Article source: Web3 Market Research Institute
Financing Overview
In December 2023, a total of 98 financing events were counted, an increase of 78 from the previous month. Among them, the infrastructure track had the largest number of financing transactions: 30; the track with the highest total financing amount was CeFi, 210 million.
infrastructure
There were 30 financings in the infrastructure sector, with a total financing amount of US$150 million. Among them, there were 17 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Key financing project information
Andalusia Labs
Project Introduction: Andalusia Labs is a digital asset risk infrastructure provider with three main digital asset technology solutions: a layer 2 blockchain called Karak, a cryptocurrency risk management market called Subsea, and a security-centric institutional platform called Watchtower. All of these are designed to provide digital asset support for institutions, developers, and consumers through their respective niche markets.
Financing information: Andalusia Labs (formerly known as RiskHarbor), which focuses on digital asset risk infrastructure, completed a $48 million Series A financing round with a valuation of over $1 billion. Lightspeed Venture partners led the investment, with participation from Mubadala Capital, Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Digital Currency Group.
Dynamic
Project Information: Dynamic is a multi-chain wallet-based authentication and authorization platform that allows developers to take advantage of wallet-based interaction capabilities in minutes. With Dynamic, developers can implement a simple SDK in a minute and control all authentication, onboarding, and authorization functions from the dashboard. Developers can enable additional chains with a single click, manage users, introduce complex onboarding processes, use Chainalysis to block OFAC and risky wallets, and more - all without touching the code.
Financing information: Web3 identity verification platform Dynamic announced that it has completed $13.5 million in financing, led by a16z and Founders Fund. In June 2022, Dynamic completed a $7.5 million seed round of financing, led by a16z, with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Solana Ventures, Circle Ventures, Breyer Capital, Hypersphere, Chapter One and others.
Babylon
Project Information: Babylon is a layer1 blockchain founded by Professor David Tse of Stanford University. The project's mission is to bring Bitcoin's unparalleled security to all PoS blockchains without any additional energy costs. The team consists of researchers and experienced developers from Stanford University and experienced business consultants.
Funding: Babylon raised $18 million in a round led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC. Framework Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, OKX Ventures, Finality Capital, Breyer Capital, and Symbolic Capital also participated.
Shadow
Project Information: Shadow is a developer platform that gives users full control over on-chain event data for any contract. Developers can emit private shadow logs to monitor, test, debug, and run contract analytics. The company's first product allows anyone to enhance any contract with custom events and view capabilities to get the exact data they need" and is now open to the public for demo. Shadow uses so-called "shadow forks" to provide a private execution environment designed to reflect the state of the public blockchain in real time.
Financing information: Shadow completed a $9 million seed round of financing, led by Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap and Flashbots.
CESS
Project information: CESS is a platform that integrates blockchain networks and decentralized storage systems, designed to support Web3's global decentralized data services, including large-scale commercial applications that require high-end security, performance, storage, and data retrieval. CESS has also revealed that it will release tokens in the first quarter of 2024 and will work with the Web3 task platform TaskOn to launch an event to celebrate the token issuance.
Financing information: Cumulus Encrypted Storage System (CESS) received approximately $8 million in financing. 13 venture capital institutions including HTX Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, DWF Labs, Mentha Partners, Vespertine Capital, Web3 Foundation, Singchain Investment, 7 O'Clock Capital, SolrDAO, FishDAO, OneBlock+, Winkrypto and Polkadot Ecological Research Institute participated in the investment. The funds will be used to promote technological advancement, expand global operations, and strengthen CESS's position in the field of decentralized infrastructure.
DeFi
There were 15 financing events in the DeFi track, with a total financing amount of 19 million US dollars. Among them, there were 9 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Inventory of key financing projects
curve
Project Introduction: Curvance is a decentralized stablecoin lending protocol that initially focuses on LPs from the Curve, Convex, Aura, and Frax ecosystems. Curvance seeks to allow users to obtain optimized returns while maximizing capital efficiency through peer-to-peer lending. Assets such as cvxCRV, auraBAL, and yCRV can obtain similar or higher APRs than they obtain on their original platforms, but have the additional ability to collateralize deposits for secure stablecoin loans. The interest rates for these loans are based on several factors, including pool APR, price volatility, token liquidity, and loan-to-value ratios.
Financing information: Curvance has completed a $3.6 million seed round of financing, with investors including Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs, cross-chain messaging platform Wormhole, and angel investors including Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Investments come from crypto projects Scroll, Mantle, Eigenlayer, GMX, Curve Finance, Convex Finance, Balancer, Aura Finance and Pendle Finance, as well as core contributors to DAOs including Frax Finance.
bitSmiley
Project Introduction: BitSmiley is the MakerDAO+Compound of the Bitcoin ecosystem, providing a comprehensive solution for Bitcoin DeFi by solving the most significant gaps in the current Bitcoin ecosystem - stablecoins and lending infrastructure. In addition to providing stablecoins in bitRC20 format overcollateralized by BTC, BitSmiley also promotes peer-to-peer lending based on BRC20. In addition, it has established insurance and CDS derivatives based on the loan framework.
Financing information: Bitcoin ecosystem DeFi solution bitSmiley announced the completion of a round of financing, led by ABCDE and OKX Venture.
GameFi
There were 11 financing events in the GameFi track, with a total financing amount of US$110 million. Among them, there were 5 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Inventory of key financing projects
Poglin
Project Introduction: Poglin is a gaming company led by Jia Shen, a game developer who has developed games such as Pokémon Medallion, Battle Cats, and the international version of Disney Tsum Tsum. Gacha Monsters' first self-developed game is Poglin, which will launch an alpha version in Q1 2024. It plans to build Poglin into a multimedia IP covering animation, games, Web3, and physical goods. Active users of the ecosystem will be rewarded based on their gaming activities.
Financing information: Japanese entertainment and gaming startup Gacha Monsters has completed a $3 million seed round of financing, led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Infinity Ventures Crypto, FBG and Big Time Games.
Matr1x
Project Introduction: Matr1x is a metaverse brand that plans to build the Matr1x brand through self-developed high-quality games or cooperation with third parties, game IP development cooperation, global e-sports events, etc. Matr1x will interpret its game trilogy (Cyber ââEarth - Mars Immigration - Interstellar Exploration) through three large-scale games with a unified world view: Matr1x FIRE (first-person shooter), Matr1x WAR (shooting + MMORPG) and Matr1x EVOLUTION (SOC).
Financing information: Web3 entertainment platform Matr1x completed a US$10 million Series A financing round. Investors include Hana Financial Investment, South Koreaâs second largest financial group, HashKey Capital, Amber Group, SevenX Ventures, etc.
Matr1x said it is currently conducting Series A+ financing.
Sleepless AI
Project Introduction: Sleepless AI is an AI-based virtual companion game that leverages AIGC and LLM to create rich story-based gameplay and organic interactions with characters. The project is currently developing three games, the first of which is HIM, a virtual boyfriend Otome game with unique SBT characters that are immutable and on-chain. Sleepless AI is also the 42nd project of Binance's new coin mining.
Financing information: Web3+AI gaming platform Sleepless AI announced the completion of a new round of financing led by Folius Ventures. The specific amount was not disclosed.
NFT
There were 9 financings in the NFT track, with a total financing amount of 150 million US dollars. Among them, there were 6 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Inventory of key financing projects
LINE NEXT
Project Introduction: LINE NEXT is a company dedicated to developing and expanding the global NFT ecosystem. LINE NEXT consists of two companies: LINE NEXT Corporation, headquartered in South Korea, focuses on global NFT platform strategy and planning, and LINE NEXT Inc., headquartered in the United States, is committed to developing and operating NFT platform businesses. LINE NEXT aims to change the NFT experience for companies, creators, and users.
LINE NEXT plans to officially launch its global NFT platform DOSI in January 2024, when it will be integrated with the Japanese NFT market LINE NFT and launched as a mobile application to global users. LINE NEXT will also provide new solutions to help services and brands directly grant ownership and trade existing digital products. In addition, LINE NEXT also plans to launch new services on the Finschia chain to accelerate the popularization of Web3. The new service includes a social application that allows users to communicate based on their own created characters, as well as the launch of new Web3 games that utilize BROWN & FRIENDS characters that anyone can play. LINE NEXT and Crescendo will participate in the Finschia Foundation as governance members.
Financing information: LINE NEXT, the NFT subsidiary of Japanese social giant LINE, has completed a $140 million financing led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a private equity firm backed by Peter Thiel. This round of financing will be used to expand its global business and develop new services.
Previously, LINE NEXT completed US$10 million in financing, with investors including SoftBank, Naver, CJ ENM, Shinsegae, LINE Games, YG Plus, Hashed, K Auction, etc.
Mocaverse
Project Introduction: Mocaverse is a metaverse product under Animoca Brands. Mocas are a group of bold and infinitely creative creatures who call Mocaverse home. However, the expansion of space caused the Mocas to separate, and the distance between them increased tenfold. In addition, the Mocaverse team is building Web3 native tools to enhance the capabilities of products in the gaming, cultural, and entertainment verticals, allowing users to create their own digital identities, accumulate reputations, and earn and consume loyalty points.
Financing information: Mocaverse, the NFT series under Animoca Brands, announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$11,888,888. This round of financing was participated by Block1, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Dapper Labs and others.
To date, Mocaverse has raised a total of US$31.88 million (the previous round was US$20 million). In these two rounds of financing, Animoca Brands raised funds by issuing new ordinary shares at a price of A$4.50 per share.
SocialFi
There were 6 financing events in the SocialFi track, with a total financing amount of 37 million US dollars. Among them, there were 4 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Inventory of key financing projects
Formless
Project Introduction: Formless is a decentralized network and digital space that empowers individuals to connect, create, collaborate and share in a multi-person digital economy. It is built for peer-to-peer coordination, shared ownership, and the formation of communities around physical and digital property.
Financing situation: In December 2023, Formless completed a US$2.2 million seed round of financing, with participation from a16z crypto, Contango Digital Assets, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, Beacon Accelerator, WAGMIventures, MH Ventures, Knights Capital and others.
Medallion
Project Description: Medallion provides an exclusive digital hub for artists to promote album releases, tour dates and merchandise releases, while selling digital collectibles and sharing exclusive content to deepen connections with fans.
Financing: Web3 fan platform Medallion announced the completion of a $13.7 million Series A round of financing, co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction. This round of funds will be used to introduce new early access opportunities, such as pre-listening to unreleased music and providing pre-sale tickets, as well as other member benefits such as video premieres or new dynamics. Artists will also be able to sell new exclusive and limited edition digital collectibles/NFTs, such as poster bundles and trading cards.
Tools and Information Services
There were 9 financing events in the tool and information service track, with a total financing amount of US$20 million. Among them, there were 4 financing events with disclosed amounts:
Inventory of key financing projects
Three
Project Introduction: Tres is a financial accounting software platform for web3 companies. Tres aims to improve the accounting process of Web3 companies by collecting digital asset data from different wallets and accounts and aggregating them into its data platform, enabling Web3 companies to more easily monitor, manage and automate their financial income and expenses.
Financing information: Web3 tax startup Tres Finance has completed $11 million in Series A financing, led by Lightspeedâs new fund Faction, with participation from New Form, Boldstart Ventures, Cyber ââFund and Ambush Capital. This financing brings Tresâ total funding to $18.6 million.
CeFi
There were 5 financings in the infrastructure track, with a total financing amount of US$210 million. Among them, there were 5 financing events with disclosed amounts:
