Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 28 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (9.9-9.15), with a total funding amount of over US$218 million. Both the funding amount and the number of transactions increased significantly. An overview is as follows:
DeFi announced 7 investment and financing events, among which the DeFi abstract platform Infinit completed a $6 million financing, with Electric Capital and others participating in the investment;
The Web3 game track announced three investment and financing events, among which Web3 game developer Nytro Lab completed $8 million in financing, led by SevenX Ventures;
Four investment and financing events were announced in the DePIN field, among which Fuse raised $12 million for the renewable energy DePIN project, led by Multicoin Capital;
The Infrastructure and Tools track announced 5 financings, among which Web3 operating system Fountain completed a $3.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Foundation Capital and others;
In other blockchain/crypto applications, 6 financings were announced, among which the decentralized music streaming platform Tune.fm raised US$50 million, with Animoca Brands and others participating in the investment;
The centralized finance sector announced two financings, among which Singapore digital asset exchange SDAX completed a $50 million B2 round of financing, led by MPMR
DeFi
DeFi abstraction platform Infinit completes $6 million financing, Electric Capital and others participate
DeFi abstraction platform Infinit has completed a $6 million financing round, with Electric Capital, Mirana Ventures, Hashed and Arthur Hayes' family office Maelstrom, Lightspeed Faction, Nomad Capital, Robot Ventures, Tangent and Presto Labs participating. The new funds will be used to enhance its infrastructure and provide a smoother service experience for DeFi protocol builders.
Ammalgam Completes $2.5 Million Seed Round, Led by Framework Ventures and Others
Decentralized lending exchange (DLEX) Ammalgam announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round of financing led by Lightspeed Faction and Framework Ventures, with participation from Robot Ventures, Bodhi Ventures, NGC Ventures, DeWhales, Blockchain Founders Fund, and angel investors such as Kain Warwick, Anton Bukov, Spencer Noon and Jordi Alexander. The new funds will be used to drive the growth and development of the protocol, including expanding the core talent team and product development.
Eigenpie completes seed round financing, with participation from Arbitrum Foundation, PancakeSwap and others
Ethereum liquidity re-pledge protocol Eigenpie announced on X that it has received strategic investment and completed its seed round of financing. The specific amount has not been disclosed yet. Arbitrum Foundation, Robot Ventures, PancakeSwap, Relayer Capital and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, Frax Finance founder Sam Kazemian, Zircuit co-founder Angel Xu, GMX core contributor coinflipcanada and others participated in the investment. The new financing will support the long-term development of EigenLayer liquidity re-pledge.
Solana Ecosystem DeFi Project Carrot Completes $600,000 Pre-Seed Round of Financing, with BOOGLE and Others Participating
Solana ecosystem DeFi project Carrot announced on X that it has completed a $600,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from angel investors such as BOOGLE, DKS Ventures, Dead King Society, and Retired Chad Dev. According to reports, Carrot has exceeded $2 million in TVL since its launch two weeks ago, with a focus on simplifying the DeFi user experience.
BTC Ecosystem Protocol BTA Protocol Completes Series A+ Financing, Led by Crypto Labs and Others
BTC ecological protocol BTA Protocol announced the completion of its A+ round of financing, led by Crypto Labs, with participation from Cityblok, BlackBridge, etc. The amount of financing was not disclosed. It is reported that BTA Protocol is a decentralized ecological protocol based on BTC, with staking protocol (Staking), liquidity protocol (Liquidity), range stability protocol (RSP), launch pool (Launchpool) and lending protocol (Lending). BTA Protocol will be launched on X Layer at the end of September.
Cross-rollup order book DEX Zada Finance completes a new round of financing, Cryptia Capital and others participate
Zada Finance, a cross-rollup order book DEX built on Scroll, announced the completion of a new round of financing, with participation from Cryptia Capital, NovaSeed Ventures, Pulse Capital, Axium Partners, Digitata Capital, Hivemind Ventures, etc. The specific amount and valuation information have not been disclosed. It is reported that the new funds will promote its transition from AMM DEX to the order book model, and will also explore Layer3 solutions and account abstraction to improve user experience, aiming to aggregate liquidity between different Rollups and solve the fragmentation problem through cross-Rollup solutions.
Derivatives trading platform Derive completes angel round financing
Derivatives trading platform Derive (formerly Lyra) announced the completion of its angel round of financing, with participation from DCFGOD, EtherFi co-founder Rok Kopp, SPREEK and others. Derive is a decentralized cryptocurrency options and perpetual contract trading platform that supports financial applications and products for various integrators, traders and institutions.
Web3 Games
Web3 game developer Nytro Lab completes $8 million financing, led by SevenX Ventures
Web3 game developer Nytro Lab announced that it has completed $8 million in financing, led by SevenX Ventures, with participation from OKX Ventures, Aptos Labs, HashKey Capital and other institutions. So far, its total financing amount has reached $25 million. It is reported that Nytro Lab also announced that its Roguelike RPG game Castile will launch a one-month public test, and 10 million CAST will be issued before the actual issuance of tokens.
RON Ecosystem Game Platform Moku Completes $5.35 Million Financing, Led by Sky Mavis and Others
RON ecosystem gaming platform Moku announced on X platform that it has completed a financing of US$5.35 million, led by Sky Mavis, A16Z GAMES and A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN, with participation from Arca, Framework Ventures, 32-Bit Ventures and others. The team is committed to putting the power of publishing in the hands of gamers and creators.
Orange Cap Games completes $2 million angel round of financing, with participation from Igloo Group, the parent company of Fat Penguin
Orange Cap Games, a blockchain game development studio, announced the completion of a $2 million Pre-Seed angel round of financing, with participation from Igloo Inc, former Dapper Labs executive Amber, former ROBLOX CFO Matt Finick, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino, YGG founder Gabriel Dizon, and Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao. It is reported that the funds from this round of financing will be used for its upcoming trading card game Vibes, which also received IP support from Pudgy Penguins.
DePIN
Fuse raises $12 million for renewable energy DePIN project, led by Multicoin Capital
Renewable energy company Fuse has announced the closing of a $12 million strategic financing led by Multicoin Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $90 million. According to the press release, the company plans to use the funds to launch Project Zero, a renewable energy DePIN project: “As an integrated energy company, Fuse provides distributed energy resource (DER) installation, power trading, and electricity retail. The company currently manages 18 MW of renewable energy projects and has another 300 MW of renewable energy projects in the pipeline. Fuse Energy, a subsidiary of Fuse, is a vertically integrated electricity retailer.”
AI infrastructure company PIN AI completes $10 million seed round led by a16z Crypto
Silicon Valley Web3 incubator YCubed announced that its project PIN AI has completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by a16z Crypto. PIN AI is an AI infrastructure company that is developing the world's first open source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN), which aims to transform smartphones into privacy-focused AI personal assistants, giving users full control and ownership of their own personal AI. YCubed is a Silicon Valley-based Web3 incubator focused on driving innovation at the intersection of AI and encryption, and will release more information about its projects in the fields of AI data and reasoning in the coming weeks.
DePIN protocol Wingbits completes $3.5 million seed round of financing, led by Borderless Capital and Tribe Capital
Wingbits, a protocol that creates the DePIN flight tracking network based on Solana, announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round of financing, led by Borderless Capital and Tribe Capital, with participation from Antler and several angel investors. The team said: "Wingbits rewards the quality of data captured by antennas maintained by enthusiasts. Individuals are rewarded based on performance, coverage, and uptime, and there are global leaderboards to compare the best performing antennas. As of the end of 2023, there were 40 nodes on the Wingbits platform, and now it has increased to nearly 2,000."
Titan Network Completes Seed Round of Financing, Led by Arrington Capital
Titan Network, a rising star in the decentralized infrastructure network (DePIN), announced the completion of its seed round of financing. This round of financing was led by Arrington Capital, followed by several well-known investment institutions such as DePINX. As an innovator in the field of decentralized infrastructure networks, Titan Network is committed to building an open, efficient and secure digital resource network to match idle community resources with global needs. This round of financing will further promote Titan Network's technology research and development in the field of DePIN and global market expansion. Industry insiders speculate that due to the rapid growth in demand for decentralized solutions, the next trillion-dollar company may be a DePIN giant similar to Amazon AWS cloud service.
AI
Grass Network, an AI and data project, has completed its Series A financing led by Hack VC
According to people familiar with the matter, Grass Network, an AI and data project, has completed a new round of financing, led by Hack VC, with participation from Polychain Capital, Delphi Digital, Lattice and Brevan Howard Digital. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed yet.
Infrastructure & Tools
Blocksense Completes $4 Million Seed Round of Financing, Led by Permutation, with A16z, CSX and Other Participants
Blocksense has completed a $4 million seed round of financing, led by Permutation, with participation from a16z's Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX), Scott Moore, Public Works, Tykhe Block Ventures, Selini Capital, and MH Ventures. Blocksense is a Zk Rollup-based oracle solution that reduces high costs through tightly packaged data blocks, introduces a transparent fee model, and provides a fully decentralized, permissionless data feed, aiming to revolutionize the oracle network. Anyone can become a data provider on the network by staking BlockSense tokens, and nodes will automatically perform all reporting tasks by obtaining the appropriate oracle script and broadcasting its results to the BlockSense network.
Web3 operating system Fountain completes $3.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Foundation Capital and others
Web3 operating system Fountain announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round of financing, with investors including Foundation Capital, Caladan, Primal Capital, Druid Ventures, etc. Fountain solves the problem of DeFi protocols being vulnerable to market volatility and risks by providing a smart contract multi-signature platform with a code-free workflow builder. The platform enables companies to seamlessly manage and automate financial, risk management, and trading operations.
Ethereum scaling solution t1 protocol completes $2.5 million pre-seed round financing, with a16z and CSX participating
Ethereum scaling solution t1 protocol has completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing, with participation from a16z Crypto Startup School (CSX), Espresso, Frax, CowSwap, ETHGlobal, ENSO, INJECTIVE, and angel investors such as Guy Wuollet, AliYahya, and Eric Chen. It is reported that t1 protocol is a fast final scaling solution for Ethereum, supporting real-time proof generation to unify Ethereum.
Hyperbridge Completes $2.5 Million Seed Round Led by Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital
Blockchain technology company Hyperbridge announced the completion of a $2.5 million seed round of financing, led by the Web3 Foundation and Scytale Digital. Hyperbridge uses the Polkadot architecture to open up new possibilities for decentralized applications (DApps) and improve the scalability and efficiency of the Web3 ecosystem.
Edge computing open layer Gradient Network completes new round of financing, Multicoin Capital and others participate
Solana Ecosystem Edge Computing Open Layer Gradient Network has completed a new round of financing. The specific amount has not been disclosed. This round of financing was participated by Multicoin Capital, Pantera Capital and Sequoia Capital. Gradient Network's vision is to make computing services accessible to the public, easily accessible to everyone, and reasonably priced. We firmly believe that edge computing will lead this change. Among the emerging use cases, artificial intelligence reasoning, content delivery, and serverless functions stand out and are expected to shape the future of computing consumption.
other
Decentralized music streaming platform Tune.fm raises $50 million, with Animoca Brands and others participating
Tune.fm, a decentralized music streaming platform, announced that it has raised $50 million in funding, with participation from LDA Capital, Alpha Token Capital, Block Alpha, Animoca Brands, The HBAR Foundation, and GDA Capital, bringing the total funding to date to $80 million. The new funds will be used to provide liquidity for the protocol's JAM token, which is used within the platform to reward artists and users. The platform provides music streaming services through an integrated NFT marketplace. Artists are paid a small amount for every second their music is played, while users can earn tokens by discovering and listening to newly promoted songs. The platform is powered by the Hedera blockchain.
Solana Ecosystem Creator Platform DRiP Completes $8 Million Seed Round of Financing, Led by Coinbase Ventures and Others
Solana ecosystem creator platform DRiP announced the completion of an $8 million seed round of financing, led by NFX, Coinbase Ventures and Progression (a fund founded by former TikTok executives), with participation from Placeholder, 6th Man Ventures and more than 30 angel investors. The valuation and financing structure have not yet been disclosed. The new funds will be used to accelerate the attraction of creators, launch consumer-facing mobile applications, expand the development of creator tools and platform features, and strengthen marketing efforts.
Solana on-chain mining project Ore announces the establishment of Regolith Labs and completes $3 million seed round of financing
Solana on-chain mining project Ore announced on X that it has established Regolith Labs and completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Colosseum, Solana Ventures, B+J Studios, Dead King Society, and 3KVC. Regolith Labs aims to accelerate the development of the ORE ecosystem and introduce millions of new users to the cryptocurrency space through new proof-of-work mining primitives and liquidity networks on Solana.
Cudis, a wearable device developer based on Solana, completes $5 million in financing, led by Draper Associates
Cudis, a wearable device developer based on Solana, has completed a $5 million financing round led by Draper Associates. The team said the investment will increase the production of its ring products to 1 million, posing a challenge to existing companies such as Oura. It is reported that the CUDIS ring uses the Solana blockchain to protect biometric data, provide gamified health challenges, and is equipped with a personalized AI coach that provides actionable insights and rewards for healthy behaviors.
Carbon neutral blockchain platform OFP completes seed round financing, led by Übermorgen Ventures
Carbon neutral blockchain platform Open Forest Protocol (OFP) has completed its seed round of financing, led by Übermorgen Ventures, with participation from BackBone Ventures, GS Futures, and foundations such as Bloom Foundation, NEAR Foundation, and Foundation Valery. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. The team said: "OFP is a comprehensive digital reform of carbon credit verification and issuance. It provides carbon developers with a no-upfront-cost, open-source, web-based and blockchain-based verification system, enabling them to bring transparent, verifiable and valuable carbon credits to market. This is critical to the future of natural assets on the OFP chain."
Web3 medical platform UHT completes $1.2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Animoca Brands and others
Gamified medical platform Universal Health Token (UHT) has completed a $1.2 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures and Tezos Foundation.
The team stated: “Universal Health Token gamifies preventive healthcare through blockchain and is powered by GOQii. The platform is a Web3 fork of Goqii and recently surpassed 5 million global downloads on the app. UHT bridges technology and healthcare. Through exclusive NFTs, event access, and discounted wellness products, UHT incentivizes individuals to rethink their habits and embrace a healthier lifestyle.”
Centralized Finance
Singapore digital asset exchange SDAX completes $50 million B2 round of financing, led by MPMR
Singapore digital asset exchange SDAX has completed a $50 million Series B2 financing round, led by Muscat Precious Metals Refining Company (MPMR). SDAX plans to use the financing to launch a digital asset exchange in Oman, with the goal of expanding into the Gulf and African markets. In addition, SDAX and MPMR collaborated in April this year to launch a tokenized gold product based on medium-term loan notes, with gold stored in Le Freeport in Singapore. It is reported that SDAX completed a $18 million Series B financing round in 2021, led by PSA International, Straits Trading Company and New Horizon Global.
PayFi network protocol Huma Finance completes $38 million financing, led by Distributed Global
Huma Finance, a company focused on tokenizing real-world assets (RWA), recently completed a $38 million financing, including $10 million in equity investment and $28 million in income-based RWA. The round was led by venture capital firm Distributed Global, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and TIBAS Ventures, the venture capital arm of Turkey's largest private bank İşbank. Stellar Development Foundation invested $10 million in the RWA portion, becoming the largest participant. Huma Finance plans to use the funds to expand its payment financing (PayFi) platform to the Solana blockchain and Stellar's Soroban smart contract network. The company's merger with Arf is expected to achieve $10 billion in payment financing transactions next year.
