Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 14 blockchain investment and financing events around the world last week (October 2-8), with a total funding of approximately US$82 million. An overview is as follows:
DeFi announced 6 investment and financing events, among which the on-chain credit risk management company Cicada Partners announced the completion of a $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Choppa Capital;
No investment and financing events have been announced in the NFT and Metaverse fields;
The blockchain gaming track announced 1 investment and financing: GameFi platform NexGami announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures and others;
The Infrastructure and Tools track announced four financings, among which blockchain product development company Trinetix announced a strategic investment of US$10 million from investment fund Hypra;
Other Web3/crypto-related projects announced three financings, including Web3 restaurant loyalty application Blackbird, which announced the completion of a $24 million Series A financing, led by a16z Crypto;
No investment or financing events were announced in the centralized financial sector.
DeFi
On-chain credit risk management company Cicada Partners completes $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Choppa Capital
On-chain credit risk management company Cicada Partners announced the completion of a $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Choppa Capital, with participation from Bitscale, Bodhi Ventures, and Shiliang Tang. The funds raised will be used to provide seed funding for multiple new non-custodial lending pools and conduct research and development on new blockchain lending application cases.
Crypto startup Ostium Labs raises $3.5 million to develop perpetual contract trading for digital commodities
Crypto startup Ostium Labs has raised $3.5 million in funding to develop a digital commodity perpetual swap protocol. Diversified investors including General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, SIG and Balaji Srinivasan are backing the deal. Co-founder Kaledora Kiernan-Linn said the protocol will support trading in perpetual contracts related to oil, bitcoin and petroleum. It will also support trading in foreign exchange pairs for the Australian dollar, British pound, euro and yen.
Solana Ecosystem DEX Convergence RFQ Completes $2.5 Million Pre-seed Round of Financing, Led by C² Ventures
Solana ecosystem DEX Convergence RFQ has completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing at a valuation of $30 million, led by C² Ventures, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Israel Blockchain Association, Auros Global, etc. Convergence RFQ has set the trading code symbol of its "governance" token to CVG. It is reported that Convergence RFQ, an on-chain crypto trading platform built on Solana, will support spot and derivatives trading. The platform is expected to be launched early next month and hopes to expand to Arbitrum.
RWA tokenization platform DigiShares completes $2 million financing and plans to raise another $1.2 million
DigiShares, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform, announced the completion of a $2 million financing, and the specific investor information has not been disclosed. DigiShares is raising an additional $1.2 million through the crowdfunding platform Republic. DigiShares said that it will use the new funds to develop a blockchain-based real estate share trading platform RealEstate.Exchange, which will support 24/7 transactions and control corporate behavior through smart contracts to ensure transparency.
L1 Advisors Closes $1.6 Million Seed Round, Including $1 Million Strategic Investment from VanEck
L1 Advisors, an on-chain wealth and asset management protocol, has completed a $1.6 million seed round of financing. This includes a $1 million strategic investment from VanEck, with participation from Ironclad Financial, Ismail Jai Hokimi, and others. The financing will be used to build an operating system for on-chain wealth and asset management, which aims to enable financial professionals and their clients to use decentralized infrastructure (such as protocols and wallets) to manage, grow, and protect their assets.
Liquidity staking platform Accumulated Finance V2 completes financing, with Curve and others participating
The Accumulated Finance team announced that the liquidity staking platform Accumulated Finance V2 has completed a new round of private financing. Curve, De Facto Capital, Stake DAO and others participated in the investment, and the amount of financing has not yet been disclosed. The Accumulated Finance team announced in August this year that it will launch the Accumulated Finance V2 protocol, which can provide incentive liquidity staking and DeFi pools for proof-of-stake protocols with medium and low market capitalizations. The protocol will be based on ACFI token governance and is expected to be officially launched in early 2024.
Chain Games
GameFi platform NexGami completes $2 million seed round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of $20 million
GameFi platform NexGami announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs and Ledger Capital, with a post-investment valuation of $20 million. It is reported that NexGami is committed to providing seamless integration solutions for game products and enhancing the gaming experience of users within the Polygon network, and introducing non-circle game users into the GameFi ecosystem.
Infrastructure & Tools
Blockchain product development company Trinetix completes $10 million strategic financing
Blockchain product development company Trinetix announced a $10 million strategic investment from investment fund Hypra. The new funds will enable Trinetix to further expand into Latin America, enhance its operations for North American customers, and expand its Latin American market.
It is reported that Trinetix mainly provides blockchain engineering solutions, intelligent automation services, cloud support and other products to global enterprises. Its customers include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and ExxonMobil. Currently, the team is distributed in Ukraine, the European Union and the United States.
TON receives tens of millions of dollars in investment from MEXC Ventures
The decentralized blockchain platform The Open Network (TON) has received an undisclosed amount of $10 million in investment from MEXC Ventures, a venture capital firm under MEXC. At the same time, MEXC and the TON Foundation have established a strategic partnership to promote the accessibility of Web3 globally by lowering the barrier to entry. MEXC Ventures will also continue to fund TON-based mini-applications. In addition, MEXC and the TON Foundation are also discussing funding for crypto wallets on Telegram.
AirDAO Announces $7.5 Million Investment from DWF Labs
AirDAO announced in its official blog that it has received a $7.5 million investment from DWF Labs (with a one-year lock-up period and a 36-month unlocking period) to promote wider adoption of the AirDAO ecosystem, which is a continuation and expansion of the partnership following the $2 million investment from DWF Labs in September 2022. It is reported that AirDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that manages the AMB-Net (Ambrosus Network) public chain. AMB-Net is a Layer 1 public chain. At present, AMB-Net has established a series of ecological functions, including encrypted dashboards, cross-chain bridges, Swap trading platforms, etc.
Privacy protocol Fairblock completes $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing, led by Galileo
Fairblock, a privacy infrastructure provider, has completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing, led by Galileo, with participation from Lemniscap, Dilectic, Robot Ventures, GSR, Chorus One, Dorahacks and Reverie. Fairblock aims to make conditional decryption and pre-execution privacy a reality. Conditional decryption refers to allowing users to set conditions that enable the protocol to execute transactions without leaking any on-chain information before execution. Unlike zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, Fairblock is designed so that information is only encrypted or decrypted under specific conditions. Fairblock co-founder Peyman Momeni said that applications such as sealed bid auctions, randomness generation, private governance, and encrypted limit orders can all be built on top of its infrastructure using cryptographic libraries.
other
Web3 catering platform Blackbird completes $24 million Series A financing, led by a16z
Web3 restaurant loyalty application Blackbird announced the completion of a $24 million Series A financing, led by a16z Crypto, with participation from QED, Union Square Ventures, Shine, Variant and several restaurant groups. This round of financing brings Blackbird's total financing to $35 million, and the company plans to use the funds to expand its business. Blackbird focuses on establishing direct connections between restaurants and guests through loyalty and membership services. In addition to collecting customers' dining preferences, it also uses cryptocurrency to reward sign-ins. According to previous news, in October last year, Blackbird completed a $11 million seed round of financing, led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital and Multicoin Capital, with participation from Variant, Circle Ventures and IAC.
Web3 social app Phaver has completed a $7 million seed round of financing, with a valuation of approximately $80 million
Web3 social application Phaver announced that it has completed a $7 million seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, f.actor, Superhero Capital, SwissBorg and other institutions. So far, the total amount of funds raised has exceeded $8 million, with a valuation of approximately $80 million. The funds raised this time will be used to expand the team size, product development and other partnerships. Phaver has currently integrated its social graph with Lens Protocol and CyberConnect.
On-chain art agency Fountain announces completion of financing, incubation of Flamingo DAO, participation of 6529 Capital and others
On-chain art brokerage company Fountain announced the completion of financing, the amount of which was not disclosed. Fountain was incubated by Flamingo DAO, and Collab+Currency, Sfermion, VonMises, Cozomo de' Medici, 6529 Capital and others participated in the investment. Fountain is an art brokerage platform that aims to serve two groups - members of the traditional art world and crypto natives. The product provides users with pure peer-to-peer over-the-counter trading services.
Venture Capital
CMCC Global's new fund raises $100 million and will invest in Hong Kong blockchain companies
CMCC Global, a Hong Kong venture capital firm focusing on cryptocurrency, announced that its newly established fund "Titan Fund" has completed the first round of fundraising of US$100 million, with more than 30 investors including Block.one, Yingke Group, Winklevoss Capital, Jebsen Capital and Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu participating in the investment. Martin Baumann, co-founder of CMCC Global, said that Titan Fund is the fourth fund of CMCC Global and will provide equity investment for early blockchain startups, with a focus on Hong Kong. Among the five investments that have been made, two are Hong Kong companies.