Financing Weekly | 19 Public Financing Events; Animoca Brands’ NFT series Mocaverse announces completion of $11.88 million financing.

Financial News Recap | 19 Upcoming Public Financing Events; Animoca Brands' Mocaverse NFT Series Successfully Secures $11.88 Million Funding

Highlights of this issue

According to LianGuaiNews incomplete statistics, there were 19 blockchain investment and financing events worldwide last week (12.4-12.10), with a total scale of more than 116 million US dollars. Compared with the previous week, both the number and scale of funding have decreased, as follows:

• DeFi announced1 investment and financing event: DeFi platform Curvance raised 3.6 million US dollars in its seed round financing;
• NFT and Metaverse announced 1 investment and financing event: Animoca Brands’ NFT series Mocaverse completed a financing of approximately 11.88 million US dollars, with participation from Dapper Labs;
• The chain game track announced3 investment and financing events, including Japanese entertainment and gaming company Gacha Monsters completing a 3 million US dollars seed round financing, with Animoca Brands leading the investment;
• The infrastructure and tools track announced9 financing events, including the Bitcoin protocol Babylon Chain completing an 18 million US dollars series A financing, with Polychain Capital and Hack VC leading the investment;
• Other Web3/crypto-related projects announced2 financings, including the Web3 streaming protocol Sona completing a 6.9 million US dollars seed round financing, with participation from Haun Ventures;
• In the field of centralized finance, 3 investment and financing events were announced, including digital asset brokerage company Nonco completing a 10 million US dollars seed round financing, with Valor Capital Group and Hack VC leading the investment.

DeFi

DeFi platform Curvance completes 3.6 million US dollars seed round financing

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DeFi platform Curvance raised 3.6 million US dollars in its seed round financing. This round of financing was participated by more than 20 decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and developers, including angel investors such as Offchain Labs, the developer of Arbitrum, cross-chain messaging platform Wormhole, and Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon. In addition, core contributors from Scroll, Mantle, Eigenlayer, GMX, Curve Finance, Convex Finance, Balancer, Aura Finance, and Pendle Finance, as well as DAOs such as Frax Finance, also participated in this round of financing. Curvance aims to solve the fragmentation problem between different chains and protocols, improve cross-chain capital efficiency, and currently supports Ethereum and Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Scroll, Base, and Polygon zkEVM, with access to decentralized exchanges including Curve, Balancer, Velodrome, GMX, and Pendle.

NFT

Animoca Brands’ NFT series Mocaverse completes nearly 11.89 million US dollars financing, with participation from Dapper Labs

Animoca Brands’ NFT series Mocaverse announced the completion of an $11,888,888 funding round, with investments from Block 1, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Dapper Labs, and others. So far, Mocaverse has raised a total of $31.88 million in funding (compared to $20 million in the previous round). In these two rounds of financing, Animoca Brands raised funds by issuing new common shares at a price of AUD 4.50 per share. The new funds will be used to drive Mocaverse in establishing digital identity and scoring systems for Web3 games, culture, and entertainment.

The PFP NFT series Mocaverse was announced by Animoca Brands in December last year and released earlier this year. Mocaverse aims to build stronger connections between Animoca Brands’ group companies, partners, portfolio, cross-project collaborations, and various forms of utility found within the Animoca Brands ecosystem.

Blockchain Gaming

Web3 gaming company Gacha Monsters completes a $3 million seed funding round with Animoca Brands as the lead investor

Japanese entertainment and gaming startup Gacha Monsters has completed a $3 million seed funding round, with Animoca Brands as the lead investor. Infinity Ventures Crypto, FBG, and Big Time Games also participated in the round. The new funds will be used to create and distribute various forms of intellectual property (IP), such as video games, animation, comics, physical goods, and Web3. Gacha Monsters’ first self-developed game is Poglin, with an alpha version set to be released in Q1 2024. The company plans to turn Poglin into a multimedia IP encompassing animation, gaming, Web3, and physical goods.

NFT gaming company Endless Clouds completes a $2.5 million strategic funding round

NFT gaming company Endless Clouds has announced the completion of a $2.5 million strategic funding round, with participation from Animoca Brands, Sky Mavis, YGG, Faze Clan, Immutable, Pudgy Penguins, Pixelmon, Pixels Online, Pixel Vault, and other founders, executives, and a group of angel investors. The new funds will be used to continue the development of its blockchain games Treeverse and Capsule Heroes, as well as the creation of “Timeless” IP. Endless Clouds aims to build games using digital collectibles. Treeverse, a mobile MMORPG game based on Ethereum, but with plans to launch a PC version upon release, is expected to release a more open version in 2024. Capsule Heroes has already launched a developmental version in September and is still under development.

Game DID startup project CARV completes a new strategic funding round with participation from HashKey Capital

Decentralized identity startup project CARV, targeting gamers, has completed a new strategic funding round with participation from HashKey Capital and a global tech giant worth billions of dollars.

Infrastructure & Tools

Bitcoin protocol Babylon Chain completes an $18 million Series A funding round with lead investments from Polychain Capital and Hack VC

Babylon Chain, the Bitcoin protocol, has completed a Series A funding round of $18 million. Polychain Capital and Hack VC led the investment, with participation from Framework Ventures, Polygon Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, OKX Ventures, Finality Capital, Breyer Capital, Symbolic Capital, and IOSG Ventures. The new funds will be used to support the development of Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol, which allows Proof of Stake (PoS) networks to stake BTC, thereby increasing liquidity and security for emerging chains. Babylon Chain aims to combine PoW and PoS and released the minimum viable product for Bitcoin staking in October, claiming that it will help alleviate inflationary pressures on PoS chains, which can rely on BTC staking to attract capital and strengthen the security of emerging chains.

L1 blockchain development company Burnt raises over $11 million

Xion’s development company Burnt has raised over $11 million from Animoca Brands, Circle Ventures, Multicoin, Valor, Hashkey, SLianGuairtan, Mechanism, Figment, Coinlist Seed, Injective, Alliance DAO, Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), and others. Xion’s testnet is based on the Comet BFT consensus framework and Cosmos SDK.

Crypto data platform Shadow completes $9 million seed round

Shadow, a crypto data platform startup, has raised $9 million in a seed funding round led by LianGuairadigm. Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Ethereum Foundation, Uniswap, and Flashbots also participated.

Ethereum L2 Rollup project Ten raises $7.5 million, with participation from Republic Capital

Ethereum Layer2 Rollup project Ten (formerly Obscuro) has announced a $7.5 million funding round, with participation from Republic Capital, KuCoin Labs, R3, Big Brain Holdings, Magnus Capital, Builder Capital, DWF Labs, Pragma Ventures, and GTS Ventures. Ten is a decentralized cryptographic Layer2 built on Ethereum, aiming to enable any Ethereum contract to run at a larger scale and lower gas fees without MEV risks, and fully encrypted. It leverages a technology called Secure Enclaves to protect most devices.

ZK infrastructure platform Sindri completes $5 million seed round, led by Coinfund

Sindri, a zero-knowledge proof infrastructure platform, has completed a $5 million seed funding round led by Coinfund. Sindri will utilize the latest funds to expand its team, grow its developer network, and build a comprehensive zero-knowledge-based developer stack. Previously, the project raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in June 2022.

Versatus, an Ethereum scalability startup, completes $2.3 million seed funding round, valued at $50 million

Versatus Labs, formerly known as VRRB Labs, a startup focused on Ethereum scalability, has completed a $2.3 million seed funding round, valuing the company at $50 million. This funding round had no lead investor, with participation from NGC Ventures, Republic Crypto, and Hyperithm. Prior to this, the company had already raised $1.4 million in seed funding in February of this year, bringing their total funding to $3.7 million. Versatus is currently building a “stateless rollup” called LASR. LASR is currently in the alpha stage and is expected to launch on the Ethereum testnet in the first week of January next year, with plans to go live on the mainnet in mid-March.

TISA, a blockchain fund data management service provider, completes £250,000 funding

TISA, a blockchain fund data management service provider, has announced the completion of a £250,000 funding round. Industrial Thought participated in the round. The TURN platform uses blockchain technology to collect and disseminate fund-related data, aiming to support asset management companies, distributors, and financial institutions by providing a unified, transparent, and efficient data management solution.

Rhinestone, a modular account abstraction project, completes Pre-Seed funding with participation from 1kx and Safe

Rhinestone, a modular account abstraction project, has announced the completion of a Pre-Seed funding round with investment from 1kx, Safe, Lattice, Heartcore, Calvin Lui (Chief Strategy Officer of EigenLayer), Georgios Vlachos (Co-founder of Axelar), and Waikit Lau (Lau Ventures), among others. Rhinestone has not disclosed the specific funding amount. Rhinestone is building a platform to create a secure ecosystem for smart account modules and enable permissionless wallet innovation. Rhinestone will empower developers to build smart account modules that can be paired with frontend components, allowing users to easily install, remove, or switch their accounts. Previously, Rhinestone was one of the 18 projects selected for Ethereum Foundation’s ERC-4337 Account Abstraction Grant Round.

Developers of Pyth Network secure new funding round with participation from Castle Island Ventures

Pyth Data Association, a non-profit organization developing the oracle project Pyth Network, has secured a new funding round with participation from Castle Island Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Wintermute Ventures, Borderless Capital, CMT Digital, Bodhi Ventures, Distributed Global, and Delphi Digital. Michael Cahill, CEO of Duoro Labs and board member of Pyth Data Association, stated that the new partners have received PYTH token allocations.

Others

Sona, a Web3 streaming media protocol, completes $6.9 million seed funding round with participation from Haun Ventures

Sona, a Web3 streaming media protocol, has completed a $6.9 million seed funding round with participation from Polychain Capital, Haun Ventures, and Rogue Capital. Additionally, Sona has announced the launch of its first product, Sona Stream, a free music streaming service without subscriptions or ads. It also includes a marketplace where artists can share music and auction off SONA, the corresponding digital assets of songs. Sona leverages DeFi-based modules to provide artists with token-based streaming content, music auctions, governance rewards, and distributes a portion of the revenue generated from music auctions to artists and the platform.

OKX Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in StarryNift

OKX Ventures has announced a strategic investment in StarryNift. StarryNift is a crowdfunding platform that integrates gaming, social, and entertainment elements. Its Code Green NFT and Citizenship DID series, which have already attracted a community of 150,000 cardholders, have previously received multi-million dollar investments from institutions such as SIG, Binance Labs, DFG, Leland Ventures, and more.

Centralized Finance

UAE Fintech Company Flow48 Completes $25 Million Series A Financing

Flow48, a fintech startup based in the UAE, has raised $25 million in a Series A funding round. The financing includes equity and debt financing, with participation from Speedinvest, Daphni, 212, Blockchain Founders Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, TLG, and some angel investors. Flow48 was founded by Idriss Al Rifai in 2022 and provides early-stage funding for SMEs in the UAE.

Digital Asset Brokerage Firm Nonco Raises $10 Million in Seed Funding, Led by Valor Capital and Hack VC

Digital asset brokerage firm Nonco has raised $10 million in seed funding, led by Valor Capital Group and Hack VC. Other investors include Morgan Creek Digital, CMCC, Lvna Capital, Theta Capital, Bullish, Bastion Trading, and Libra Capital Ventures. The company is a spin-off from OSL Digital Limited, the Americas division of Hong Kong-based digital asset platform OSL, and is composed of the same team. OSL retains a minority stake in the new company. Since its launch in April, the company has achieved a trading volume of $6 billion in the Americas region.

AI-based Digital Asset Trading Platform Bezant Completes New Round of Financing

AI-based digital asset trading platform Bezant has announced the completion of a new round of financing. Japanese digital asset management company Hyperithm Co. Ltd has participated, although the specific amount has not been disclosed. The company will use the funds to accelerate platform development, enter the Japanese and Korean markets, and launch a new fund, “Bezant Absolute Returns Fund.” Bezant primarily utilizes its proprietary machine learning (ML) model to provide short-term long/short trading services to investors. Hyperithm, the investment entity, previously received support from Coinbase Ventures and launched Japan’s first BTC-denominated fund last year.

Venture Capital Institutions

Bitcoin Financial Services Company Swan Completes $165 Million Financing

According to Forbes, bitcoin financial services company Swan has announced the completion of a $165 million equity financing in 2023. $125 million will be used for private equity and venture capital, while $40 million will be used to expand into institution products such as Bitcoin-supported lending.

Venture firm Heartcore Capital has raised 15 million euros for its first Web3 fund

Denmark-based venture capital firm Heartcore Capital is investing in application layer protocols in the crypto space as part of its bet on technology that promotes interaction with users in the field. Heartcore Capital has raised 15 million euros (16.3 million dollars) for its first Web3 fund, which will invest in founders in the crypto infrastructure space. Heartcore was founded in 2007 and has recently ventured into the Web3 field, providing support to teams of companies such as LianGuangopti, Elusiv, Li.Fi, Superform, Rhinestone, and MakerDAO. In addition, Heartcore made private investments in Ethereum as early as 2014 and made private investments in projects like Polkadot and Cosmos in 2017.

Blockchain investment firm Spirit Blockchain Capital completes a new round of financing with participation from EOS Network Ventures

Blockchain investment firm Spirit Blockchain Capital announced the completion of a new round of financing with participation from EOS Network Ventures, although the specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. EOS Network Ventures will join its board of directors and investment committee.

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