Financing Weekly Report | 14 public financing events; Web3 restaurant loyalty application Blackbird completes $24 million Series A financing, led by a16z Crypto.

Financing Weekly Report | Blackbird, a Web3 restaurant loyalty application, completes $24 million Series A financing, led by a16z Crypto.

Highlights of this issue

According to incomplete statistics from LianGuaiNews, there were 14 investment and financing events in the global blockchain industry last week (October 2nd to October 8th), with a total funding of approximately 82 million US dollars. The overview is as follows:

• DeFi sector announced 6 investment and financing events, including on-chain credit risk management company Cicada LianGuairtners announcing the completion of a $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by ChopLianGuai Capital;
• No investment and financing events were announced in the NFT and Metaverse field;
• Blockchain gaming sector announced 1 investment and financing event: GameFi platform NexGami announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures;
• Infrastructure and Tools sector announced 4 financing events, including blockchain product development company Trinetix announcing a $10 million strategic investment from investment fund Hypra;
• Other Web3/Crypto-related projects announced 3 financing events, including Web3 loyalty application Blackbird announcing the completion of a $24 million Series A round of financing, led by a16z Crypto;
• No investment and financing events were announced in the Centralized Finance field.

DeFi

On-chain credit risk management company Cicada LianGuairtners completes $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by ChopLianGuai Capital

• In the past month, about 270,000 RNDR tokens have been destroyed. How big is the future space for the distributed rendering network Render Network?
• Q3 Crypto Dapp Report Daily active wallet count increased by 15% compared to the previous quarter, NFT transaction volume hits a new low in the past year.
• LayerZero’s Full-Chain Narrative Security Prospects and Ecological Opportunities

On-chain credit risk management company Cicada LianGuairtners announced the completion of a $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by ChopLianGuai 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 to conduct research and development on new blockchain lending use cases.

Cryptocurrency startup Ostium Labs raises $3.5 million for the development of perpetual contract trading for digital commodities

Cryptocurrency startup Ostium Labs has raised $3.5 million in funding for the development of a digital commodity perpetual swap protocol. Diversified investors including General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, SIG, and Balaji Srinivasan provided support. Co-founder Kaledora Kiernan-Linn stated that the protocol will support perpetual contract trading related to oil, Bitcoin, and petroleum. It will also support foreign exchange trading of the Australian dollar, British pound, Euro, and Japanese yen.

Solana-based DEX Convergence RFQ completes $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing, led by C² Ventures

Solana-based DEX Convergence RFQ has completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing at a valuation of $30 million, with C² Ventures leading the investment and participation from Big Brain Holdings, Israel Blockchain Association, Auros Global, and others. Convergence RFQ has designated the trading symbol of its “governance” token as CVG. It is reported that Convergence RFQ, built on Solana, will support spot and derivative trading. The platform is expected to launch in early next month and aims to expand to Arbitrum.

RWA Tokenization Platform DigiShares Completes $2 Million Financing, Plans for Additional $1.2 Million Financing

Real World Assets (RWA) tokenization platform DigiShares announced the completion of a $2 million financing round, with specific investor information yet to be disclosed. DigiShares is currently raising an additional $1.2 million through crowdfunding platform Republic. DigiShares stated that the new funds will be used to develop a blockchain-based real estate share trading platform called RealEstate.Exchange, which will support 24/7 trading and ensure transparency through smart contract control of corporate behavior.

L1 Advisors Completes $1.6 Million Seed Round Financing, Including $1 Million Strategic Investment from VanEck

Blockchain wealth and asset management protocol L1 Advisors has completed a $1.6 million seed round 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 blockchain wealth and asset management, aiming to enable financial professionals and their clients to manage, grow, and protect their assets using decentralized infrastructure such as protocols and wallets.

Liquidity Staking Platform Accumulated Finance V2 Completes Financing, with Participation from Curve and Others

The Accumulated Finance team has announced the completion of a new private financing round for the liquidity staking platform Accumulated Finance V2. Curve, De Facto Capital, Stake DAO, and others participated, with the financing amount yet to be disclosed. The Accumulated Finance team announced the launch of the Accumulated Finance V2 protocol in August of this year, which will provide incentivized liquidity staking and DeFi pools for mid- to low-cap proof-of-stake protocols. The protocol will be governed by the ACFI token and is expected to be officially launched in early 2024.

Blockchain Gaming

GameFi Platform NexGami Completes $2 Million Seed Round Financing, Post-funding Valuation at $20 Million

GameFi platform NexGami announced the completion of a $2 million seed round financing, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs, and Ledger Capital, among others. Post-funding valuation is at $20 million. NexGami is dedicated to providing seamless integration solutions for gaming products and enhancing the gaming experience of users within the Polygon network, aiming to onboard off-chain gaming 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 clients, and expand its presence in the Latin American market.

Trinetix primarily provides blockchain engineering solutions, intelligent automation services, and cloud support to global enterprises. Its clients include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and ExxonMobil, and the team is currently distributed across Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States.

TON Receives Multi-Million Dollar Investment from MEXC Ventures

The Open Network (TON), a decentralized blockchain platform, has received tens of millions of dollars in investment from MEXC Ventures, a venture capital company under MEXC. The specific amount has not been disclosed. At the same time, MEXC and the TON Foundation have established a strategic partnership aimed at promoting the accessibility of the global Web3 by reducing entry barriers. MEXC Ventures will continue to fund mini applications based on TON. In addition, MEXC and the TON Foundation are also discussing funding options for encrypted wallets on Telegram.

AirDAO announces $7.5 million investment from DWF Labs

AirDAO announced on 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 unlock period) to promote wider adoption of the AirDAO ecosystem. This partnership is an extension and expansion of the cooperation that began with a $2 million investment from DWF Labs in September 2022. AirDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that manages the AMB-Net (Ambrosus Network) public chain. AMB-Net is a Layer1 public chain that has already built a range of ecosystem features, including encrypted dashboards, cross-chain bridges, and a swap trading platform.

Privacy protocol Fairblock completes $2.5 million pre-seed financing round led by Galileo

Privacy infrastructure provider Fairblock has completed a $2.5 million pre-seed financing round 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 allows users to set conditions for protocols to execute transactions without revealing any on-chain information before execution. Unlike zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, Fairblock’s design encrypts or decrypts information only under specific conditions. Fairblock co-founder Peyman Momeni said that sealed-bid auctions, randomness generation, private governance, encrypted limit orders, and other applications can be built on top of its infrastructure using cryptographic libraries.

Other

Web3 restaurant platform Blackbird raises $24 million in Series A funding with a16z as the lead investor

Web3 restaurant loyalty application Blackbird has announced the completion of a $24 million Series A funding round led by a16z Crypto, with participation from QED, Union Square Ventures, Shine, Variant, and several restaurant groups. This funding round brings Blackbird’s total financing to $35 million, and the company plans to use the funds to expand its business. Blackbird focuses on establishing a direct connection between restaurants and guests through loyalty and membership services, collecting customers’ dining preferences, and rewarding check-ins with cryptocurrency. Previously, in October last year, Blackbird raised $11 million in seed funding, with Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, and Multicoin Capital as lead investors, and participation from Variant, Circle Ventures, and IAC, among others.

Web3 social app Phaver raises $7 million in seed funding, valued at approximately $80 million

Web3 social app Phaver has announced the completion of a $7 million seed funding round with participation from Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, f.actor, Superhero Capital, SwissBorg, and other institutions. To date, Phaver has raised a total of over $8 million and is valued at approximately $80 million. The funds raised in this round will be used to expand the team, develop the product, and form other partnerships. Phaver has already integrated its social graph with Lens Protocol and CyberConnect.

Blockchain Art Brokerage Company Fountain Announces Completion of Financing, Incubation by Flamingo DAO, Participation of 6529 Capital, etc.

Blockchain art brokerage company Fountain has announced the completion of financing, with the amount of financing undisclosed. Fountain was incubated by Flamingo DAO, with participation from Collab+Currency, Sfermion, VonMises, Cozomo de’ Medici, 6529 Capital, and others. Fountain is an art brokerage platform that aims to serve two communities – members of the traditional art world and the crypto-native. The product provides users with a pure peer-to-peer over-the-counter trading service.

Venture Capital Institutions

CMCC Global’s New Fund Raises $100 Million, Will Invest in Hong Kong Blockchain Companies

CMCC Global, a Hong Kong venture capital firm focused on cryptocurrencies, has announced that its newly established fund, “Titan Fund,” has completed its first round of fundraising of $100 million. More than thirty investors, including Block.one, Matrix Partners, Winklevoss Capital, Jebsen Capital, and Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu, participated in the fundraising. Martin Baumann, co-founder of CMCC Global, stated that Titan Fund is CMCC Global’s fourth fund and will provide equity investments to early-stage blockchain startups, with a focus on Hong Kong. Out of the five investments currently underway, two are Hong Kong-based companies.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!