Financing Weekly | 22 public financing events; Web3 music company Sound completes $20 million series A financing, with participation from a16z crypto.
Financing Weekly Sound, a Web3 music company, completes a $20 million series A financing round with a16z crypto's participation.
Highlights of this issue
According to incomplete statistics from LianGuaiNews, there were 22 investment and financing events in the global blockchain industry last week (July 10th to July 16th), with a total funding scale of nearly $100 million, a significant increase compared to the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- In the DeFi sector, there were 5 investment and financing events. Alluviall, the developer of Liquid Collective, completed a $12 million Series A financing round, with Ethereal Ventures and Variant as lead investors;
- In the NFT and Metaverse field, there were 3 financing events. Florida Street, the developer of Gondi, an NFT lending protocol, completed a $5.3 million seed round financing;
- In the Blockchain Gaming track, there was 1 investment and financing event: MetaCene, a large-scale multiplayer online role-playing game based on blockchain, completed a $5 million seed round financing, with Hash Global and SevenX Ventures as lead investors;
- In the Infrastructure and Tools track, there were 8 financing events, including Artela, a blockchain infrastructure startup that has raised over $6 million in seed round financing, with Shima Capital as the lead investor;
- In the Other Web3/Crypto-related Projects sector, there were 5 financing events, including LunarCrush, a cryptocurrency investment decision-making platform, which completed a $5 million Series A financing round, with participation from Draper Round Table and INCE Capital;
- No financing events were announced in the field of Centralized Finance.
DeFi
Alluvial, the developer of an institutional-grade liquidity collateral protocol, completed a $12 million Series A financing round with Ethereal Ventures and Variant as lead investors
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Alluviall, the developer of the institutional-grade liquidity collateral protocol Liquid Collective, completed a $12 million Series A financing round with Ethereal Ventures and Variant as lead investors. Other participants in the financing round include Brevan Howard Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Kraken, Avon Ventures of Fidelity, and IOSG Ventures. Alluviall is a company registered in Delaware, and the Liquid Collective Foundation is registered in the Cayman Islands. The team is distributed in the United States, Europe, and Dubai. Alluviall plans to use this funding to expand its team, continue product development, and extend collateral services to other blockchain networks.
Ambient Finance, a trading platform, completed a $6.5 million seed round financing with BlockTower Capital as the lead investor
Decentralized trading platform Ambient Finance completed a $6.5 million seed round financing with BlockTower Capital as the lead investor. Other participants include Jane Street, Circle, Tensai Capital, Naval, Yunt Capital, Susa Ventures, Quantstamp, Hypotenuse Labs, and angel investors such as Julian, co-founder of Ribbon Finance, and Steven, a researcher at The Block. The raised funds will support team growth and research and development to create a sustainable decentralized market.
Derivatives trading platform KTX.Finance completes $4 million seed round funding, led by Hashed
Singapore-based decentralized derivatives platform KTX.Finance has completed a $4 million seed round funding, led by Hashed. Other participants include AlphaLab Capital, CRIT Ventures, 100&100 Ventures, Trinito Corporation / Morpheus, GSG Asset, KuCoin Ventures, and Sky9 Capital. KTX.Finance utilizes a unique multi-asset liquidity pool that allows traders to trade against the KLP pool, which consists of 50% stablecoins and 50% blue-chip crypto assets such as BTC, ETH, and BNB.
Ion Protocol, a liquidity unlocking protocol for stakers, raises $2 million in funding, led by SevenX Ventures and Portal Ventures
Ion Protocol, a liquidity unlocking protocol for stakers, announces the completion of a $2 million seed round funding, led by SevenX Ventures and Portal Ventures. Other participants include Foresight X, Bankless Ventures, Maelstrom Fund, Alexander, Anthony Sassano (sassal.eth), founder of The Daily Gwei, and Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital.
OKX Ventures announces investment in on-chain derivatives DEX Aark Digital based on Arbitrum
OKX Ventures announces investment in on-chain derivatives DEX Aark Digital based on Arbitrum. Aark is a next-generation perp DEX in the style of GMX, designed for professional traders.
NFT & Metaverse
Gondi, an NFT lending protocol developer, completes $5.3 million seed round funding, led by Hack.vc
Florida Street, the developer of NFT lending protocol Gondi, completes a $5.3 million seed round funding, led by Alex LianGuaint and Rodolfo Gonzalez from Hack.vc, with participation from Dragonfly Capital, LianGuaintera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, and others. Gondi has already launched, allowing lenders to sell their NFTs at a fixed interest rate on the platform, while borrowers can use NFTs as collateral or for NFT-based financial applications. Borrowers only need to pay interest based on the remaining loan term. Additionally, borrowers can enjoy instant refinancing to ensure they always have the best loan conditions even after initiating the loan.
NFT ticketing solution GET Protocol completes $4.5 million seed round funding
Amsterdam-based NFT ticketing solution GET Protocol completes a $4.5 million seed round funding, led by Flow Ventures, with participation from Animoca Brands, Redbeard Ventures, Funfair Ventures, and Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox. This funding round also includes a new agreement between Get and the Tezos Foundation. Through this agreement, Get will provide NFT ticketing services to Tezos partners by fully integrating Get Protocol’s NFT ticketing infrastructure on the upcoming EVM network upgrade of Tezos. Tezos will also become the default blockchain for the company.
Metaverse brand marketing company Karta completes $1.1 million seed round funding, led by GameTech Ventures
The metaverse branding and marketing company Karta has announced the completion of a $1.1 million seed round of financing. GameTech Ventures led the investment, with participation from Toikido, Sports Loft, former Hipgnosis executive Amy Thomson, Sports Loft CEO Charlie Greenwood, UK Finance Chairman Robert Wigley, Powster Founder and CEO Ste Thompson, and BigIdeas Group. Based in London, Karta provides metaverse marketing services to brands and bands on platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite, and Decentraland. The company has previously collaborated with brands such as Unilever, Amazon Music, and McDonald’s to create advertising and marketing opportunities in the metaverse.
Blockchain Games
Blockchain game MetaCene raises $5 million in seed funding, led by SevenX Ventures and Hash Global
MetaCene, a blockchain-based MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), has raised $5 million in seed funding. The investment was led by SevenX Ventures and Hash Global, with participation from WeMade, Emurgo, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, Sinovation Ventures, and LK Ventures. MetaCene is developing a blockchain-based game set in a post-apocalyptic world with surreal elements, allowing players to redefine game civilization using various NFTs. It envisions a multi-chain future with Rangers Protocol, featuring real-time confirmation and ultra-low gas fees. MetaCene Apostle NFT series and the Alpha version are set to launch in the second quarter of 2023.
Infrastructure & Tools
Blockchain infrastructure startup Artela raises $6 million in seed funding, led by Shima Capital
Blockchain infrastructure startup Artela has raised over $6 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Shima Capital, with participation from A&T Capital, Big Brain Holdings, SevenX Ventures, Dispersion Capital, and Amino Capital. Artela has an extension layer that allows the addition of user-defined native extensions called Aspects, which enhance programmability while ensuring compatibility with existing smart contracts. Artela plans to release the Aspect whitepaper and launch the initial testnet later this year.
Privacy solution Silent Protocol raises $5 million in funding, led by Sora Ventures
Silent Protocol, a privacy solution initiated by researchers from Turkey’s leading technology and science center, TÜBİTAK BİLGEM, has raised $5 million in funding led by Sora Ventures. Silent Protocol focuses on developing a scalable privacy layer for existing applications, eliminating the need to exchange liquidity from existing pools. The goal is to facilitate cooperation with traditional institutions by building a secure layer that complies with the European Union’s MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulations for their applications. Silent Protocol is poised to play a significant role in institutions transitioning to the Web3 space, providing a critical data privacy layer.
Cryptocurrency security company Olympix raises $4.3 million in seed funding, led by Boldstart Ventures
Olympix, a cybersecurity software company focused on the crypto industry, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding led by Boldstart Ventures. Other participants include Robot Ventures, Shrug Capital, Konstantin Richter from Blockdaemon, and Tarun Chitra from Gauntlet Networks. Olympix is dedicated to building an AI-driven toolset for constructing secure cryptocurrency networks and is currently in the alpha testing phase.
Start-up Narval completes $4 million seed round of financing with BlockTower VC leading
French start-up Narval has secured a $4 million seed round of financing led by BlockTower VC, with participation from a16z (through its Crypto Startup School), Fabric Ventures, Cherry Crypto, Motier Ventures, First Capital, and Bpifrance. The company is building a “web3 wallet usage platform” and aims to provide organizations with a more secure way to interact with digital assets. Narval’s governance layer appears in the form of an API, designed to offer financial managers a safer way to navigate DeFi and NFTs.
Giza raises $3 million in pre-seed round of financing with CoinFund leading
Giza, an AI platform for smart contracts and web3 protocols, has raised $3 million in a pre-seed round of financing led by CoinFund, a leading cryptocurrency investment firm and registered investment adviser. Other participants include Arrington Capital, StarkWare, TA Ventures, and notable angel investors Rand Hindi and Julien Bouteloup. The platform will support web3 and AI developers in integrating machine learning into smart contracts and decentralized protocols.
Automated customer support company AwesomeQA completes $2.8 million seed round of financing
Automated customer support company AwesomeQA has raised $2.8 million in a seed round of financing, with leading investment firm North Island Ventures focusing on cryptocurrency, and participation from Coinbase Ventures and Uniswap Labs Ventures.
AwesomeQA’s automated customer support service plans to use AI to automatically answer user questions in Discord and Telegram channels. With the new funding, AwesomeQA will expand its team and enhance its custom-trained AI models. It also provides customer support for over 60 web3 companies, including AAVE, Dune, and Scroll.
Web hardware infrastructure company GEODNET raises $1.5 million in financing with participation from IoTeX and others
Decentralized web hardware infrastructure company GEODNET has raised $1.5 million in financing, with participation from EdgeFi Fund, a Web3 investment fund under Borderless Capital, IoT blockchain company IoTeX, and a group of angel investors. GEODNET aims to provide reliable centimeter-level positioning accuracy for applications such as drones, robotic vehicles, augmented reality, and IoT/mobile devices. It is building a blockchain-based decentralized high-precision multi-frequency GNSS base station network and offering GEOD tokens incentivized by the Polygon network to provide reliable solutions for real-time motion applications.
Decentralized storage network Crust Network receives million-dollar investment from DWF Labs
Decentralized storage network Crust Network has announced on Twitter that it has received a million-dollar investment from DWF Labs. The new funding will enable Crust Network to further enhance its infrastructure and expand its business in the decentralized storage field. Additionally, Crust Network will launch EVM storage services on July 17, providing decentralized storage solutions for EVM-based blockchains. It plans to seamlessly expand the Crust storage protocol to the entire EVM ecosystem using its new functionality.
Other
Web3 Music Company Sound Completes $20 Million Series A Funding Round Led by a16z crypto
Web3 music company Sound has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by a16z crypto and other investors. Other investors include LianGuailm Tree Crew, A Capital, Sound Ventures, Collab +Currency, Scalar Capital, Snoop Dogg, Ryan Tedder, and Tay Keith. In addition to announcing the new funding, Sound has also opened its web3 minting tool. Sound allows artists to create and sell music in the form of NFTs. The platform is built on the Ethereum blockchain and deploys the ERC-721A token standard. Sound also added Optimism support last month to lower gas fees and speed up transaction times. Users can purchase music using ETH or credit cards.
Cryptocurrency Investment Decision Platform LunarCrush Completes $5 Million Series A Funding Round Led by Draper Round Table and INCE Capital
LunarCrush, a platform that helps users make cryptocurrency investment decisions based on social media trends, has completed a $5 million Series A funding round led by Draper Round Table and INCE Capital. Other investors include Draper Associates, WWVentures, TRGC, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Draper Goren Holm, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, MoonLianGuaiy, and more. Based in Los Angeles, LunarCrush was founded in 2018 and initially collected social media data on digital assets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and stocks to help users make trading decisions based on trends. LunarCrush will be releasing a beta version of its social search tool this week.
Investment App Roi Raises $3.6 Million in Funding Led by SLianGuairk Capital
Investment app Roi has raised $3.6 million in funding led by SLianGuairk Capital, with participation from NBA star Kevin Durant’s venture capital firm 35 Ventures, Google’s Gradient Ventures, and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase. Roi allows users to add stocks, bonds, and retirement accounts to one place for viewing, and provides one-stop trading for users’ Robinhood, Coinbase, TD Ameritrade, and WeBull accounts. In addition to traditional assets, Roi also provides users with an overview and detailed data on their cryptocurrency and NFT holdings.
Decentralized Digital Identity Company NeoKe Raises €1.3 Million in Funding with Participation from Dreamcraft Ventures and Others
Decentralized digital identity startup NeoKe has raised €1.3 million in funding with participation from Dreamcraft Ventures, ff Venture Capital, GHARAGE, and Plug & Play. The NeoKe platform uses blockchain and cloud technology to store and share verified user identity information, allowing travelers to have full control and understanding of their data and simplifying processes such as registration, guest verification, access control, and data management in the travel industry. The company recently launched two core products: the Neoke Wallet, a digital wallet that allows travelers to securely store and share their personal data, and Neoke Connect, an identity management and automation platform for travel providers.
Social application Primal based on Nostr completes $1 million seed round financing, with Hivemind Ventures participating
Social application Primal based on Nostr announced the completion of a $1 million seed round financing, with participation from Ten31, Hivemind Ventures, and other funds. Primal’s social application suite combines a Twitter-like interface with the open-source Nostr protocol, which prioritizes resistance to censorship, account ownership, and decentralized construction.
