DEAL CORNER EP 90: Salesforce Teams Up with Google Cloud in a $2.5 bn Deal
By Shikha Singh
Crypto venture capital (VC) funding has significantly slowed, with February potentially ending with under $500M in investments, a sharp decline from previous highs.
Funding rounds have dropped by about 30%, with the largest deal being Reservoir’s $14M raise. The slowdown reflects a shift in investor interest away from traditional VC-backed crypto projects, with new investments focused on blockchain infrastructure, DeFi, and niche sectors. Seed rounds make up around 30% of investments, mostly in the $1M-$3M range.
The decline in VC funding mirrors the 2023 bear market and the 2018 market, with US-based VC funding falling behind undisclosed rounds.
The overall market slowdown and decreasing returns from project tokens have made investors more selective, with many funds now posting losses. As a result, funding is shifting towards projects that already have an established audience, relying on smaller sales, airdrops, or even IPOs for financing.
Now let’s have a look at the first deal of the day …
Salesforce Teams Up with Google Cloud in a $2.5 bn Deal
Salesforce Inc. has just signed a massive multi-billion dollar deal with Google Cloud, committing to at least $2.5 billion of expenditure over the next seven years.
The partnership is aimed at attracting corporate customers who currently rely on Microsoft Corp.’s products, including its productivity and artificial intelligence offerings. This deal will allow the Salesforce customers to utilize IT CRM software, AI assistants, and Data Cloud products on Google Cloud.
Ethena Raises $100 mn in Private ENA Token Sale To Build Out New Chain And Institutional Product
Synthetic dollar protocol steward Ethena Foundation has raised $100 million from a private sale of native governance tokens.
The previously unannounced sale was completed in December, with investors including Franklin Templeton, Polychain, Pantera, Dragonfly and Fidelity’s venture capital arm, F-Prime, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told.
New Solana Scaling Solution Solaxy Raises Over $22 mn in Presale Funding
Solana is about to get its first layer-2 scaling solution, as the blockchain project Solaxy (SOLX) passes $22 million in presale funding.
The project aims to boost Solana’s transaction speeds while reducing costs through off-chain computation.
Solaxy operates as a layer-2 network on top of the Solana blockchain, processing transactions off-chain before bundling them back for completion.
ClustroAI Introduces Revolutionary Edge AI Solution, Secures $12 mn in Funding
ClustroAI, an emerging innovator in edge AI technology, has announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, securing $12 million to advance AI deployment on local and edge devices.
With a total funding amount reaching $15 million, including its earlier seed round backed by NVIDIA, the Series A investment was led by Forum Ventures, with participation from MetaBlast, Metaverse Group, and other prominent investors.
This funding will enable ClustroAI to further expand its technology and optimize its core platform, allowing enterprises to seamlessly run AI models on local devices and edge servers—without reliance on cloud computing.
Institutionally-Focused Restaking Startup Byzantine Finance Raises $3 mn in Pre-Seed Funding
Byzantine Finance, the startup building a restaking protocol, has raised a $3 million pre-seed round led by Node Capital and Blockwall Ventures.
The financing will go towards the development of Byzantine’s permissionless “aggregation layer,” a type of protocol designed to enable multiple blockchains to share liquidity, state and users without sacrificing sovereignty.
More than 30 investors participated in the round, including venture firms Lightshift, Masterkey and Kiln Ventures as well as angel investors from EigenLayer, LayerZero and Ledger, among others.
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