The crypto and blockchain industry is growing at an exponential rate, and it is just only starting to realize its enormous potential, with many projects, platforms, and solutions being developed in various verticals.
With the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies, there are also new opportunities in this space, and plenty of Southeast Europe-based startups are working on exciting crypto and blockchain solutions.
In this article, we take a look at the best-funded crypto and blockchain startups in Greece, based on a list compiled by Greek investor Alex Alexakis.
The list features some of the most promising startups in this space, working on different aspects of blockchain technology, web3, and crypto.
Name: Mysten Labs
Total funding: $336M
Founders: George Danezis, Kostas Chalkias, Evan Cheng, Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun
Vertical: web3
What does it do: Mysten Labs creates foundational infrastructure to accelerate web3 adoption while developing tools that make web3 secure and reliable.
Latest funding: The company raised $300M in a Series B led by FTX Ventures and reached a valuation of more than $2 billion, making it one of the blockchain startups to watch in Greece. The company has big plans to expand and have a team in Greece as well, and continue building the core infrastructure to power web3’s next wave of applications.
Name: Everyrealm
Total funding: $66.3M
Founders: Kostas Ketikidis, Janine Yorio, Jesse Stein, Julia Schwartz, TJ Kawamura
Vertical: NFT
What does it do: Everyrealm is an investment and innovation company across the global metaverse and NFT ecosystem. The company invests, manages, and develops assets including NFTs, virtual real estate, metaverse platforms, gaming, and infrastructure.
Latest funding: In February 2020, the company raised a $60M Series A, with more than 30 investors participating in the funding round.
Name: Axelar Network
Total funding: $63.8M
Founders: Georgios Vlachos, Sergey Gorbunov
Vertical: Blockchain
What does it do: Axelar delivers secure cross-chain communication for web3, creating an infrastructure that enables dApp users to interact with any asset or application on any blockchain.
Latest funding: Axelar closed a $35M Series B funding round in February 2022, reaching a $1 billion valuation. The latest round included investments from crypto-asset investment firm Dragonfly Capital, US investment company Polychain Capital, and blockchain VC fund Rockaway Blockchain among others. Axelar has a team in Greece as well.
Name: Wyre
Total funding: $29.1M
Founders: Ioannis Giannaros, Michael Dunworth
Vertical: Crypto
Solution: Wyre is a blockchain technology-based payment platform to transfer money through global payouts, account onboarding, and crypto wallet and savings solutions.
Latest funding: Wyre has raised a total of $29.1M in funding over nine rounds, with their latest round being closed in December 2021.
Name: Metrika
Total funding: $17.7M
Founders: Nikos Andrikogiannopoulos
Vertical: Blockchain
Solution: Metrika is an operational intelligence platform for blockchain networks, providing communities with end-to-end visibility and actionable insights into the health of these networks.
Latest funding: In September 2021 the company closed a $12M Series A funding round led by Neotribe Ventures, and other institutional investors including Coinbase Ventures, Samsung NEXT, Nyca Partners, and SCB 10X.
Name: Radicle
Total funding: $12M
Founders: Eleftherios Diakomichalis, Alexis Sellier
Vertical: Software development
Solution: Radicle enables developers to securely collaborate on software over a peer-to-peer network built on GitHub.
Latest funding: In February 2021 the company raised $12M in funding, in a round led by NFX and Galaxy, with participation from Placeholder, Electric Capital, and ParaFi Capital.
Name: Bitquery
Total funding: $8.5M
Founders: Dean Karakitsos, Aleksey Studnev
Vertical: Blockchain
Solution: Bitquery powers and solves blockchain data problems using the ground truth, on-chain data, by extracting and presents valuable data via APIs. These APIs are delivering solutions to multiple verticals like Decentralize Finance (DeFi), DEX Arbitrage Analytics, Crypto Surveillance & Forensics across all major blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Tezos.
Latest funding: Bitquery raised an $8.5M seed funding round in September this year, led by Binance Labs and dao5, with Susquehanna, DHVC, INCE Capital, and angel investors from Google also participating.
Name: Nayms
Total funding: $8.4M
Founders: Theodore Georgas, Dan Roberts
Vertical: Smart contracts
Solution: Nayms is a smart contract platform for the placement, trade, reporting, and settlement of insurance risk.
Latest funding: In June last year, Nayms secured $6M from a cohort of investors who subscribed to a future listing of the project’s native token, NAYM.
