Organize: Cookies, RootData
According to incomplete statistics from RootData, there were 21 public investment and financing events in the blockchain and crypto industry from July 17 to July 23, 2023, with a total financing of approximately US$217 million. The total financing amount has increased significantly.
From the perspective of track distribution, infrastructure and NFT were popular tracks last week, with financing amounts of US$125.5 million and US$16 million respectively.
In terms of financing rounds and scale, early-stage projects accounted for the largest proportion, with a total of 9 seed rounds of financing. The most influential financing was that Manta Network developer p0x labs completed a $25 million Series A financing at a valuation of $500 million; Radiant Capital received a $10 million investment from Binance Labs; dappOS completed a seed round of financing at a valuation of $50 million, led by IDG and Sequoia China.
(List of projects with financing amount greater than 10 million US dollars last week, data source: Rootdata)
1. CeFi
1. Telegram raised $210 million through bond issuance, with investors including founder Pavel Durov
Telegram raised $210 million by issuing bonds, which were purchased by the founders and a number of well-known funds, but the specific list of funds was not disclosed. Among them, founder and CEO Pavel Durov said he bought about a quarter of the bonds. Currently, Telegram is still not profitable, and the new financing is aimed at bringing it closer to the break-even point. Over the past 10 years, he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the application to keep it running.
Currently, Telegram has more than 800 million users per month, has added more than 300 million users in the past two and a half years, and attracts 2.5 million new registered users every day. (Source link)
2. Crypto exchange OpenEx completes Pre-A round of financing with a valuation of US$50 million, with participation from C² Ventures and others
Crypto exchange OpenEx completed its Pre-A round of financing with a valuation of US$50 million. The amount was not disclosed. C Ventures, Agallochum Capital, TKX Capital and others participated in the investment. The founder and managing director of Galxe and Fenbushi Capital participated in the investment in his personal capacity.
It is reported that this round of financing will be used to improve the DApp trading experience and develop new financial products. OpenEx is a hybrid trading platform that integrates CEX and DEX. (Source link)
2. Infrastructure
1. Manta Network developer p0x labs completed a $25 million Series A financing round at a valuation of $500 million, led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners
Manta Network developer p0x labs has completed a $25 million Series A financing round with a valuation of $500 million. This round of financing was jointly led by Polychain Capital and Qiming Venture Partners, with participation from Alliance, CoinFund and SevenX Ventures.
It is reported that this round of financing will be used to expand the ZK Layer 1 blockchain of Manta Pacific and Manta Atlantic to achieve compliant on-chain privacy. (Source link)
2. Web3 operating protocol dappOS completed seed round financing with a valuation of US$50 million, led by IDG and Sequoia China
Web3 operating protocol dappOS announced the completion of its seed round of financing with a valuation of US$50 million. IDG Capital and Sequoia China led the investment, and participating investors included OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, TronDao, Gate Labs, Taihill Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Foresight Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Leland Ventures, etc.
It is reported that dappOS was selected into Binance Labs Season 5 Incubation Program in November 2022, and received Pre-Seed round of financing from Binance Labs in June this year. (Source link)
3. Web3 infrastructure company RISC Zero completes $40 million Series A financing, led by Blockchain Capital
Web3 infrastructure company RISC Zero has completed a $40 million Series A financing round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Galaxy Digital, IOSG, RockawayX, Maven 11, Fenbushi Capital, Delphi Digital, Algaé Ventures, IOBC, Tribute Labs' Zero Dao and Alchemy.
It is reported that RISC Zero is an infrastructure company that aims to help developers develop zero-proof software. It is about to launch the Bonsai computing platform, which is a decentralized proof engine that allows developers to integrate zk proofs into their applications and chains to improve security. (Source link)
4. Web3 and blockchain solution Cosmic Wire completes $30 million seed round of financing, led by Solana Foundation and Polygon
Web3 and blockchain solution Cosmic Wire has completed a $30 million seed round of financing, led by the Solana Foundation and Polygon. It is reported that this round of financing will be used to promote Cosmic Wire to develop decentralized applications and expand the Web3 ecosystem. (Source link)
5. Stablecoin developer Ethena completes $6 million seed round of financing, led by Dragonfly
Crypto startup Ethena has completed a $6 million seed round of financing, led by Dragonfly. The company is developing a new stablecoin backed by Ethereum derivatives. It is understood that Ethena's financing has also received support from exchanges Deribit, Bybit, OKX, Gemini and Huobi.
Ethena has developed a stablecoin called USDe that uses perpetual swaps to hedge short positions on Ethereum using users' collateral to maintain its peg to the U.S. dollar. The company hopes to fully launch its stablecoin and bond assets in the coming months after completing the test network phase in the third quarter. (Source link)
6. Account abstraction wallet Echooo Wallet completed $15 million in financing with a valuation of $100 million, with participation from A&T Capital and others
Account abstraction crypto wallet Echooo Wallet has completed a $15 million financing round with a valuation of $100 million. This round of financing was participated by Skyview Capital, A&T Capital and others. In addition, Echooo Wallet stated that it will launch a "limited-time free account abstraction wallet giveaway" event at 22:00 Beijing time today. (Source link)
7. The cross-chain liquidity network Side Protocol development company completed a $1.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with Hashkey Capital and others participating
Side Labs, the parent company of Cosmos ecosystem interoperable financial protocol Side Protocol, has completed a $1.5 million pre-seed round of financing. This round of financing was participated by Hashkey Capital, KR1, Continue Capital, Symbolic Capital, Informal Systems, Dora Ventures, Charles Lu, Harry Halpin, Eric Chen, Mirza Uddin, Siddhartha Dutta and Vincent Niu.
It is reported that the new funds will be used to expand its team and ensure compliance with legal and compliance standards, while building a mesh liquidity network that aims to eliminate bridges and intermediary tokens for cross-chain asset exchanges through a liquidity center network. (Source link)
8. The developer of lightweight node protocol Over Protocol completed $8 million in financing, with SK and others participating in the investment
Superblock, the developer of the Layer 1 blockchain lightweight node protocol Over Protocol, announced that it has completed a total of US$8 million in financing, with participation from SK, Netmarble, DSC, E& Investment, Schmidt, SpringCamp and NaverZ. The new funds will be used to further expand the Korean market.
Over Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain built using the Ethanos protocol, which aims to reduce the cost of blockchain node maintenance by allowing anyone to run a node using a PC to become a validator by reducing storage requirements. (Source link)
3. DeFi
1. Cross-chain lending protocol Radiant Capital receives $10 million investment from Binance Labs
Binance Labs invested $10 million in the cross-chain lending protocol Radiant Capital. This round of financing will drive further product development and expansion to other Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Radiant Capital supports cross-chain lending and currently offers a variety of collateral options on Arbitrum and BNB Chain. (Source link)
4. Games
1. Web3 mobile game developer Hexacore completes $3.5 million in financing, led by Scalo Technologies
Web3 mobile game developer Hexacore announced the completion of a $3.5 million financing round, led by Dubai technology venture capital Scalo Technologies, with participation from Xsolla, Estoty and other angel investors. The new funds will be used to accelerate the company's further development of Web3 features for mobile games, including in-app purchases, NFT collections, and advertising incentives.
Hexacore is committed to building an open gaming economy based on digital ownership, helping Web2 developers integrate blockchain technology into games, and providing services such as embedded wallets, NFT minting and sales, payment channels, blockchain token economy, and digital asset management. (Source link)
2. Web3 game developer Eyeball Games completes $1.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Immutable and others
Web3 game developer Eyeball Games announced the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by White Star Capital, which is backed by Ubisoft's digital asset fund, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Immutable, Oular, Great South Gate Ventures and a group of angel investors.
Eyeball Games will use the latest funding to develop Eyeball Pool, an NFT-based blockchain billiards game, which will initially be available on Immutable’s zkEVM chain (powered by Polygon) and will expand to more blockchains in the future, and is expected to be launched on mobile devices in the first quarter of 2024. (Source link)
5. Metaverse, NFT
1. NFT market solution Authic Labs announced the completion of seed round financing, with participation from Angelwise, Rockstart and others
Authic Labs, a code-free NFT market solution, announced the completion of its seed round of financing, with participation from Angelwise, Rockstart, Graduate Entrepreneur Fund and SeedBlink. The specific amount of this round of financing has not yet been disclosed. The new funds will be used to expand its market coverage and support the development of new products and services.
Authic Labs has developed a no-code platform that can customize its NFT market according to the specific needs of customers. The NFT solutions it builds can help corporate customers use Web3 technology to create secure, scalable loyalty programs and bring new sources of revenue. (Source link)
2. NFT liquidity solution platform Ra1se completes seed round financing
NFT liquidity solution platform Ra1se has received seed round financing from a North American mining company. Ra1se uses multi-chain compatibility to convert NFTs that have lost liquidity into highly liquid blue-chip NFTs through complex algorithms. It is reported that the Ra1se platform will launch a beta version in early August and launch a series of user incentive activities "Bai E Subsidy". (Source link)
3. NFT Marketplace Jungle Completes $16 Million in Financing
NFT market Jungle has completed a $16 million financing, and the specific investors have not yet been disclosed. It is reported that Jungle’s latest platform integration is an artificial intelligence search tool designed to improve and simplify the way traders browse the NFT market and find the next major investment opportunity. (Source link)
6. AI + Web3
1. AI Metaverse Infrastructure Futureverse Completes $54 Million Series A Funding, Led by 10T Holdings
AI metaverse startup Futureverse has completed a $54 million Series A financing round led by 10T Holdings. Other investors include Ripple Labs Futureverse co-founders Aaron McDonald and Shara Senderoff.
It is reported that Futureverse is formed by the merger of 11 different companies from the fields of blockchain, artificial intelligence, virtual universe and games. It started with the merger of eight companies at the end of 2022, and then three more companies joined. (Source link)
2. Tromero, a company integrating machine learning and blockchain consensus, completed a £1.5 million seed round of financing, led by BlueYard Capital
London-based machine learning training and hosting platform Tromero has raised £1.5 million in seed funding led by BlueYard Capital. Tromero will use the investment to build out a team and deliver a fully functional beta version of the platform over the next 12 months.
Tromero's blockchain-based AI training method combines proof-of-work consensus with machine learning to reduce AI training and hosting costs. (Source link)
VII. Others
1. Web3 social feed application Interface completes $1.4 million seed round financing, led by Polymorphic Capital and Mask Network
Web3 social feed application Interface completed a $1.4 million seed round of financing, led by Polymorphic Capital and Mask Network, with participation from Seed Club, Caballeros Capital, Safe Ecosystem Foundation, and angel investors including Blake Gao, Anton Bukov, Sergej Kunz, Arthaud Mesnard, Andrey Scherbovich, and Will Papper.
2. DAO registration service provider MIDAO completes $1 million in financing, with Balaji Srinivasan and others participating
DAO registration service provider MIDAO has completed a $1 million financing round, with participation from The LegalTech Fund, FJ Labs, and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase. This round of financing will enhance MIDAO's core products, provide legal recognition for Web3 projects and DAOs, help ensure liability protection for contributors, expand its global partner network of Web3 lawyers and professional service providers, and expand MIDAO's service scope around the world.
It is reported that MIDAO is a partner network of more than 300 vetted Web3 lawyers whose mission is to enable Web3 organizations in various industries to access legal and regulatory frameworks and provide services to existing DAOs seeking legal recognition. (Source link)
3. Blockchain browser developer Cymbal completes $18.5 million in financing, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and others
Cymbal, a blockchain technology startup based in Menlo Park, California, announced that it has completed $18.5 million in financing, with participation from First Round Capital, Solana Ventures, CAA Connect, Coinbase Ventures, Patron, GV, Acrew and UTA Ventures. The funds from this round of financing will be used to expand the business and increase development efforts.
It is reported that Cymbal is building a "readable" Ethereum blockchain browser to convert complex on-chain data into visual and easy-to-understand transaction summary analysis, such as wallet portfolio rankings, number of NFT buyers, sales of specific crypto projects, etc., which is easy for ordinary users to understand. At present, Cymbal supports the analysis and processing of Ethereum blockchain data, and will be expanded to Solana blockchain in the future. (Source link)
