Finance
Specials
On-chain Eco
Entry
Podcasts
API/RSS
Social
Financing Weekly Selection for Week 23 of 2023: Animoca leads strategic financing round for Narwhal Finance with a valuation of $25 million.
Summarized by AI
According to BlockBeats statistics, there were a total of 22 financing deals last week, a slight decrease from the previous week. The total amount raised was approximately 794.48 million US dollars, with an average financing amount of 28.7036 million US dollars. Other sectors dominated the financing, with relatively more financing in asset management payments, DeFi, and infrastructure. The number of financing deals in the Metaverse/Gamefi sector increased, while there were fewer deals in the social/creator economy and NFT/digital fashion sectors. The following chart shows the financing distribution of each sector last week:
Metaverse/GameFi
There were a total of 5 financings in the Metaverse/GameFi field, with a total amount of 6.75 million US dollars, accounting for 0.85% of the total financing amount last week.
Metagame Industries
On May 24th, Metagame Industries, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, completed a strategic round of financing with a valuation of nearly 100 million US dollars. Participants in the funding round included Mysten Labs, the developer of the Sui public chain, Funplus/Xterio Ecosystem Fund, 2Moon Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Chainhill Capital, MH Ventures, DWeb3 Capital, ZeroX Fund, and GMA.
It is reported that Metagame Industries' new round of financing aims to accelerate the development of its game Abyssworld. Abyss World is the first AAA game in the Sui ecosystem, in which Mysten Labs is involved. Currently, Abyss World has received 120,000 pre-orders on the global Steam wish list. The project has started whitelist invitation activities and will conduct an IDO in the near future.
BoomLand
On May 23rd, Web3 game publisher BoomLand announced the completion of a $1 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from Polygon, Game7, Magic Eden, Hyperithm, and some private investors. BoomLand had previously completed a soft launch and first NFT sale, and its first blockchain game, "Hunters On-Chain," is scheduled to be released later this month.
According to the team, BoomLand has a team of industry veterans and has over 200 published games with 1.5 billion downloads. They are committed to improving the quality of Web3 games by incorporating the best practices of Web2. Their first example of developing and releasing high-quality mobile blockchain games is Hunters On-Chain, which is a Web3 version of the popular core action RPG game Hunt Royale.
Other financing in the Metaverse/GameFi field includes:
On May 26th, according to sources, the on-chain Mahjong esports project Mahjong Meta may have completed a financing round of over 10 million US dollars, with investors including Folius Venture, Meteorite Labs, Parallel Ventures, and others. In Mahjong Meta, Mahjong enthusiasts will be able to showcase their skills through various modes such as ranking matches, elimination matches, and championship matches. At the same time, the new Tama Master gameplay combines Mahjong's mathematical logic with customized AI strategies for automatic Mahjong matches. It is reported that Mahjong Meta will launch the Pass NFT 0xMahjong Free Mint on Ethereum on May 27th, and will officially launch in July 2023. Currently, the game is available for BETA testing on the official website MJMETA.IO.
On May 26th, BurgerCities, a metaverse blockchain gaming platform, completed a strategic financing round of $4 million with a valuation of $50 million. The round was led by Vega Ventures, with participation from SANYUAN Labs and Bitfly Capital. The funds raised will be used to promote the development of the BurgerCities ecosystem, expand the development team, accelerate the construction of the gaming ecosystem, and collaborate with other well-known projects to hold large-scale events. BurgerCities aims to create a unified and standardized Web3 metaverse world by integrating DeFi and NFT into the metaverse, where users can engage in social and gaming activities, as well as experience DeFi and NFT functions such as trading, staking, NFT exhibitions, and Gamefi through their avatars.
On May 22nd, Web3 MOBA game Arena of Faith announced that it has completed a $1.75 million seed round of financing led by Chain Hill Capital and followed by Initiate Capital. Arena of Faith focuses on serving the MOBA esports ecosystem and building a decentralized event system. It is committed to adapting to the current user needs of the MOBA market through the Web3 business model, and providing new commercial ideas for KOLs, content creators, event organizers, esports clubs, and esports enthusiasts. The core team of Arena of Faith consists of a Tencent Interactive Entertainment competitive game producer, a former Ubisoft senior expert, a Tencent Tianmei studio senior developer, and a Cosmos ecological technology core contributor, all of whom have more than 10 years of experience in the game development field.
DeFi
In the DeFi field, a total of 3 financing transactions were completed with a total amount of 26.7 million US dollars, accounting for 3.37% of the total financing amount last week.
Narwhal Finance
On May 22nd, Narwhal Finance, a decentralized perpetual trading platform running on Arbitrum and BNB Chain, announced the completion of a strategic financing round with a valuation of $25 million. Animoca Ventures, Hailstone Ventures, and angel investors participated in this round of financing. At the same time, Narwhal Finance also announced a partnership with Pyth Network to establish an oracle service and a partnership with Wormhole to establish a token bridging service.
Narwhal Finance supports synthetic assets with up to 1000x leverage, enabling leveraged trading of any asset on-chain. Additionally, Narwhal Finance's trading is further enhanced through social features, from token forums to copy trading vaults to live streaming. The platform is committed to creating an inclusive social platform that serves both novice and experienced traders, providing them with various monetization options to create a loyal trading community.
Houdini Swap
Other financing in the DeFi field includes:
On May 24th, Num Finance completed a $1.5 million financing round with participation from stablecoin developer Reserve, H2O Scouter Fund, Ripio Venture, VC3 DAO, and Auth0 Chief Technology Officer Matias Woloski. Num Finance stated that it will expand its stablecoin products, including the Brazilian real, Colombian peso, Mexican peso, and Bahraini dinar, in the next month, and will also develop its real-world asset (RWA) products.
Social/Creative Economy
There were a total of 1 funding in the social/creator economy sector, with a total amount exceeding 4 million US dollars, accounting for 0.5% of the total funding amount last week.
PoPP
On May 26th, according to foreign media reports, Web3 creator application PoPP completed a $4 million angel round of financing with a valuation of $40 million. The round was led by Foresight Ventures, with participation from several other institutions and individuals.
The new funds will be used to support product development and iteration after PoPP goes live, as well as creator incentives. The product is expected to launch on the App Store for global public testing soon. PoPP will serve as an integrated creator community tool and one-stop content deposition application, using Web3 and AI technology to support a large community.
Infrastructure
There were a total of 4 financing deals in the infrastructure sector, with a total amount of over 8.8 million US dollars, accounting for 1.11% of the total financing amount last week.
BTCDomain
On May 24th, according to official sources, the Bitcoin domain name project BTCDomain announced the completion of its angel round of financing. Investors include Element and LK Venture founder WangFeng, Bitrise Capital founder Kevin Shao, and investment firm Waterdrip Capital. After this round of financing, BTCDomain will further develop the application scenarios of Bitcoin domain names, and promote the wider development of the Bitcoin ecosystem in areas such as ZK parsing, wallet payments, on-chain websites, and decentralized social networking.
FastLane Labs
On May 23rd, FastLane Labs, the MEV developer for the Polygon ecosystem, completed a $2.3 million seed round of financing. Multicoin Capital led the investment, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Shima Capital, Delphi Ventures, Everstake Ventures, and Symbolic Capital.
FastLane was founded in March 2022. It provides an auction system that gives validators the opportunity to earn rewards without engaging in spam attacks on the blockchain. The auction takes place off-chain and externally to reduce redundant transactions on the network. Additionally, FastLane allows validators to participate using their current Polygon client without the need to download a new client. It is reported that the FastLane protocol focuses on creating revenue for validators, improving the efficiency of algorithmic traders, and reducing the pressure on network participants from being "drowned" in redundant transactions without the need to install or manage custom software on the validation node.
Other financing in the infrastructure sector includes:
On May 22nd, Web3 App development platform Sort announced the completion of a $3.5 million seed round of financing, jointly led by Lemniscap and The General Partnership. Sort allows developers to integrate smart contracts into applications, and this round of funding will be used to expand the Sort team and advance the platform's product suite.
On May 22nd, Openfort, a cryptocurrency infrastructure company, completed a $3 million seed round of financing. Gumi Cryptos Capital and Maven 11 jointly led the investment, with Game7, NGC Ventures, and Newman Capital also participating. The funds from this round will be used to develop a "wallet-as-a-service" product for game developers and publishers. Openfort aims to provide a "frictionless" wallet service, which consists of multiple APIs that are compatible with browser games, as well as PC games developed through Unity and Unreal Engine.
数字资产管理/支付
(Translation:
Digital Asset Management/Payment
)
There were a total of 3 financing deals in the digital asset management/payment industry, with a total amount exceeding 167.1 million US dollars, accounting for 21.03% of the total financing amount last week.
Moonfire Ventures
On May 24th, venture capital firm Moonfire Ventures announced that its Fund II had completed a $115 million financing. It is reported that Moonfire Ventures' AI-driven approach allows them to review an astonishing number of companies every week and seek out the most promising founders in Europe. By leveraging next-generation technologies such as AI, Web3, and AR/VR, Moonfire Ventures aims to transform key industries including health, work, finance, and gaming. Web3 projects previously invested in by Moonfire Ventures include Goals, an NFT football game development company, Sesame Labs, a Web3 marketing platform, and GOALS, a blockchain football game.
Onyx Privat
On May 24th, digital bank Onyx Private announced the completion of a $4.1 million financing round, with participation from Village Global, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, One Way Ventures, 186 Ventures, and Olive Tree Capital. It is reported that Onyx Private currently partners with Piermont Bank to provide digital banking services and offers users high-yield, fixed-income investment portfolio products in terms of investment. Its investment services are managed by Helium Advisors, and brokerage accounts are cleared through Pershing, a clearinghouse owned by New York Mellon Bank.
Other financing in the field of digital asset management/payment includes:
On May 25th, cryptocurrency trading platform Growminer announced that it has received $48 million in strategic financing, and the specific investment information has not been disclosed. It is reported that some global funds, investment groups, and professional investment institutions have participated in the investment. Growminer mainly provides trading tools for institutional and individual investors, and is currently in the regulatory approval process, expected to be launched next month. The new funds will be used for team expansion, product improvement, and accelerating market penetration, with plans to expand services to the global digital economy sector.
Other Financing
Other financing totaled 6 transactions, with a total amount of 581.08 million US dollars, accounting for 73.14% of last week's total financing. Including:
On May 23rd, AI startup Anthropic completed a $450 million Series C financing round, led by Spark Capital, with participation from Google, Salesforce VC, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and others.
On May 25th, Tools for Humanity, a crypto project under the leadership of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced the completion of a $115 million Series C financing round for Worldcoin. The round was led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from a16z, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global. The funds raised in this round will be used to accelerate the development and growth of the Worldcoin project and World App, which is the first crypto wallet in the Worldcoin ecosystem.
On May 25th, UrbanChain, a blockchain energy trading platform, announced the completion of a £5.25 million Series A financing round led by Eurazeo. UrbanChain currently operates a P2P energy trading platform in the UK, which matches renewable energy generators and consumers using blockchain and AI systems to provide users with reasonable electricity pricing services, thereby reducing the electricity bills of businesses and households.
On May 23rd, Syntropy, a distributed routing protocol, announced the completion of a $4 million financing round with participation from Alpha Transform Group, Alphemy Capital, Denali Digital, Saxon Ventures, and FirstBlock Capital. Syntropy plans to launch a new Web3 product during Aptos Hack Holland. It is reported that Syntropy is transforming the public internet into a secure and user-centric internet through a unified layer, which includes encryption and optimized performance, and automatically enables anything connected to it.
On May 23rd, open-source drug development organization LabDAO completed a $3.6 million financing round, with participation from North Island Ventures, Seed Club Ventures, ID Theory, Road Capital, Curve Labs, gmjp.lol, Molecule, Gnosis DAO, The LAO, Orange DAO, Beaker DAO, Spaceship DAO, and others. It is reported that LabDAO has also launched the PLEX client, which allows scientists to communicate and interact with laboratories. LabDAO provides containerized resource-intensive computing services, making data processing easier. Outputs can be linked to NFTs, allowing scientists to prove ownership of their data.
On May 25th, Singaporean communication company GoodGang Labs announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with participation from Kakao Investment. The funds from this round will be used to build the 3D environment kiki town. GoodGang Labs will also launch GangHouse for Web3, allowing users to communicate in real-time using NFTs as a medium. GoodGang Labs has previously received investments from Naver, Kimgisa Lab, Naver Z, and Planetarium, with specific amounts undisclosed.
Welcome to join the official community of BlockBeats by LuDong
Telegram subscription group: https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram communication group: https://t.me/theblockbeatsApp
Twitter official account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
欢迎加入律动 BlockBeats 官方社群：
Telegram 订阅群：https://t.me/theblockbeats
Telegram 交流群：https://t.me/BlockBeats_App
Twitter 官方账号：https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia
