Azuro, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) building a protocol for blockchain-based predictions, has raised $11 million with investment from SevenX Ventures and Arrington Capital.

Other participants in the funding round include Fenbushi Capital, Polymorphic Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Dewhales, and G1 Ventures.

In an announcement, Azuro said the funding will be used to further accelerate ecosystem development during this critical phase of expansion and to intensify marketing efforts in the decentralized prediction market space.

Funding Secured Ahead of $AZUR Token Launch

Azuro has plans to drop a token, “AZUR” shortly although no timeline has been given.

“This round of funding arrives just as we’re about to hit some major milestones in our journey, including the much-anticipated launch of our $AZUR token, which is at the heart of what we’re building,” said Rossen Yordanov, core contributor at Azuro, in a press release.

“With this new capital injection, we will bring Azuro even closer to our big goal: making prediction markets clearer and more open to everyone,” added Yordanov. 

Azuro Received $7.5M Funding in 2022

Azuro said this latest funding round follows a previous injection of $7.5 million back in 2022 from a cohort of 25 investors secured in Seed and Strategic rounds.

Contributions in the 2022 round came from AllianceDAO, Ethereal Ventures, Delphi Digital, Gnosis, and Merit Circle. 

In anticipation of its token launch, Azuro announced it has also recently progressed to the third and final stage of the Azuro Score, witnessing significant momentum across its expanding ecosystem.

Since the start of Stage 2 in September 2023, transaction volumes have soared beyond $225M, with revenues exceeding $2.4 million.

The firm said over 20 dapps are already operational and employing Azuro’s infrastructure to run their businesses, with dozens more in the pipeline, and 4,400+ liquidity providers actively participating in the pools.

VC Funding Surges 2024

Venture capital funding in the Web3, gaming, AI and crypto space has experienced a surge in the first quarter of 2024, breaking a two-year downtrend.

Both the total amount invested and the number of projects receiving VC funding have seen substantial increases since Q4 2023, according to data gathered by crypto analysis platform Crypto Koryo, as reported by Ruholamin Haqshanas from Cryptonews. 

Data shows there has been a notable 38% rise in funds invested during the quarter, indicating a renewed investor confidence in the crypto industry.  Moreover, there has been a remarkable 49% increase in the number of projects securing funding, a level not witnessed since Q4 2021.