Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from ok快讯, there were 16 blockchain investment and financing events around the world last week (11.18-11.24), with a total funding of over 120 million US dollars, which was a decrease compared to the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced four investment and financing events, among which the stablecoin company Noble completed a $15 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm;
- The Web3 gaming track announced three investment and financing events, among which the decentralized game player network KGeN announced the completion of a $10 million financing, led by Aptos Labs;
- The AI field announced two investment and financing events, among which the encryption and AI company OpenLayer completed a $5 million seed round of financing;
- The Infrastructure and Tools track announced four financings, including Bitfinity Network’s launch of the Bitcoin L2 network and the announcement of a $12 million financing round;
- In other blockchain/crypto applications, 1 financing was announced, among which the blockchain-based iGaming platform BoxBet completed financing led by CMCC Global;
- Centralized finance sector announces 2 investment and financing events, hybrid payment platform Rise Labs completes $6.3 million Series A financing, led by Draper Associates
DeFi
Stablecoin company Noble completes $15 million Series A financing, led by Paradigm
Stablecoin company Noble has completed a $15 million Series A financing round, led by Paradigm, and other investors have not yet been disclosed. They will use the funds from this round of financing to accelerate the adoption of stablecoins by developing new user-oriented products and expanding their workforce. The new financing brings Noble’s total financing amount to $18.3 million. According to reports, Noble hopes to bridge the gap between stablecoin issuers such as Circle and application chain builders by developing a platform that provides higher liquidity. Noble acts as an intermediary, working with stablecoin issuers to efficiently distribute their products to 50 different blockchains and providing developers with a seamless user interface to ensure that their application chains are compatible with Noble. Noble has established partnerships with several stablecoin issuers such as Circle, Ondo Finance, Hashnote Labs, and Monerium. The company has attracted more than $458 million in assets.
Modular Transaction Agreement Valantis Completes $7.5 Million in Financing, Led by SevenX Ventures and Cyber Fund
Modular trading protocol Valantis announced the completion of a $7.5 million Pre-Seed + Seed round of financing, led by SevenX Ventures, Cyber Fund and Kraken Ventures, with participation from Semantic Ventures, Figment Capital, Monoceros, Robot Ventures and Credibly Neutral, and angel investors including Anthony Sassano, Sandeep Nailwal, DeWhales Capital, Nathan Worsley (DeFi Cartel), etc. Valantis innovatively introduced a modular architecture in DEX, customizable and reusable “modules”, which can solve the problem of decentralized DEX liquidity, reduce development costs and improve composability.
DeFi liquidity solution system Barter completes $3 million seed round of financing, led by Maven 11
Barter, a decentralized financial liquidity solution system, announced the completion of a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Maven 11, with participation from Lattice, Anagram, Heartcore, DCG and Daedalus Angels. According to reports, Barter was founded in 2023 and is mainly engaged in on-chain transaction matching and settlement. The company intends to use the funds to expand the team, speed up research and continue to develop AppChain, the company’s DeFi tool that connects liquidity and order flow. The company said that Barter currently facilitates up to $20 million in transactions per day on many Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchains.
Exponent, a Solana DeFi fixed-income platform, raises $2.1 million in funding led by RockawayX
The DeFi project Exponent announced the completion of its first round of financing of US$2.1 million, led by RockawayX, with participation from Solana Ventures, Cherry Ventures Crypto, Mechanism Capital and Robot Ventures, and attracted the participation of several angel investors in the Solana ecosystem. Exponent aims to create Solana’s first fixed income market. Its flagship product “Yield Token” has been launched on the mainnet, providing predictable fixed income solutions and supporting income trading and liquidity management through AMM. The team plans to use this round of funds to continue to optimize core products and promote innovation in the Solana DeFi ecosystem.
Web3 Games
Cryptocurrency entertainment gaming platform Monkey Tilt completes $30 million Series A financing, led by Pantera Capital
Crypto entertainment gaming platform Monkey Tilt announced the completion of a $30 million Series A financing round, which ended this summer, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Polychain Capital, PokerGo, Hack VC, Dream Ventures, Accomplice, Mirana and Josh Hannah. The latest financing brings the total financing amount to more than $50 million. It is reported that Monkey Tilt will be launched in early 2024, integrating prediction games, sports, poker and cryptocurrencies on one platform. Monkey Tilt plans to launch a new cryptocurrency trading gamification product in the first quarter of next year. In February this year , Monkey Tilt completed a $21 million financing, with participation from Polychain Capital, Hack VC and others.
Decentralized game player network KGeN completes $10 million financing, led by Aptos Labs
KGeN, a decentralized game player network, announced the completion of a $10 million financing round, led by Aptos Labs, with participation from Game7 DAO and Polygon. KGeN aims to provide more accurate user portraits for game projects and reduce customer acquisition costs based on its data collection of game players. So far, KGeN has mapped over 197 million game player attributes based on 10.8 million players, thereby generating insights into game behavior.
AIGC blockchain game Gabby World completes $2 million financing, SevenX Ventures and others participate
The community-created AIGC blockchain game Gabby World announced that it has completed a $2 million financing at a valuation of $20 million. 13 institutions including SevenX Ventures, OnePiece Labs, Everest Ventures Group, Phoenix Capital, and Zonff Partners, as well as 8 angel investors including former partners of Republic, former partners of Hashed, and partners of Gam3Girl Ventures participated in the investment. According to reports, Gabby World is a community-created AIGC dragon and dungeon game, and its token GABBY was issued on Solana’s DEX at the end of October.
AI
Crypto and AI company OpenLayer completes $5 million seed round of financing
OpenLayer, a crypto and artificial intelligence startup founded by three former Robinhood employees, has raised $5 million in a seed round of financing. The financing was participated by institutions such as a16z CSX, Geometry, IOSG Ventures, Spartan Group, LongHash Ventures and other angel investors, and some investors came from projects such as EigenLayer and AltLayer.
OpenLayer focuses on developing an AI data layer that allows users to contribute and verify data through a Chrome extension while protecting privacy and earning rewards. Developers can access data based on user permission for AI model training, user targeting, and feature enhancements. The project has been launched as an Active Verification Service (AVS) on EigenLayer, attracting more than 48,575 participants and staking Ethereum worth more than $10 billion. OpenLayer plans to launch tokens in the future. The current team size is seven people and is planning to recruit two engineers.
Decentralized AI cloud service Heurist raises $2 million, with Amber Group and others participating
Decentralized AI cloud service Heurist recently announced the completion of a $2 million financing round, with participation from Amber Group, Contango Digital, Manifold Trading, Selini Capital, X Ventures, Sharding Capital, Blue7 Capital, Mozaik Capital, Zephyrus Capital, Origin Capital, Steroids Capital, DCF God, etc. It is reported that based on the ZK stack, Heurist is solving key AI infrastructure challenges and making it as accessible as the Internet.
Infrastructure & Tools
Deblock, a crypto wallet founded by former Revolut and Ledger executives, completes approximately $16.8 million in seed round financing
According to documents filed with the UK Companies House this month, Deblock, a crypto wallet created by former Revolut and Ledger executives, has completed an additional £13.3 million (about $16.8 million) in seed round financing. Another October document showed that Headline, Hoxton, 20VC and Chalfen were the main investors in this round of financing. Sifted previously reported that the startup quietly raised 12 million euros last year. According to reports, in August 2022, former Revolut head of cryptocurrency Jean Meyer, payment director Aaron Beck and former Ledger engineering director Mario Eguiliuz co-founded Deblock. According to its website, the Deblock application is currently only available in France, where it is regulated by electronic currency institutions and digital asset service providers.
Bitfinity Network Launches Bitcoin L2 Network and Announces $12 Million Funding
Bitcoin Layer2 solution Bitfinity Network has launched and completed $12 million in financing, aiming to create decentralized finance (DeFi) features for Bitcoin that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This round of financing includes $7 million from well-known supporters, including Polychain Beacon Fund, ParaFi, Draft Ventures, and Warburg Serres, while another $5 million came from over-the-counter token sales. According to reports, Bitfinity Network will use the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) chain fusion technology to enable Bitcoin native assets “to operate in an Ethereum-compatible ecosystem.” In addition, the security of its L2 network is enhanced through a “strong proof-of-stake protocol that utilizes Chain-Key technology.”
Move Chain developer platform Shinami completes $5.645 million seed round financing
Shinami, the developer platform of Move chain, announced the completion of a seed round of financing of US$5.645 million. This round of financing was led by Race Capital, with participation from 6th Man Ventures, Coinbase, Circle, Mysten Labs and Aptos Foundation. Shinami is committed to becoming the “Consensys” of the Move ecosystem, providing developers with a one-stop tool platform to simplify the construction of applications on Move blockchains such as Aptos, Sui and Movement. Shinami’s Node service has supported billions of on-chain reads, the Gas Station function has sponsored more than 100 million transactions, and the Wallet service has more than 2 million monthly active users.
Alluvial Completes $4.3 Million Strategic Financing, Led by Variant
Alluvial, a software development company that supports Liquid Collective, has completed a new round of strategic financing of US$4.3 million, led by Variant, with participation from Ethereal Ventures, Brevan Howard Digital, F-Prime Capital (a venture capital company under FMR, LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments), Nascent, etc., bringing the total financing amount to US$22.5 million. The funds are intended to promote the development of purpose-built, open and configurable solutions to accelerate adoption in the institutional staking market. According to reports, Alluvial is a software development company that provides a set of enterprise-grade staking products and services, focusing on promoting mainstream adoption and participation in proof-of-stake blockchains. Liquid Collective is a set of staking standards designed to meet the needs of enterprises. Earlier in July last year , Alluvial completed a US$12 million Series A financing, led by Ethereal Ventures and Variant.
other
Blockchain-based iGaming platform BoxBet completes funding round led by CMCC Global
Blockchain-based iGaming platform BoxBet has completed a funding round led by CMCC Global, a $500 million venture capital firm backed by the Winklevoss twins and Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, which has previously funded key blockchain projects including Solana. BoxBet, an online gambling platform, intends to use the new funds to expand its presence in regulated markets by acquiring licenses and scaling operations.
Centralized Finance
Hybrid payment platform Rise Labs completes $6.3 million Series A financing, with DCG and others participating
Hybrid payment platform Rise Labs announced the completion of a $6.3 million Series A financing, bringing its total financing to $10 million. The investment was led by Draper Associates, co-led by Polymorphic Capital, and participated by DCG, JAM Fund, Ryze Labs, and Paradigm Shift Capital. According to reports, Rise is a hybrid payment infrastructure that integrates fiat currencies, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. Currently, Rise has more than 150 customers and more than 100,000 contractors. Its customer base includes traditional enterprises, Web3 enterprises, as well as DAOs, protocols, and platforms. Rise’s comprehensive platform supports companies to recruit, hire, and pay global contractors and employees in local currencies and stablecoins, while ensuring compliance with international tax regulations and employment laws.
Crypto.com Acquires Charterprime, a Global Financial Trading and Brokerage Services Company
Crypto.com acquires Charterprime Ltd., a global financial trading and brokerage services company that holds an Investment Dealer License and a Global Business License issued by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said the acquisition is the latest step in its roadmap to “combine traditional financial and crypto tools into one simple application with rewards.”
Investment institutions
Theory Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on AI and Web3, launches $450 million fund
Theory Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage software investments in the fields of data, artificial intelligence, and Web3, announced that its second fund has completed fundraising of $450 million after launching its first $238 million fund in April 2023. The new fund will further expand its support for innovators. The new fund will focus on three areas: data analysis, artificial intelligence as a new platform, and decentralized infrastructure as a database. Since the launch of its first fund, Theory has led investments in companies such as Context.ai, Initia, Superlinked, and Tobiko Data, and opened a new office in San Francisco.
Accolade Partners Closes Third Blockchain Fund at $202 Million
Accolade Partners, an investment firm focused on venture capital, private equity growth and blockchain strategy, announced that its third blockchain fund, Accolade Blockchain III, has completed fundraising with a total commitment of US$202 million. The fund focuses on blockchain seed and early-stage investments, while also paying attention to secondary market opportunities and GP equity investments. Accolade currently manages US$1.3 billion in assets and is an early layouter and industry leader in the blockchain field. Since the launch of its first blockchain fund in 2019, the company has invested in the blockchain ecosystem with a diversified strategy, including underlying protocols, infrastructure, decentralized finance, stablecoins, Web3 games and decentralized AI.
DWF Labs Launches $20 Million “Meme Fund” to Support Innovative Meme Coin Projects
DWF Labs has announced the launch of the $20 million “Meme Fund” to support innovative Meme coin projects on multiple blockchains. The “Meme Fund” is now accepting proposals from Meme coin projects seeking investment and guidance.
ai16z and Ryze Labs collaborate to launch AICombinator program and set up a $5 million fund
Artificial intelligence venture capital fund ai16z and crypto investment company Ryze Labs announced the launch of the AICombinator program and a $5 million fund to support the development of the ai16z ecosystem. The two parties will work together to find and fund developers who are developing at the intersection of AI and cryptocurrency. Project founders who join the AICombinator program will also receive early access to new features in the ai16z Eliza framework roadmap.