allows brands to create enriched NFTs packed with exclusive and unique features such as Airdrop claim, CRM, time-stamping, transparency, AR and metaverse deployment, among others. Brands can deploy their Web3 strategy through Arianee and transform their relationships with their communities.
Arianee secured $21 million Series A funding led by Tiger Global in May 2022 to further pursue its mission to reinvent the CRM through a fluid and innovative brand.
Sorare (France)
Founder/s: Adrien Montfort, Nicolas Julia
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: $737M
Paris-based digital collectable platform, Sorare, was established to make crypto fun and accessible to all through fantasy football. The French company offers its users a soccer team management game with digital NFT cards that fans can collect and trade. It combines NFT collectables with fantasy sports to drive long-term utility and value for NFTs on the platform and beyond.
Sorare allows access to their public data via an API. Several sites use this data to propose information or side games. You might think of it like a modern version of the old-school sticker album wherein you can collect cards of your favourite players.
In late 2021, Sorare got backing from Tennis star Serena Williams and announced a significant $680 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, which raised the valuation of the company to $4.3 billion.
