Financing Weekly Report 11 Public Financing Events; Cryptocurrency Technology Company Toposware Completes $5 Million Financing, Co-founded by Polygon.

Weekly Financing Update Toposware, the Cryptocurrency Tech Company Co-founded by Polygon, Secures $5 Million in Public Financing Events (Report 11)

Highlights of this issue

According to LianGuaiNews incomplete statistics, there were 11 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (10.30-11.5), with a total funding scale exceeding 95 million US dollars, as follows:

• DeFi announced 2 investment and financing events, including blockchain company Surf Protocol completing a $3 million financing, led by ABCDE Capital;
• NFT and Metaverse field did not announce any investment and financing events;
• Blockchain gaming track did not announce any investment and financing events;
• Infrastructure and tools track announced 7 financings, including Modulus Labs, a project that combines artificial intelligence and encryption technology, which raised $6.3 million in seed financing. This round of financing was led by Variant and 1kx;
• Other Web3/crypto-related projects announced 4 financings, including Animoca Brands disclosing that it will receive a $50 million investment from Saudi NEOM Investment Fund;
• Centralized finance sector did not announce any investment and financing events.

DeFi

Surf Protocol completes $3 million financing and will develop permissionless Perp DEX

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Blockchain company Surf Protocol completed a $3 million financing, led by ABCDE Capital, with participation from OP Crypto and C2 Ventures. The new funds will be used to develop a permissionless Perp DEX (decentralized perpetual contract exchange) based on the Base network. Surf Protocol is reportedly developing a solution to address the limited range of tradable assets in the Perp DEX market. The compatibility liquidity provision framework created by Surf Protocol offers liquidity providers (LPs) more options to balance returns and risks with its unique AMM structure.

Infrastructure & Tools

Blockchain company Xage Security completes $20 million Series B2 financing

Blockchain company Xage Security completed a $20 million Series B2 financing, bringing its total financing to $80 million. Participating investors include Piva Capital, March Capital, SCF LianGuairtners, Overture Climate Fund, Valor Equity LianGuairtners, Chevron Technology Ventures, and Science Applications International Corporation. The new funds will be used for research and expanding Xage’s listed business, with a focus on expanding its business in the Asia-Pacific region. Xage Security is a blockchain startup that provides a blockchain-based security platform for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The technology can manage billions of devices in one go and even self-diagnose and repair possible vulnerabilities. Xage is primarily used by IoT companies in transportation, energy, and manufacturing industries. Earlier news in 2020, US Space Force selects blockchain company Xage to develop data security system.

Modulus Labs raises $6.3 million in seed funding, led by Variant and 1kx

Modulus Labs, a project that combines artificial intelligence and encryption technology, has raised $6.3 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Variant and 1kx, with participation from companies such as Inflection, Bankless, and Blockchain Builders Fund. The concept behind Modulus is to utilize zero-knowledge proofs, which provide a cryptographic technique to verify the integrity of certain content without exposing any additional underlying raw information.

Encryption technology company Toposware raises $5 million, with Polygon as a co-investor

Zero-knowledge encryption technology company Toposware has announced a $5 million seed funding round. Investors include Evolution Equity LianGuairtners, Triatomic Capital, K2 Access Fund, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.

Decentralized smart contract platform Waterfall Network raises $2 million

Decentralized smart contract platform Waterfall Network has announced a $2 million Pre-A funding round. ByteTrade Lab led the round, and the company plans to use the new funds to drive the release of its mainnet in the first quarter of 2024. The EVM-compatible decentralized smart contract network being built by Waterfall Network allows any device, including low-cost laptops and mobile phones, to run validator nodes and also provides users with greater access and full control over their data, promoting on-chain decentralized governance.

Kana Labs raises $2 million in seed funding

Blockchain infrastructure and tools company Kana Labs has raised $2 million in seed funding. Participating investors include MarbleX, a subsidiary of NetMarble, Nexus One, Klaytn, and Gate.io. The funding will be used to enhance products such as smart wallets and Web3 middleware toolkits, as well as user acquisition and international expansion, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region, particularly South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Prior to the seed funding, Kana Labs had conducted an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round with a valuation of $21 million.

Cryptocurrency fraud prevention company Vaas raises about $2 million in Pre-Seed funding, led by ABSeed

Brazilian cryptocurrency fraud prevention company Vaas has announced $10 million Brazilian Reais (approximately $2 million) in Pre-Seed funding. ABSeed led the round, with participation from Fuse Capital and Honey Island, a subsidiary of 4UM. Vaas’s solution supports tracking the entire transaction history of assets in cryptocurrency wallets and identifies unusual or suspicious transactions. The new funds will be used to develop new products and expand the business into traditional financial sectors such as banks.

zkRollup Project INTMAX completes a new round of strategic financing

zkRollup Layer 2 network project INTMAX announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing and the launch of the digital wallet “INTMAX Wallet”. Participating investors include LD Capital, KX, GMO AI&Web3, and Kepple Africa Ventures. The specific amount of this round of financing has not been disclosed.

INTMAX’s stateless zkRollup protocol is an innovative solution that solves the challenges of high transaction fees, delays, interoperability, privacy, and centralization in previous cryptocurrency transactions. Its mainnet is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2024.

Other

Entertainment:

Animoca Brands discloses $50 million investment from Saudi NEOM Investment Fund

Animoca Brands announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding with NEOM, a new city development project led by Saudi Crown Prince Salman, to promote the Regional Web3 plan in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 plan. In addition to the strategic partnership, the company has also signed an intention letter for convertible note financing with NEOM Investment Fund. NEOM Investment Fund intends to invest $50 million in Animoca Brands, with $25 million in convertible notes issued at a conversion cap of AUD 4.50 per share, and the remaining $25 million to be used for purchasing company shares in the secondary market. On October 25, it was reported that Saudi NEOM Investment Fund was established and announced investment in companies such as Animoca Brands without disclosing the specific amount.

Blockchain copyright platform Trips completes $2.5 million financing with participation from Shima Capital

Blockchain copyright platform Trips announces the completion of a $2.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing with participation from Shima Capital, Animal Capital, Blackwood Ventures, Serafund, Calligraphy Digital, and Avalanche ecosystem fund Blizzard. Trips is built on the Avalanche Evergreen subnetwork and helps content creators establish copyright on the blockchain, providing tools for content protection, identity verification, and monetization for each creator. Currently, its services support video streaming platform YouTube.

Mining:

UK mining company Quantum Blockchain completes £2 million financing through new share issuance

London Stock Exchange-listed mining company Quantum Blockchain has completed a £2 million (approximately $2.4 million) financing through new share issuance. The new funds will be used to advance its research and development plans through increased recruitment, new hardware, and increased software development, and may include the establishment of cloud service infrastructure in North America.

Venture Capital Institutions

Venture Fund Ex/Ante Spun off from Schmidt Futures Raises $33 Million

Led by 32-year-old Zoe Weinberg, the venture capital fund Ex/Ante, which focuses on online privacy and security, has raised $33 million after being spun off from billionaire Eric Schmidt’s philanthropic venture capital group Schmidt Futures. The fund will invest in early-stage and seed-stage startups. It has received support from other major industry players, including Cendana Capital, Marc Andreessen, the Ford Foundation, and Union Square Ventures.

The fund’s partner is Michael Mosier, a top lawyer who previously worked with cryptocurrency startups Espresso Systems and Chainanalysis, as well as serving as a former official in the U.S. Treasury and Justice Department. The two will seek to make individual investments ranging from $500,000 to $1 million in companies that can also lead in more traditional categories, such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, digital identity, fintech, and web3. Ex/Ante has made 9 investments so far, including deepfake detection startup Reality Defender, consumer identity company Lockr, and self-custody firm Webacy.

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