附近上门

In a typical month, a couple hundred American companies disclose sizable seed funding rounds. And every few quarters, 附近上门 News has made it a habit to peruse those rounds to see what trends we can glean.

This time around, we looked at nearly 1,000 U.S. seed and pre-seed rounds of $500,000 and up announced in 2022. And, as usual, funded companies covered an extraordinarily broad range of businesses, from virtual world fashion to that can grow plants in space.

Yet, even amid all this abundant variety, some popular investment themes stood out. We take a look at five of them below:

1. Metaverse

The people who invest in futuristic visions seem to think we鈥檒l be spending more time and money in virtual worlds. In particular, they鈥檙e putting some large bets on companies that describe themselves as metaverse-focused.

We identified at least nine self-described metaverse companies that raised good-sized seed rounds so far this year. The largest funding recipient is , a developer of metaverse fashions with an early focus on sneakers. The company pulled in $10 million in a March seed round.

Other funded startups include , a developer of showrooms for digital collections that raised $6.7 million, and , a producer of virtual worlds featuring what it describes as 鈥淎I-powered virtual beings鈥� that closed on $4 million. See the fuller list of 2022 seed-funded metaverse startups below:

2. NFTs

NFT-related headlines are full of bad news lately. To wit, recently published a with an opening line stating: The NFT market is collapsing.

The numbers certainly look discouraging. Sales volumes a few weeks ago were reportedly down 92% from their September peak. And past valuations aren鈥檛 holding up. An NFT of the first tweet from 鈥檚 , for example, went this year and received no bids above $14,000, despite selling for $2.9 million in March 2021.

Nonetheless, seed investors haven鈥檛 ended their love affair with all things non-fungible token-related. 鈥淣FT鈥� is one of the most popular description terms in 2022 seed-funded startups, with at least 26 pulling in rounds of $500 million and up.

The largest funding recipient鈥�, creator of the NFT collection鈥攔aked in a whopping $450 million. Although the company and funding round might seem too large to qualify as seed, in reality Yuga is a very young company, founded last year.

Other sizable funding recipients include , an aggregator of NFT collectibles data that landed $9 million, and , a sports prediction game for NFTs that raised $5.3 million. See the fuller list of seed-funded NFT startups 1below:

3. Brain and neurotech

A lot of startups seem to think we could do a better job聽 keeping our brains healthy, engaged and high-performing. Still others are exploring neurostimulation, next-gen wearables and supplements to perk up our cranial activities.

Whatever their particular focus, seed-stage startups focused on brain fitness, therapy and stimulation seem to be attracting plentiful seed investor interest so far this year.

Per 附近上门 data, the largest seed recipient for 2022 along these lines was , a Northern California-based developer of brain-computer interfaces for treating depression. The company, which says it is developing a penny-sized device that can go under the skin and聽 rebalance brain networks using 鈥渋mperceptible micro-stimulations,鈥� raised $10 million in a March financing.

Another big seed round of $8.1 million went to , a maker of supplements to optimize brain performance. And , a developer of wearables for sleep health that employ neuro-stimulation, raised $6.6 million in a January seed round. For a more complete list of brain-related 2022 seed-rounds, see below:

4. Alternative protein

Alternative protein has been a popular area for seed funding for several years now, and it continues to rank as a top category.

One of the larger rounds, about $12 million, went to a 3-year-old company, , which is relatively mature by seed standards. The startup uses microbes and precision fermentation to produce cheese that melts and tastes like the real thing.

Another intriguing company in the plant-based meat sector is , which sells a vegetarian alternative to lamb. And in the crop science space, raised $4.5 million for ultra-high protein varieties of chickpeas.

See a fuller list of funded companies in the alternative protein space below:

5. Fitness

Whether we鈥檙e out-of-shape couch potatoes or competitive athletes, most of us could benefit from coaching and fitness tools to help up our game.

Luckily, a plethora of seed-funded companies are aiming to do just that. Offerings vary from AI-enabled personal training to customized home workouts to underwater entertainment.

, an AI personal trainer, snagged $10 million across two seed rounds this year, per 附近上门 data. , meanwhile, pulled in $4.5 million for a headset swimmers can wear to listen to music and audio content while swimming. , a maker of 鈥渟mart dumbbells鈥� for weight training, bulked up with $2 million.

See a fuller list of seed-funded fitness startups below:

So where is our future headed?

Looking at seed funding in aggregate gives us a small sense of where futuristically minded investors think we are headed.

If we read into recent trends, we might come away with a take like this: In the future, we will spend more time in more elaborate virtual worlds, in which companies will find ever more-elaborate ways to monetize our time and attention.

Meanwhile, back in the physical world, we will attempt to keep our earthly bodies in more fit condition by further relying on digital technology鈥攕omewhat ironic, given that the same digital technology is also keeping us on the couch.

We鈥檒l be able to maintain a tasty, protein-rich diet that鈥檚 less dependent on animal agriculture. And, our brains will remain in better working order with the help of supplements and neurostimulation.

Overall, it鈥檚 not the most horrific vision. However, the overall image is that humanity will be moving further away from the basic life skills of our cave-dwelling, hunter-gatherer forbearers.

Of course, we鈥檝e moved pretty far from that already. Today, the battery of basic life skills for many of us鈥攖hink e-filing taxes, microwaving frozen meals and paying the power bill鈥攚ould be unrecognizable to our distant ancestors. Inevitably, we can expect that a few generations from now, our way of life will look rather primitive too.

Illustration: