London-based Octopus Ventures, together with KPN Ventures, has invested $38 million — around Rs 361 crore — in Netherlands-based enterprise connectivity platform Braid in a Series A funding round, according to Business Standard.

KPN Ventures is the venture arm of KPN, the Netherlands' leading telecom and ICT service provider.

Braid, launched in 2023, operates a technology platform that lets businesses embed branded mobile connectivity into their existing applications, digital products and customer services without becoming telecommunications operators themselves.

The company plans to use the new capital to accelerate international expansion, strengthen carrier partnerships and develop its embedded mobile connectivity infrastructure.

It is also raising into a market that is otherwise pulling back sharply.

According to hedgeco.net, citing Galaxy Research, venture investors deployed $4.519 billion into privately held crypto and blockchain companies across 296 deals in the third quarter, down 20% in capital and 24% in deal count, with only three new crypto-focused venture funds closing — the fewest since the third quarter of 2019.

Against that backdrop, a three-year-old infrastructure startup attracting a corporate strategic investor is the kind of deal a startup reader will notice.

Both investors framed the deal around Braid defining an infrastructure layer that did not previously exist.

Business Standard quotes Octopus Ventures partner Uthish Ranjan saying, "We believe Braid is defining a new category in embedded connectivity and has the team, technology and ambition to become the default infrastructure layer for businesses delivering connectivity to their customers."

KPN Wholesale Executive Vice President Reinout van Ierschot told the outlet that Braid's platform enables enterprises to integrate connectivity through a single API, helping reduce operational complexity and accelerate time to market.

The fact that KPN — the Dutch telecom giant whose core business Braid abstracts away — invested through its venture arm is itself a signal of how the incumbent carrier views the platform.

Braid's round fits a broader pattern the quarterly data describe: capital is consolidating around companies selling picks-and-shovels infrastructure rather than consumer plays.

hedgeco.net reports that trading, exchange, investing and lending businesses drew roughly $2.37 billion — about half of the quarter's crypto venture total — and have captured a majority of capital for four straight quarters, while later-stage companies took about 76% of dollars invested and U.S.-headquartered companies received 74.9%.