Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 25 blockchain investment and financing events around the world last week (11.13-11.19), with a total funding of over US$303 million. An overview is as follows:
DeFi announced four investment and financing events, among which CFX Labs announced the completion of a $9.5 million financing, with Shima Capital and others participating in the investment;
Three investment and financing events were announced in the NFT and Metaverse fields, among which Web3 K-Pop project Modhaus raised $8 million in a Series A round led by Sfermion;
The blockchain game track announced 4 investment and financing events, among which Bazooka Tango, the developer of Web3 card game Shardbound, completed a $5 million financing, led by Bitkraft Ventures;
The Infrastructure & Tools track announced 9 financings, including $95 million raised by blockchain payment company Fnality, led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas;
Other Web3/crypto-related projects announced three financings, including Web3 social networking platform Sleek, which announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Binance Labs;
The centralized financial sector announced three investment and financing events, among which the crypto exchange Blockchain.com completed a $110 million E-round strategic financing, led by British investment company Kingsway Capital
DeFi
Tokenization company Superstate receives $14 million investment to bring traditional funds to the chain
Superstate, a blockchain-based asset management company, has raised $14 million in venture capital to develop regulated on-chain funds available to U.S. investors. The round was led by CoinFund and Distributed Global, with participation from Arrington Capital, Breyer Capital, CMT Digital, Department of XYZ, Folius Ventures, Galaxy Digital, HackVC, Modular Capital, Nascent, and Road Capital Management. Superstate focuses on developing regulated and compliant investment tools using public blockchains for use by U.S. investors. The company, led by Robert Leshner, founder of the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Compound (COMP), has used the funds to expand its team, create private funds for institutional investors, and develop a framework for tokenized public funds.
Fintech company CFX Labs completes $9.5 million seed round of financing, with Shima Capital and others participating
CFX Labs, a US fintech company, announced the completion of a $9.5 million financing round, with Shima Capital, Decasonic, Antalpha, CMT Digital, Corazon Capital, Kraken Ventures, New Form Capital, and Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust participating. The funds from this round of financing will be used to expand its stablecoin payment and remittance network based on the Solana blockchain. It is reported that CFX Labs' payment network enables people to use the company's proprietary stablecoin fxUSD and the Solana blockchain as a transaction payment channel to send and receive legal dollars overseas to countries such as India, Mexico and Nigeria.
Rho Labs, founded by former Copper executives, has raised $2.2 million and is building a crypto derivatives trading platform
Rho Labs, founded by former Copper Chief Product Officer Alex Ryvkin, announced the completion of a $2.2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Speedinvest, with participation from Keyrock, Re7 Capital, Daedalus Collective and Copper CEO Dmitry Tokarev. It is reported that the crypto derivatives trading platform Rho Protocol, which Rho Labs is building, can provide on-chain trading services based on specific interest rates and traditional interest rates. It is expected that its trading market will launch a beta version on the Arbitrum chain at the end of this year.
Napier Protocol, a tokenized revenue protocol, completes $1 million in Pre-Seed funding
Napier Protocol, a DeFi yield tokenization protocol, announced the completion of a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Curve founder Michael Egorov, Convex Finance co-founders C2tP and Winthorpe, B Dash Ventures, FLICKSHOT, Curve Finance's Mrblock, and DeFiLlama co-founder Charlie. According to reports, Napier Protocol is a liquidity center for yield trading and is built on the Curve pool. Napier AMM optimizes periodic assets and seamlessly synchronizes with Curve v2 to enhance dynamism. NPR uses the veToken model to control the protocol's fixed-term asset pool parameters, protocol fees, etc. Napier will disclose more information on token economics in the coming weeks.
NFT & Metaverse
South Korean Web3 K-Pop Project Modhaus Completes $8 Million Series A Funding, Sfermion Leads Investment
Blockchain-based Korean pop music startup Modhaus (Web3 K-Pop Project) has raised $8 million in a Series A round led by US venture capital firm Sfermion, with participation from SM Culture Partners, Laguna Investment, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III, and Foresight Ventures. The new funds are intended to fuel its development and introduce more blockchain-based use cases in the Korean entertainment industry.
It is reported that Modhaus was founded in December 2021 and formed TripleS, a Korean pop girl group with more than 1.74 million subscribers on YouTube, through its NFT voting system. Modhaus's Cosmo is a blockchain-based entertainment platform. On the COSMO application, fans can purchase NFT photo cards and then regard them as voting tokens.
Bitcoin Ordinals Project Taproot Wizards Completes $7.5 Million Funding
Taproot Wizards, a Bitcoin-focused Ordinals project, recently announced the completion of a $7.5 million financing round, led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Geometry, Collider Ventures, StarkWare, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Masterkey, and Newman Capital. This round of funds will be used to rebuild Bitcoin's "Wizard Village," symbolizing the desire to compete with major blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.
Taproot Wizards aims to reawaken the culture of building and innovating on Bitcoin. The project has issued a limited number of 2,121 wizard NFTs, a number that symbolizes the total supply of Bitcoin, which is 21 million. Currently, less than 1% of Taproot Wizards' Ordinals have been minted. Wertheimer said that they do not release the cadence publicly to avoid the hype from fading quickly, but hope to find people who are truly committed to the mission, rather than those who only pay attention to JPEG pictures.
Artifact Labs, a subsidiary of South China Morning Post, completes US$2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by IOSG Ventures and others
Artifact Labs, a Web3 company under the South China Morning Post, has completed a $2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by RW3 Ventures and IOSG Ventures, with participation from Raptor Group, Cypher Capital and HerculesDAO. In March 2022, the South China Morning Post split its NFT series business into a new company "Artifact Labs", while continuing to serve as a shareholder of "Artifact Labs" and seeking third-party capital to promote the company's growth. The NFT series is based on the front pages of major historical events published by the South China Morning Post, such as the return of Hong Kong in 1997, the outbreak of avian influenza, the Asian financial crisis, and the death of Princess Diana. The NFT series was created based on the Flow blockchain developed by Dapper Labs.
Chain Games
3D Generative AI Platform Atlas Completes Two Rounds of Funding Totaling $6 Million, Plans to Build IP-Based Game Assets with Web3 Studios
3D generative AI platform Atlas announced the completion of two rounds of financing totaling US$6 million, including US$4.5 million led by 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and US$1.5 million led by Collab+Currency. Other investors include a16z Scouting Fund, Contango, Gaingels, GFR Fund, New Renaissance Ventures, Square Enix, Wagmi Ventures, etc. Atla's 3D generative AI platform mainly cooperates with Web3 game studios and brands such as Square Enix, Consortium9 and Shrapnel to create virtual world experiences, helping companies generate IP-based customized assets for content creators in video games, virtual ecosystems and XR experiences.
Bazooka Tango, the developer of collectible card game Shardbound, raises $5 million
Bazooka Tango, the developer of the Web3 tactical collectible card game Shardbound, has raised $5 million in funding led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from RW3 Ventures, Sfermion, Foresight Ventures, and Builder Capital. Bazooka Tango will launch a public beta later this year. It will officially launch in 2024 and be available on Steam, Epic, Apple Store, and Google Play Store. The company was founded in 2019 by Bo Daly and Stephan Sherman, veterans of the AAA game industry and the brains behind the multiplayer online battle arena game Vainglory. Vainglory was developed and published by Daly and Sherman's previous game company Super Evil Megacorp.
Artifact Lab Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Round of Financing, Led by RW3 Ventures and IOSG Ventures
Artifact Lab, an in-game user profile and monetization platform, has completed a $2 million pre-seed round of financing, led by RW3 Ventures and IOSG Ventures, with participation from Raptor Group, Cypher Capital, and Hercules DAO. Artifact's early access registration is now open. Founded in 2023, Artifact Lab has launched an innovative approach to monetize users in games and other mobile applications, and this capital injection will serve as a catalyst for platform development, team expansion, and accelerated growth.
Blockchain game project EthXY completes $1.6 million pre-seed round of financing, a16z CSS23 accelerator plans to participate
The blockchain game project EthXY completed a $1.6 million pre-seed round of financing, with participation from angel investors such as a16z CSS23 accelerator program, Orange DAO, Pioneer Fund, WWVentures, nonce Classic, Pepper Ventures, Founderheads, Space Whale Capital, MH Ventures, and Shad.
Infrastructure & Tools
Blockchain payments company Fnality raises $95 million, led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas
Blockchain payments company Fnality has raised $95 million (£77.7 million) in a Series B funding round led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas. DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura and WisdomTree participated in the round. Several banks have also made further commitments to support Fnality’s $63 million round in 2019, including Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS. “Our Series B round represents the financial sector’s desire for a blockchain-based settlement solution backed by central bank money that can bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) in wholesale markets,” said Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International, in a statement.
Blockchain startup Kinto completes $5 million in financing and plans to launch a Layer2 network that complies with anti-money laundering laws
Blockchain startup Kinto announced that it has completed $5 million in financing this year to develop an Ethereum Layer2 network based on OP Stack that complies with anti-money laundering laws, aiming to connect financial institutions and real-world assets through DeFi. The Kinto network has native KYC checks (an anti-money laundering prevention measure) and investor certification mechanisms to help regulated financial institutions access blockchain-based protocols. The network also provides insurance and developer incentives to build applications using transaction fees.
Hinkal Protocol Completes $4.1 Million Financing, Led by Draper Associates
The decentralized privacy protocol Hinkal Protocol has completed a $4.1 million financing, led by Draper Associates, with participation from Psalion, NGC Ventures, Aquanow, No limit Holdings, Orange DAO, DraperDragon, etc. Hinkal was founded by Stanford University graduate Giorgi Koreli and his doctoral brother Nika Koreli, and has been deployed on the mainnet of 6 EVM chains. The protocol uses stealth addresses, shielded pools, and DIDs to achieve the lowest privacy cost and high compliance level for mature DeFi traders.
Blockchain interoperability developer Union Labs completes $4 million seed round
Blockchain interoperability developer Union Labs has raised $4 million in seed funding to build a cross-chain bridge that connects different Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks through zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. The investment was led by venture capital firms such as Galileo, Semantic Ventures, Tioga Capital, and Nascent, with other investors including Lightshift and Chorus One.
It is reported that, unlike contemporary bridging solutions, Union does not grant special permissions to relayers, ensuring that private keys will not become the target of security hackers because they cannot control the protocol, and messages are verified using ZK proofs. Union's ZK bridge architecture includes two key components that enable the project to facilitate the Cosmos Communication Protocol (IBC) on Ethereum; CometBLS (consensus mechanism) and Galois (zero-knowledge proof system). Union's CometBLS consensus allows any asset to be transferred natively to any chain without relying on third parties, oracles, or multi-party signatures (multi-party computation). The team said that CometBLS enhances Cosmos' Tendermint consensus.
Decentralized data composable protocol Glacier Network completes $2.9 million seed round
Glacier Network, a decentralized data composable protocol, announced the completion of a $2.9 million seed round of financing, with participation from Foresight X, UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital, Cogitent Ventures, and Gate Labs. In addition, Glacier has received multiple Grant support from the Arweave ecosystem PermaDAO, Stanford Boundless Hackathon, Aptos Grant Dao, and Foresight X Accelerator. Glacier aims to create a composable, modular, and scalable Layer2 data-driven network for large-scale decentralized applications, and promote DApps to create trustless data primitive use cases based on decentralized databases (DDBs). Combined with the L2 Rollup solution, Glacier has built a programmable and composable multi-chain data network, where developers can use NoSQL GlacierDB to manage data in Arweave, Filecoin, and BNB Greenfield.
Web3 API platform Uniblock raises $2.3 million
Web3 API platform Uniblock announced the completion of a $2.3 million financing, with participation from Cadenza, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, AQN, Serafund, Outsider Ventures, etc. It is reported that Uniblock aims to connect blockchain tools such as Alchemy, thirdweb, Moralis, Parsiq, Covalent, QuickNode, etc. into an easy-to-use platform. Uniblock will integrate hundreds of Web3 connections and endpoints into one tool.
Sei Network receives strategic investment from Circle, USDC will be integrated into Sei Network
Layer1 public chain Sei Network announced that it has received strategic investment from stablecoin issuer Circle, and USDC will be integrated into the Sei chain. Circle's investment will enable Sei to integrate USDC with its growing suite of applications, such as the decentralized exchange Sushiswap. Previously in April this year, Sei completed a $30 million financing at a valuation of $800 million, with investors including Jump Crypto and Multicoin Capital. Later that month, it announced another $50 million in financing from Bitget and Foresight. Sei Network launched its mainnet in August, and the market value of the SEI token is currently approximately $310 million.
Binance Labs announces investment in Arkham’s native token ARKM
Binance Labs announced an investment in Arkham's native token ARKM. Arkham is an AI-driven blockchain intelligence and data platform that provides sophisticated information and visualization tools for on-chain activities. According to reports, the protocol introduces the world's first on-chain intelligence exchange, Arkham Intel Exchange, a decentralized intelligence economy that can match buyers and sellers of blockchain intelligence on a large scale and allow users who generate intelligence to obtain value for their work. Through Arkham's "Intel-to-Earn", the platform incentivizes the production of intelligence as a public good through bounties and auctions, as well as transactions and rewards supported by ARKM tokens. In addition, its data plan rewards users for submitting intelligence for training its proprietary artificial intelligence engine ULTRA.
Kakarot, a zkEVM development platform, completes second round of financing, with participation from OKX Ventures and others
Kakarot, a zkEVM development platform, announced the completion of its second round of financing, led by Stake Capital and LongHash, with participation from Eterna Capital, Fenbushi Capital, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Builder Capital, Bixin Ventures, UOB Venture, NxGen, CMS Holdings, Aglaé Ventures, Signum Capital, Moonrock Capital and others.
It is reported that Kakarot zkEVM is the EVM implemented by Cairo, which uses STARK proofs to prove transactions and blocks to ensure transparency and security. According to reports, the development of Kakarot zkEVM is divided into three stages: 1. Existing as EVM on Starknet L2; 2. Working together with Starknet sequencer Madara to create the third layer zkEVM; 3. Kakarot and Madara combine to enable type 1 zkEVM.
other
Web3 social platform Sleek completes $5 million seed round of financing, with Binance Labs and others participating
Web3 social network platform Sleek announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, with Binance Labs, Shima Capital, Spartan Group, Symbolic Capital, Market Across and Big Brain Holdings participating. The funding was achieved through a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT). Sources said that Sleek was valued at $50 million in this round of financing. It is reported that Sleek was formerly the metaverse platform ChapterX, and later turned to Web3 social network. ChapterX is part of the fourth season of the Binance Labs incubation program. Sleek co-founder ChaseGuo served as investment director of Binance Labs before founding ChapterX (now Sleek).
Baton, a blockchain music collaboration protocol developer, raises $4.2 million in funding led by BITKRAFT Ventures
Baton, a blockchain music collaboration protocol developer, announced the completion of a $4.2 million financing led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Techstars, Dorm Room Fund, NYU Innovation Venture Fund, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Dark Arts, Franklin Templeton, Harmonic Future and a group of angel investors. Baton has built a music collaboration protocol and a mixed media collaboration protocol based on blockchain, aiming to help creators exchange music materials, track intellectual property rights and obtain corresponding incentives. In the future, the company also hopes to expand related applications beyond the music industry.
Web3 social protocol Beoble completes $2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with DCG and others participating
Web3 social protocol beoble completed a $2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from DCG, Samsung Next, HashKey Capital, GBV Capital, Token Bay Capital, Momentum 6 and others. The funds raised will be used to enhance the Web3 social user experience and improve platform functionality.
Centralized Finance
Blockchain.com Completes $110 Million Series E Strategic Financing, Valuation More Than Half of Last March
Crypto exchange Blockchain.com has completed a $110 million Series E strategic financing, led by British investment company Kingsway Capital, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures and other companies. Blockchain.com has added two new board members, one from Kingsway and one from Lakestar. According to a person familiar with the matter, after this round of financing, the company's valuation is less than half of its $14 billion valuation in the spring of 2022. Last fall, Blockchain.com completed a strategic financing led by Kingsway Capital, and Kingsway Capital founder Manny Stotz became a company consultant. In March last year, Blockchain.com completed its Series D financing, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with a post-investment valuation of $14 billion.
BC Technology Group, parent company of licensee OSL, receives HK$710 million strategic investment from BGX
BC Technology Group, the parent company of OSL, a licensed virtual asset exchange in Hong Kong, announced that it has received a strategic investment of approximately HK$710 million (approximately US$91 million) from BGX, a cryptocurrency group. BC Technology Group previously announced that it had temporarily suspended trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Limited (HKEX) from 9:00 on November 13, pending the release of an announcement of a notifiable transaction (which constitutes inside information).
VersiFi Announces Previous Raise of $10 Million from Hunting Hill Global Capital
Martin Garcia, former managing director and co-head of trading and lending at now-bankrupt crypto lending company Genesis Global, has joined VersiFi as co-CEO and will lead the digital asset prime brokerage's expansion into services such as lending. VersiFi also announced that it has raised $10 million from Wall Street investment firm Hunting Hill Global Capital (previously reported in July that VersiFi received a seed round of funding from Hunting Hill Group, but the specific amount was not disclosed at the time), and it is expected that lending activities will rebound due to the possible approval of an ETF that directly holds Bitcoin in the United States.
Venture Capital
Menlo Ventures raises $1.35 billion to support blockchain projects
Venture capital firm Menlo Ventures announced the completion of a $1.35 billion financing, which will be deployed by Menlo Ventures' Menlo XVI, Menlo Inflection III and its affiliated funds, mainly investing in AI projects. It is worth mentioning that Amy Wu, the former head of FTX Ventures, announced in January this year that she would join Menlo Ventures as a partner, mainly responsible for investments in the consumer and gaming sectors. However, Amy Wu posted on social media that the newly raised funds can also be used to support blockchain projects.
Morgan Creek Capital raises over $50 million for new fund, plans to focus on AI, blockchain and other technologies
Securities filings show that the new fund "Morgan Creek Digital Fund IV LP" under cryptocurrency investment company Morgan Creek Digital has raised nearly $51.4 million, with five investment institutions including Britehorn Securities participating. Morgan Creek Digital CEO Mark Yusko revealed that the fund's final financing target will be between $200 million and $300 million, and will focus on investing in transformational technologies such as chips, artificial intelligence and blockchain in the future.
Tokentus Investment AG invests $1 million in Lightspeed Faction’s crypto fund
German investment company Tokentus Investment AG announced that it has invested $1 million in the crypto fund Lightspeed Faction Fund I and became its limited partner (LP). Lightspeed Faction Fund I is an early crypto fund recently launched by blockchain venture capital company Lightspeed Faction, with a total size of up to $285 million. It will focus on three major areas: investment protocols and tokenized middleware, DeFi financial services, and Web3 infrastructure.
