Highlights of this issue

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 28 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (July 1-7), with a total funding amount of over US$210 million. The overview is as follows:

  • DeFi announced 6 investment and financing events, among which Bitcoin re-staking protocol Lombard raised $16 million, led by Polychain Capital;

  • The Web3 game track announced 4 investment and financing events, among which the blockchain game Swords and Dungeons completed a $5 million financing, with OKX Ventures and others participating in the investment;

  • The DePIN field announced three investment and financing events, among which the distributed GPU network Prodia raised $15 million for its AI reasoning solution, led by Dragonfly Capital;

  • Four investment and financing events were announced in the AI ​​field, among which the open source AI platform Sentient raised $85 million in a seed round of financing co-led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures;

  • The Infrastructure & Tools track announced 9 financings, among which the blockchain oracle project RedStone raised $15 million in its Series A financing, led by Arrington Capital;

  • Two other blockchain/crypto applications announced financing, including Monad Ecosystem Token and NFT startup platform Monad Pad, which announced the completion of $945,000 in financing.

DeFi

Startup Lombard raises $16 million in funding led by Polychain Capital

Startup Lombard has raised $16 million in funding and plans to work with Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon to launch a Bitcoin-based re-staking function. Lombard's financing round was led by Polychain Capital, with participants including OKX Ventures, BabylonChain, Inc., dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund and Nomad Capital. Based on Babylon's cross-network security technology, Lombard will launch the "Liquid Bitcoin" token (LBTC), a tradable deposit certificate that allows users to maintain liquidity while staking Bitcoin to secure other networks. Lombard said that by introducing LBTC in conjunction with major ecosystems and DeFi protocols, more than $1.3 trillion of Bitcoin can be used for lending and trading, providing new capital opportunities and users for Bitcoin holders as well as the ecosystem and its protocols.

Blockchain fintech company FreeBnk completes $3 million in financing, led by Founderheads

Lithuanian blockchain fintech company FreeBnk announced the completion of a $3 million financing round, led by Founderheads, with participation from ChaiTech Ventures, LVT Capital, Lavender Capital, etc. The new financing will be used to enhance its user interface and application experience, especially for new users. The company focuses on tokenized RWA and encrypted financial services, and its technology is based on its multi-party computing (MPC) security to ensure the protection of users' digital assets.

Blast Ecosystem DeFi Lending Protocol Pac Finance Announces Completion of a New Million-Dollar Funding Round

Pac Finance, a DeFi lending protocol in the Blast ecosystem, announced the completion of a new round of financing of one million US dollars, led by Manifold and Mapleblock, with Polychain holding a portion of the equity, and some angel investors participating. The new financing will be used for further development of the protocol, including market expansion, team expansion, operating expenses, product development and innovation. In addition, as TGE approaches, Pac Finance is about to release the details of the Pac token airdrop. It is reported that Pac Finance, as a DeFi lending protocol in the Blast ecosystem, adopts the principle of non-custodial and permissionless operation, and its core functions include lending, swap transactions and staking.

Solana Ecosystem Re-staking Protocol Solayer Completes Builders Round Financing, with Solana Labs Co-founders and Others Participating

Solana ecosystem re-staking agreement Solayer announced the completion of the Builders Round financing. Investors include Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Marinade core contributor Michael Repetny, Solend founder Rooter, Tensor co-founder Richard Wu, crypto KOL "Ansem", Anza Chief Strategy Officer Jed Halfon, Drift Protocol co-founder Cindy Leow, Bonk core contributor Nom, Babylon Chain's Xinshu Dong, Bison Trail co-founder Joseph Lallouz, Switchboard co-founder Chris Hermantis, Rio Network co-founder Alan Curtis, DCF God, wsbmod, Solana founder Adam Jin, Initia co-founder Stan Liu, Blockworks co-founder Michael lppolito, Sershoku, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Apeindaily. According to reports, Solayer is a Solana ecosystem re-staking protocol, which released the re-staking standard on Solana, namely Endogenous-Active Verification Service (AVS), in early June.

Piggycell, an IoT-based RWA project, completes a new round of financing, with Internet Computer participating in the investment

Piggycell, an IoT-based RWA project, announced the completion of a new round of financing, with Internet Computer (ICP) participating in the investment. The specific financing amount and valuation information have not been disclosed. Piggycell will join the ICP Olympus accelerator program after this round of financing. Piggycell is a decentralized platform based on the Korean shared power bank service Piggycell. Users can experience the IoT-based "charge and earn (C2E)" service while charging. It is reported that Piggycell said that its C2E platform plans to conduct closed testing (CBT) in the near future and will be launched this year.

Programmable derivatives protocol Plaza completes Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Anagram

Programmable derivatives protocol Plaza Finance announced the completion of its Pre-Seed round of financing. The specific amount of financing was not disclosed. Anagram led the investment, and Interop Ventures, Cosmostation and others participated in the investment.

Web3 Games

Blockchain game Swords and Dungeons completes $5 million in financing, with OKX Ventures and others participating

According to the official Twitter account of Swords & Dungeons, Swords and Dungeons has successfully raised $5 million in financing. Support is provided by investors such as Mirana Ventures, Qiming VC, OKX Ventures, y2z Ventures, Partners Matrix, Folius Ventures, Mask Network, SNZ Holding, ArkStream, Sky9 Capital, Primal Capital, and Bas1s Ventures. This P2E DeFi MMORPG combines the PvE, PvP, and GvG systems of traditional games with the P2E game mode and DAO governance concept of the Web3.0 era. Swords and Dungeons will end the second round of testing on July 19 and reward participants with $5 million in GOLD. Participants can choose to exchange their test deposits for USDT, $SND IDO shares, or NFT discounts. Battle Pass NFTs will be launched on July 23.

Cambria, a blockchain gaming project, announced the completion of a $250 million seed round of financing

The blockchain game project Cambria announced the completion of a $250 million seed round of financing, led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from 1kx and multiple angel investors, including Delphi Ventures partner Piers Kicks, Delphi_Ventures co-founder Hype Investments founder hype, etc. According to reports, Cambria will create a "risk-return" massively multiplayer online game inspired by "RuneScape" and with on-chain staking. The staking amount of its first mini-game "Cambria: Duel Arena" on the Blast chain has exceeded $88 million.

On-chain social gaming platform MonkeyBit completes $2 million seed round of financing

MonkeyBit, an on-chain social gaming platform, announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, led by Middle East Web3 Fund 3KBTC Capital, and participated by Hongyi Labs and other funds. It is reported that MonkeyBit has reached ecosystem cooperation with ABCDE Capital, Polygon, OKX, Bitget, Bitlayer, AlienX, Tabi, Foresight Ventures, ABGA Eco Fund, TON Ventures, KINE and Degame. MonkeyBit is committed to providing innovative interactive experiences for GameFi players and creating a new on-chain social entertainment ecosystem. The new funds will be used to further develop decentralized social gaming platforms and game creator tools. At the same time, MonkeyBit has launched a global ambassador recruitment plan.

Web3 game points platform XOOB completes $1.6 million financing, with Chromia and others participating

XOOB announced the completion of $1.6 million in financing, with participation from Chromia, Mines of Dalarnia, Alice, etc., including $200,000 in Pre-seed round financing and $1.4 million in incubation financing in the form of IP. XOOB is a Web3 gaming platform that provides a unique mission experience, combining points accumulation, mystery box sales, and mini-games, allowing users to participate in XOOB seasonal events and get special missions and offers in Web3 games.

DePIN

Distributed GPU network Prodia completes $15 million financing, led by Dragonfly Capital

Distributed GPU network Prodia has raised $15 million for its AI inference solution, led by Dragonfly Capital. Other investors in the round include HashKey, Web3.com, Index Ventures, Symbolic Capital, OKX Ventures, and angel investors Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal, and Bloq co-founder Matthew Roszak. Prodia leverages Web3 infrastructure to provide low-latency and cost-effective AI media inference solutions.

ESG data oracle project Nubila has raised $2.5 million in financing, led by IoTeX and VeChain

Nubila, an oracle project that specializes in providing ESG data for the decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) ecosystem, has launched a new round of financing, led by IoTeX and VeChain + Boston Consulting Group, and has raised $2.5 million so far. OrangeDAO, MH Ventures, Future Money Group, SNZ Capital, DePINsurf, Kronos Research, Taisu Ventures, Bytetrade, Waterdrip Capital, Deepin Lab, Assembly Partners, Cyber, Radiance Ventures and Genopets participated in the investment. Nubila focuses on providing accurate ESG data for the DePIN ecosystem and aims to use AI and tokenization to promote sustainable development. The funds will be used to expand its ESG data network and enhance data accuracy and user engagement. Nubila plans to capture key environmental data to improve the accuracy of ESG assessments through an advanced network of weather stations and sensors.

DePIN project U2U Network completes seed round financing, led by IDG Blockchain

U2U Network, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) project, announced the completion of its seed round of financing, led by IDG Blockchain, with participation from dappOS, Pontem, Lumoz, ZkEX, Avalon, Catalyst and Grindery. The company did not disclose the specific amount of this round of financing, but it is said to have reached "seven figures". U2U Network is building a Layer 1 blockchain network based on subnet technology. Each U2U subnet runs independently of the main network, which means that (1) even if the U2U main network is down, the subnet can continue to run without interruption. It is reported that U2U Network also announced a $1 million donation to promote the development of the DePIN industry.

AI

Open source AI platform Sentient completes $85 million seed round of financing

Open source AI platform Sentient has raised $85 million in a seed round co-led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Framework Ventures. One of Sentient's core contributors is Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, and EigenLayer founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan has served as an advisor throughout. Other investors include Ethereal Ventures, Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Delphi Ventures, Hack VC, Arrington Capital, HashKey Capital, Canonical Crypto, and Foresight Ventures. Sentient is committed to building open source AI models through community contributions to compete with OpenAI. Sentient will allow users to access and contribute models and provide rewards based on contributions. Sentient plans to launch a testnet in the third quarter of this year and will use the new funds to continue building its platform. Nailwal said Sentient will be built on Polygon and may create its own chain through the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK).

Blockchain company OpenLedger completes $8 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital

Blockchain company OpenLedger has raised $8 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital. Other participants include HashKey Capital, Finality Capital, Hash3, STIX, MH Ventures, Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Sandeep Nailwal of Polygon, and Kenny Li of Manta. OpenLedger focuses on building permissionless and data-oriented infrastructure for artificial intelligence development. The company plans to use this financing to expand the team and strengthen the data pipeline infrastructure, and is expected to launch the mainnet next quarter.

AI+RWA project Compute Labs completes $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Protocol Labs

According to The Block, AI+RWA project Compute Labs announced the completion of a $3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Protocol Labs, with participation from Blockchain Coinvestors, MH Ventures, OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, CMS, P2 Ventures, ArkStream Capital, Symbolic Capital, Ambush Capital, Amber Group, Oak Grove Ventures, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, and Solana Foundation strategy director Austin Federa. It is reported that Compute Labs was incubated by NVIDIA Inception VC Alliance and provides investors with AI computing power benefits by developing enterprise-level AI computing power tokenization protocol CTP and GPU Restaking solutions. The AI ​​computing power tokenization protocol CTP is now available on the Solana testnet, and the mainnet is expected to be launched in Q3, and TGE will be completed before the end of the year.

Onaji, a blockchain machine learning platform, completes $2.5 million in Pre-Seed funding, led by Stratos

Onaji, a machine learning platform for smart contract blockchain, announced on X that it has completed a $2.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Stratos, with participation from Maven11, Uniswap Labs Ventures, and IOSG Ventures. Onaji has built a platform for training and deploying AI models that can autonomously participate in DeFi on Ethereum and Layer 2.

Infrastructure & Tools

Blockchain oracle project RedStone completes $15 million Series A financing, led by Arrington Capital

Blockchain oracle project RedStone announced that it has raised $15 million in Series A funding, led by Arrington Capital. The funds will be used to recruit new team members. Also participating in this round of financing are SevenX, IOSG Ventures, Spartan Capital, White Star Capital, Kraken Ventures, Amber Group, Protagonist, gumi Cryptos, Christian Angermayer's Samara Asset Group and HTX Ventures. RedStone is introducing its oracle to the emerging re-staking space of Ethereum. RedStone signed an agreement with Ether.fi, the largest re-staking service on EigenLayer, in April this year, and obtained $500 million in funding to help introduce its data oracle to the ecosystem. RedStone provides oracle data feed services covering multiple blockchain networks such as Ethereum, zkSync Era, Avalanche, Base, Polygon, Linea, Celo, Optimism, Arbitrum, Fantom, BNB Chain and Blast.

Pi Squared Completes $12.5 Million Seed Round, Led by Polychain Capital

Pi Squared, a company that uses zero-knowledge technology to enable verifiable computation, announced that it has raised $12.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital. Also participating in the round were ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures, and Samsung Next, as well as angel investors including Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation and Sreeram Kanaan, founder of EigenLayer. Pi Squared is led by Grigore Rosu, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its products. Pi Squared's first product is a "universal settlement layer" that can settle blockchain transactions in any programming language. Rosu said the company is also developing "universal zero-knowledge circuits," which will enable "trustless remote computing, AI, and interoperable smart contracts for any blockchain or dApp" through zero-knowledge technology. The project is expected to enter the testnet stage by the end of 2024.

Shared sorting network Astria completes $12.5 million financing, led by dba and Placeholder VC

Astria, a shared sorting network, has completed a $12.5 million strategic financing led by dba and Placeholder VC, with participation from RockawayX. Maven11, 1kx, Figment Capital and Batu are returning investors, angel investors include Yuki, DCBuilder, Hasu, Will Price and Jason Yanowitz, and Bankless Ventures also participated. The funds will be used to continue the development of the Astria sorting layer and Astria Stack, allowing anyone to deploy permissionless aggregation without relying on a centralized sorter. The on-chain NFT network Forma has been launched on the Astria Stack.

Blockchain data management company SendBlocks completes $8.2 million seed round of financing

Blockchain data management startup SendBlocks announced that it has received $8.2 million in seed round financing, led by Castle Island Ventures. Other investors include Pitango, Illuminate Financial, Laser Digital (Nomura) and Starkware. SendBlocks simplifies blockchain data access through its customizable platform, enabling enterprises, ecosystems and applications to define and obtain the data they need. Existing customers include Bancor and SphereX. SendBlocks' first product is a "universal settlement layer" that supports settlement of blockchain transactions in any programming language. The company is also developing a "universal zero-knowledge circuit" to enable "trustless remote computing" and cross-blockchain smart contracts. The project is expected to enter the testnet by the end of 2024. The financing will be used to expand the R&D team and increase marketing and sales efforts to attract more top protocols and ecosystems.

Bitcoin scaling protocol QED has received $6 million in seed funding from Blockchain Capital

QED, a Bitcoin scaling protocol, has completed a $6 million seed round of financing exclusively invested by Blockchain Capital, bringing its valuation to "nine figures" (at least $100 million). QED uses zero-knowledge proof technology and Taproot upgrades to process more than 150,000 transactions per second, with the goal of building applications such as decentralized exchanges and DeFi. The testnet is expected to be launched in 3-4 months, and the mainnet and native tokens will be released after the community reaches a consensus. QED is headquartered in Hong Kong and plans to open its first office in Texas, USA. This seed round of financing brings QED's total financing to $10.6 million. Previously, the company received $3.25 million in pre-seed financing from companies such as Arrington Capital, StarkWare, Draper Dragon, and $1.35 million in angel round financing from companies such as Sparkle Ventures backed by Animoca Brands.

Web3 security company Mamori completes $5 million seed round led by Blockchain Capital

Web3 security company Mamori has announced a $5 million seed round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Web3.com Ventures and Velocity Capital, as well as angel investors Grigore Rosu, Daniel Lubarov, Alex Watts, Bo Du, Shujia Liang, Micheal Heinrich, and Antonio Viggiano. Mamori is dedicated to enhancing Web3 security by developing an algorithm that can detect problems in blockchain software.

On-chain reputation network Ethos Network completes $1.75 million Pre-Seed round of financing

The on-chain reputation network Ethos Network announced the completion of a $1.75 million Pre-Seed round of financing with participation only from the on-chain community.

According to reports, the project is committed to solving the problem of fraud on the Web3 chain by measuring the credibility and reputation on the chain. The Ethos protocol provides a set of interrelated mechanisms, including review, guarantee, slashing, proof, credibility scoring, governance, etc. These mechanisms together form a common platform that incentivizes ethical behavior and generates credibility scores.

UniSat completed its Pre-A round of financing led by Binance in May.

According to UniSat's official Twitter, UniSat completed its Pre-A round of financing led by Binance in May 2024.

Web3 blockchain development project Nycrypto Labs completes $800,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, led by DNA Fund

Nycrypto Labs, a blockchain development project dedicated to simplifying the transition from Web2 to Web3, announced the completion of an $800,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, led by DNA Fund, with participation from Transform Ventures and a group of angel investors. The specific valuation data has not been disclosed. The new funds will support the launch of Tidus Wallet, a multi-chain wallet that enables cross-chain lending and staking without leaving the application, to reduce the risks associated with bridging (the process of transferring assets between different blockchain networks).

Open Campus Announces Funding from Arbitrum Foundation to Launch EDU Chain

Open Campus announced that it has received funding from the Arbitrum Foundation to support the upcoming educational blockchain EDU Chain. EDU Chain is the first Layer 3 blockchain designed specifically for education and will use the "Learn Own Earn" model to build a decentralized application ecosystem. Open Campus will use its network to record learning outcomes, expand educational financial solutions, and develop dapps. In addition, Open Campus will also support educational content projects of the Arbitrum Ambassador Program and participate in the Arbitrum hackathon competition to provide incentives for developers who develop EDU Chain dapps.

other

Launch Platform

Monad Pad Completes $945,000 in Financing, with Cogitent Ventures and Others Joining

Monad ecosystem token and NFT startup platform Monad Pad announced the completion of US$945,000 in financing, with participation from Cogitent Ventures, CMS Holdings, CSPDAO, Zephyrus Capital, vvvdotnet, FOMO Ventures, Exnetwork Capital, Sneaky Ventures, Legion Ventures and others.

Crypto memes

Solana Ecosystem Meme Project Pandiana Completes $500,000 Pre-Seed Round of Financing, with YNK Capital and Others Participating

Solana ecosystem meme project Pandiana announced the completion of a $500,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from YNK Capital, AlphaEquity Capital, and Gateron Ventures. Pandiana plans to integrate the meme concept with the concept of earning while playing, while using the new funds to expand the influence of the Solana ecosystem and plans to launch the PNDA token presale this week.

Institutional Funds

Kleiner Perkins launches two new funds with sizes of $825 million and $1.2 billion

US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins announced the establishment of its 21st venture capital fund, KP21, an $825 million fund to support start-ups; in addition, the company also established its third select fund, KP Select III, a $1.2 billion fund to support high-impact investments.

The company stated in a press release: "With these new funds, our team's focus on enterprise software, consumer, healthcare, fintech and hard technology remains unchanged. Every field will be greatly accelerated by artificial intelligence. Industries such as healthcare, law, and finance that require humans to do low-level work and have slow software adoption will transform rapidly. New experiences and computing needs will bring opportunities for hardware and physical infrastructure. Today, imagination is the factor that constrains the future of technology." Previously, Kleiner Perkins has invested in NFT platform Autograph, crypto exchange Rain Financial, NFT certification company Optic, generative AI startup Together, etc.

DWF Labs launches $20 million crypto-native fund Cloudbreak, targeting high-quality Chinese projects

DWF Labs announced on the X platform that it has launched Cloudbreak, a $20 million crypto-native fund dedicated to providing funding and international strategic resource support for innovative and competitive high-quality Chinese projects. Projects such as GameFi, SocialFi, Meme, AI, derivatives, or L1/L2 infrastructure are eligible to register.