Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 11 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (9.30-10.6), with a total funding amount of over US$40 million. Both the funding amount and the number of transactions decreased. An overview is as follows:
DeFi announced two investment and financing events, among which Yuanbi Technology completed a US$7.8 million A1 round of financing, with Sequoia China and others participating in the investment;
The Web3 game track announced two investment and financing events, among which Web3 game studio Moonray Studio raised US$8.25 million through two rounds of financing;
The AI ââfield announced two investment and financing events, among which the AI ââsocial metaverse project SecondLive completed a $12 million private equity round of financing;
The Infrastructure and Tools track announced four financings, including Layer's $6 million seed round led by 1kx;
In other blockchain/crypto applications, 1 financing was announced. TON ecological animation IP content platform RoOLZ completed a $1 million private round of financing, with TON participating in the investment
DeFi
Yuanbi Technology Completes US$7.8 Million A1 Round of Financing, with Sequoia China and Others Participating
Yuanbi Technology announced the completion of a $7.8 million Series A1 financing. In this round of financing, Yuanbi Technology received strategic investment from well-known companies in the industry, including Sequoia China, Hivemind Capital, Aptos Labs, Hash Global, SNZ Capital, Solana Foundation, Anagram and Upward Capital. Yuanbi Technology said that this round of financing will connect the company to the Web2 and Web3 worlds and continue to contribute to the construction of the Hong Kong Web3 ecosystem.
According to reports, on July 18, 2024, Yuanbi Technology announced that its subsidiary Yuanbi Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. has been included in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)'s stablecoin issuer sandbox program. At the same time, another subsidiary of Yuanbi Technology, Yuanbi Wallet Technology Co., Ltd., has obtained a stored value facility (SVF) license issued by the HKMA and will officially operate at the end of 2023. This A1 round of financing is another important progress of Yuanbi Technology after its seed round of financing in 2020. Yuanbi Technology has been supported by original shareholders such as ZhongAn Digital Asset Group Co., Ltd., HashKey Group, Dragonfly, Bright Venture and Eminent Vision.
CeDeFi platform Syrupal Protocol announced the completion of a $3.75 million seed round of financing
CeDeFi platform Syrupal Protocol recently announced on the X platform that it has successfully completed a $3.75 million seed round of financing, bringing its valuation to $25 million. The specific investors were not disclosed. According to reports, Syrupal is a CeDeFi platform dedicated to integrating the advantages of centralized and decentralized systems, providing cryptocurrency options including BTC and ETH, and supporting a variety of option strategies.
Web3 Games
Web3 game studio Moonray Studio raises $8.25 million in two rounds of funding
Web3 multiplayer battle arena game development studio Moonray Studio announced that it has raised $8.25 million in two rounds of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures and Cardano. Moonray uses blockchain technology to enhance the gaming experience through asset ownership, customizable NFTs and token rewards. The new funds are intended to be used to launch a mobile version of the Autobattler game in the first quarter of next year.
Web3 AAA game INFINITAR completes $2.9 million financing, led by Lam Group
Web3's first MOBA chain game INFINITAR announced the completion of seed and angel rounds of financing, led by Lam Group, with participation from AccelByte and Waterdrip Capital, with a total of $2.9 million in two rounds of financing. The A round of financing has now begun, with a planned total financing of $9 million. The A round of financing is led by Lam Group and AccelByte, with participation from AC Capital, DEX Ventures, and Mason Labs, with a post-investment valuation of $150 million. Several well-known investment institutions are participating in the A round of follow-up investment negotiations, and all financing will be completed in the near future. INFINITAR is a AAA game focusing on the GameFi track. It has currently received participation from hundreds of Web3 communities in more than 20 countries around the world, and has been downloaded tens of thousands of times from Apple and Google app stores.
AI
OpenAI raises just over $6.5 billion at $150 billion valuation
OpenAI's latest round of financing raised slightly more than $6.5 billion, completing the financing round with a valuation of $150 billion. Among them, Microsoft invested about $750 million in OpenAI's latest round of financing, and Cathie Wood's ARK Ark Fund will invest at least $250 million in OpenAI. OpenAI will allow employees to sell shares after completing the $6.6 billion financing round. (Not included in the statistics of this issue's financing weekly report)
AI social metaverse project SecondLive completes $12 million in private round of financing
SecondLive, an AI&XR social metaverse project, announced the completion of a $12 million private round of financing, led by Crypto.com, with participation from Spark Digital, Cypher Capital, MetaEstate, TAISU Ventures, NewTribe Capital, BitValue Capital, Titans Ventures, Newave Capital and CSP DAO. This round of financing brings SecondLive's total financing to $15 million, with Binance Labs leading the seed round. Currently, SecondLive has covered eight public chains including BNB Chain, Ethereum and TON, and has continuously iterated on scenarios, roles and social methods through generative AI to promote innovation in space networks.
Decentralized AI training network Nodepay completes new round of financing, Animoca Brands and others participate
Nodepay, a decentralized AI training network, recently announced on X that it has completed a new round of financing, with participation from Animoca Brands, Jump Crypto, Elevate Ventures, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, NGC Ventures, etc. The specific financing amount and valuation information have not yet been disclosed. According to reports, Nodepay is promoting a decentralized ecosystem where users can own, access and build innovative artificial intelligence models.
Infrastructure & Tools
Layer, a full-stack decentralized development tool developer, completes $6 million in financing, led by 1kx
Layer announced the completion of a $6 million seed round of financing, led by 1kx, with participation from Fabric Ventures, Arrington Capital and IOBC. Angel investors include Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Rok Kopp and Mike Silagadze of Ether.fi, and former BlackRock employee Paul Taylor. It is reported that Layer uses Web Assembly to allow developers to write applications that can run anywhere using languages ââsuch as rust. Layer's upcoming product "Layer SDK" allows developers to build new layers on top of Ethereum and run full-stack blockchain applications, including smart contracts, consensus mechanisms, UI and verifiable off-chain services.
Decentralized credit rating platform Synnax completes a new round of strategic financing, with Wintermute Ventures and TON Ventures participating
Wintermute Ventures announced on the X platform that it and TON Ventures have made a strategic investment in the decentralized credit rating platform Synnax. As of now, Synnax's total financing amount has reached 1.55 million US dollars. The new funds will support the development of Synnax's credit intelligence rating protocol and its Telegram applet SynQuest to build a decentralized and transparent credit market and optimize the credit rating industry by obtaining predictive analysis through decentralized data sources.
Binance Labs invests in Sophon, amount not disclosed
Binance Labs announced an investment in ZKsync's "elastic chain" Sophon, the specific amount of which has not been disclosed. It is reported that Sophon uses Matter Labs' modular open source framework to build a second-layer network. The mainnet will be launched next month and the token will be deployed soon. Sophon's total financing amount has exceeded US$70 million so far.
Digital wallet ZAR completes angel round financing, with Solana Labs co-founders and others participating
Digital wallet ZAR has completed its angel round of financing, with participation from angel investors including MonkeDAO, Big Brain Holdings, Solana Labs co-founder toly, and former Coinbase CTO Balaji. The specific amount of financing and valuation information have not been disclosed yet. The new funds will drive it to expand its merchants. Its application supports the exchange of digital dollars and global transactions through virtual and physical debit cards.
other
TON Ecosystem Animation IP Content Platform RoOLZ Completes $1 Million Private Fundraising, TON Participates in the Investment
TON ecosystem animation IP content platform RoOLZ announced the completion of a $1 million private round of financing, with TON, Contango Digital Assets, and Yolo Investments participating in the investment. The specific valuation information has not been disclosed. The new funds will be used to expand its construction on the Telegram/TON ecosystem, combining blockchain technology with animation, supporting users to participate in tasks powered by GODL tokens, interact with mobile animation content, and collect NFTs.
