In the 21st week of 2023, $7 million was invested in Webb Protocol, a privacy cross-chain protocol
According to BlockBeats, there was a significant increase in the number of rounds raised last week to 24, totaling about $142.7 million, with an average round of $5,935,800. There is a lot of money in the NFT space and social/creator economy financing, a middle amount of infrastructure financing, and a small amount of meta-universe /Gamefi and DeFi. The following chart shows the financing proportion of each sector last week:
Metaverse /GameFi
2 rounds in the Metaverse /GameFi space, totaling $7 million, 4.91% of last week's total.
The Game Company
On May 11th, The Game Company disclosed that it had raised a $5 million seed round in December at a valuation of $40 million. The money will be used to accelerate the development of The Game Company platform. And use AI technology to create an interconnected multi-role ecosystem.
The Game Company 是一个革命性的人工智能驱动的云游戏平台，旨在为全球数字游戏玩家提供无与伦比的游戏体验。借助强大的梦幻联盟引擎和 Web3 技术，用户可以参与、玩并从庞大的互联多角色生态系统中获利。该公司的愿景是打破连接、延迟和市场经济的障碍，创造真正身临其境的游戏体验。功能包括低延迟、原生压缩技术、数字资产创建和游戏社区之间的社交互动。 该公司称将借助强大的梦幻联盟引擎和 Web3 技术，让用户可以参与、玩耍并从庞大的相互关联的多角色生态系统中获利。
Medieval Empires
On May 12, blockchain game Medieval Empires announced that it has completed a new round of funding of $2 million at a valuation of $30 million. According to Jan Berkefeld, CEO of Medieval Empires, the new funds raised will be used to accelerate the development of the game and make it a great experience for the users. This follows a $3 million funding round announced in April by Medieval Empires, led by DWF Labs. According to the project roadmap, the money will speed up production of the game for a public release by the end of the year.
Medieval Empires is set in a passive PvE region where players build towns by trading, fighting, and building alliances. Players' goals include daily, general, and story quests, and progress is based on successful completion of these quests and missions. The future of gaming will bring new leaders and regions for players to explore and progress. In addition to the Long-legged Crusaders and the Turkish Horde, new factions will be introduced in the near future, including the Mongols and more.
Featuring internationally acclaimed actor Engin Altan Dzyatan and recreating the character of his famous Kai tribe leader Erturul Gazi, the game aims to provide a savvy Web3 experience for fans of the character/actor, gamers, and blockchain and encryption enthusiasts. With a limited Early access release of the game on PC (Windows) in March 2023, a public release version will also be available on MAC (OSX) and mobile (iOS and Android), with all platforms fully interoperable.
NFT/ Digital Fashion
A total of over $27.35 million was raised in 2 rounds in the NFT/ digital fashion sector, accounting for 19.17% of last week's total.
LimeWire
On May 11, NFT marketplace LimeWire announced the completion of a $17.75 million Token funding round and stated that the remaining tokens would be destroyed. The tokens will be available for collection by purchasing users on May 15, and will go live on the trading platform on May 16.
LimeWire is a platform for content creators, artists, and brands to create membership-based communities for their most passionate fans. Our goal is to help artists build a recurring revenue stream by providing a platform and framework for direct fan membership. In turn, fans get exclusive content, access to private communities, the ability to communicate directly with their favorite artists and brands, and be a part of their journey. Through blockchain technology, we make exclusive content and assets ownerable and tradeable, allowing fans to not only consume exclusive content, but also directly participate in the success of the creators they support. In short, the new LimeWire is the first Web3 subscription platform for artists, brands, and creators.
Pudgy Penguins
On May 9th the companies behind the NFT project, Pudgy Penguins, raised $9m in a round led by early investor 1kx, Other participants in the round include the founders of Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research and LayerZero Labs, among others. Future IP brand to be built and coming soon: Pudgy Toys - realistic simulation toys based on Pudgy Penguin IP.
The rest of NFT/ Digital Fashion financing includes:
On May 11, MintStars, a subscription platform for NFT, announced a $600,000 Pre-Seed round led by Polygon Labs and SpankChain. The MintStars platform is built on the Polygon blockchain, allowing creators to monetize their content through subscriptions and marketing. Fans can also monetize their content by promoting it or collecting exclusive content and reselling it to the MintStars marketplace, with royalties paid back to the creators. Payments on the platform are made using USDC.
DeFi
There were three financing deals in the DeFi sector totaling $3.2 million, or 2.24 per cent of last week's total.
Siphon Lab
5 月 8 日，Sui 生态 DeFi 初创公司 Siphon Lab 宣布完成 120 万美元种子轮融资，Kima Ventures 领投，Waveline Capital、BT Growth Capital、Uno Ventures、Quidnet Ventures、Mava Ventures、以及一批 Web3 和 Web2 领域里的天使投资人参投，新资金将用于其扩大业务规模、培养人员并加速发展。 据悉，Siphon Lab 目前正在 Sui 网络上构建「Siphon Universe」，旗下产品包括 Tradeify、Liquidify 等流动性质押协议，旨在最大限度地提高 SUI 在整个生态系统中的资本效率。
Smilee Finance
5 月 12 日，DeFi 衍生品协议 Smilee Finance 宣布完成 200 万美元种子轮融资，本轮融资由 Dialectic 领投，Synergis Capital、Concave Ventures、Owl Ventures、Yunt Capital、Dewhales Capital、Outlier Ventures 等和一些天使投资人参投。 Smilee 的使命是构建链上衍生品，实现大规模波动性交易。成为事实上的流动性层，以及 DeFi 期权和结构化产品的最具资本效率的原语。
The remaining financing in DeFi includes:
On May 11th, the DeFi Derivatives Protocol announced the completion of its seed round of financing to an undisclosed amount, Road Capital, Caballeros Capital, Archetype, as well as Synthetix's Kain Warwick, Synthetix's Jordan, eGirl Capital's Scott Individual investors like Sunarto, Eden Au at The Block, Mike at Lyra, and Pranav at Graph.
Social/creator economy
There were 3 rounds in the social/creator economy, totaling more than $22 million, or 15.42% of last week's total.
Artizen
5 月 11 日，Web3 众筹平台 Artizen 宣布完成 220 万美元融资，本轮融资由 Consensys Mesh、Animoca Brands 和 Protocol Labs，以及包括 Blank Street Coffee 的 Dan Hill、PleasrDAO 的 Matt Condon 和 Protocol Labs 的创始人兼首席执行官 Juan Benet 在内的个人参投。 在 Artizen 上，创作者出售所谓的 Artifacts 来资助他们的项目：存在于以太坊区块链上的独特艺术作品，通过揭露其潜力或展示其创作过程的一小部分来代表项目的精神。Artifacts 持有者还可以投票决定未来哪些项目应该出现在 Artizen 上，因为网站上的所有项目都是由社区成员策划的。在给定的 Artizen「季节」结束时，售出最多 Artifacts 的项目将获得现金奖励。本赛季的奖金为 23,492 美元。
Blockworks
Crypto media company Blockworks closed a $12 million funding round on May 9 at a $135 million post-investment valuation, led by 10T Holdings, with investment from Framework Ventures and Santiago Santos.
Blockworks is a media company that provides cryptocurrencies for professionals, and the funding will be used to accelerate the company's nascent Research and data analytics product, Blockworks Research, which provides subscription-based access to research, data and analytics, governance, and real-time news. As part of this product suite, Blockworks last week launched GovHub, a platform for tracking and analyzing encryption protocol proposals.
TABOO
Blockchain entertainment and media platform TABOO closed a $10 million funding round on May 11 at a $250 million valuation, led by an anonymous private home office. The new funds will be used for platform development, product improvements, security enhancements, advertising and marketing, and acquisitions to increase platform market share. TABOO made great strides by integrating blockchain technology and NFT to revolutionize content creation, management and distribution.
TABOO has made great strides by integrating blockchain expertise and NFT to revolutionize the creation, curation and distribution of content materials. With this latest funding, TABOO aims to increase its market share and establish its position as the world's number one cryptocurrency.
infrastructure
There were five financing deals in the infrastructure sector, totaling more than $20.7 million, accounting for 14.51 percent of last week's total.
Webb Protocol
On May 8, privacy cross-link Protocol Webb Protocol closed a $7 million funding round led by Polychain Capital and Lemniscap. Webb Protocol provides cross-chain privacy functions including assets, data, location and other information through zero-knowledge proof.
The Webb protocol is a system for building and managing cross-chain applications that can support shared anonymous set functionality across a set of identical bridging systems on a compatible blockchain. The Webb protocol consists of two main protocols that handle the storage, update, and validation of data and state changes that occur on the bridge and are associated with on-chain replication for each connection. State can be effectively verified by using Merkle trees, and proof of membership with zero knowledge provides privacy. Together, you can create applications that take advantage of distributed state with private attribute testing capabilities.
Odsy Network
5 月 11 日，Layer 1 区块链 Odsy Network 以 2.5 亿美元估值完成 750 万美元融资，本轮融资由 Blockchange Ventures 领投，Rubik Ventures、Node Capital 和 FalconX 等公司参投。
The Odsy Foundation, an organization based in Zug, Switzerland, that promotes web adoption, says its goal is to "decentralize access control in Web3" to ease the need for users to have multiple wallets to access different networks and applications, thus removing barriers to wider adoption. Odsy's decentralized wallets (dWallets) aim to provide access to different Web3 protocols and platforms through a "transferable signature mechanism" on the Odsy network and the ability to sign transactions on "virtually any other blockchain".
Blocktorch
On May 9, Blocktorch, a German startup that helps the Web3 engineering team scale decentralized applications (DApps), raised a $4.2 million seed round led by Ideo CoLab Ventures, Speedinvest, RockawayX, Alchemy Ventures, Remote First Ventures, Bryce Ferguson of Sequoia Capital Recon Initiatives, Charlie Songhurst, Simon Jones (CEO of Voltz Labs), Andreas Klinger, Max Stoeckl (CEO of Dogami), Henry Chen (GP WAGMI Ventures), Felix Wolf and Entrepreneur First etc.
Based in Berlin, Blocktorch helps the web3 engineering team expand its decentralized application (dApp). In a recent development, Blocktorch has raised $4.2 million in seed funding. The round was led by Ideo CoLab Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Cambridge.
The remaining financing for infrastructure includes:
Cookbook, a smart contract registry, closed a $2 million funding round on May 12 with participation from MaC Venture Capital, Tagus Capital, Superscrypt and Alchemy. The funds will also be used for the platform's efforts to work with the developer community to create free educational content for Web3 builders. The Cookbook's mission is to make it easier for developers to build Web3 and reduce development costs for hundreds of companies.
On May 10, Web3 distributed infrastructure platform Triple Labs announced the completion of seed round financing, with CBI Holding and StepVC participating in the financing. The specific amount and valuation information of this round of financing has not been disclosed. Triple Lab aims to provide a one-stop development platform for enterprises and developers, lowering the entry barrier for Web3 developers to easily build and deploy decentralized applications (DApps) on the blockchain and build a Web3 infrastructure services ecosystem for developers and end users.
Digital Asset management/Payments
There were 3 financing deals in the digital asset management/payments sector, totaling more than $41 million, accounting for 28.73% of last week's total.
Nomba
On May 8, Nigerian digital payments startup Nomba (formerly Kudi) announced a $30 million pre-B round of funding led by Base10Partners, Helios Digital Ventures, Shopify, Partech and Khosla Ventures contributed. Nomba's payment solution fills gaps in the digital payment process, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently and provide a "great customer experience," and is now reported to average around $1 billion in monthly transactions.
Nomiks
On May 9, Nomiks, a Token audit and encryption risk management company, closed a €1 million funding round from Outlier Ventures and Cygny Capital, as well as several anonymous angel investors. Based in Geneva, Nomiks helps clients implement token-based business systems that minimize risk while maximizing business, financial and technological opportunities in Web3. The new money will be used to invest in research and development, promote product development and build partnerships.
Aqex Technologies India
Indian crypto firm Aqex Technologies India announced on May 11 that it has closed a Pre-A round of funding of approximately $7.5 million with Hindustan Media Ventures. Aqex Technologies India plans to launch the Aquarius Exchange later this year, aiming to bring professional trading services to the virtual digital asset market in South Asia, mainly India. The company has also formed a strategic partnership with trading technology company CQG.
The remaining financing in the digital asset management/payments space includes:
Carbon credit trading platform Ecoterra announced on May 13 that it has closed $3.5 million in funding to expand its business and develop new technologies that promote environmental sustainability. Ecoterra's mission is to create a more sustainable future by harnessing the power of blockchain. The company's platform allows users to trade carbon credits and other environmental assets while offering sustainable products and services.
Other financing
Six other financing deals totalled $21.45 million, accounting for 15.03 per cent of last week's total. Include:
Cable, A cryptocurrency-backed multi-in-one financial crime effectiveness testing platform, announced on May 11 that it had closed an $11 million Series A funding round with participation from CRV, Stage 2 Capital and Jump Capital. Cable, whose clients include fintech and cryptocurrency companies such as Tide and Ramp, detects regulatory violations of financial crime in real time, in turn helping to reduce financial crime and providing the transparency that banks, regulators and consumers want and need. The Cable platform's automated tools can more effectively develop and serve Web3 partners and customers.
Artifact Labs, a Web3 company that aims to preserve a record of historical events on blockchain, closed a $3.25 million funding round on May 8, led by Blue Pool Capital and with contributions from Animoca. The funding will be used to expand the business and hire developers. Artifact Labs was originally incubated by the South China Morning Post.
Cloudburst Technologies, a provider of crypto fraud prevention solutions, closed a $3 million seed round of funding on May 8, led by Strategic Cyber Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and Bloccelerate contributed. Cloudburst Technologies provides real-time monitoring solutions and cyber threat intelligence tools to help users monitor fraud occurring in the cryptocurrency market in real time.
On May 9, MetaZ Holding, a Web3 sneaker resale platform in the US, announced a $1 million funding round with Pinewood Capital. MetaZ's Korean subsidiary, MetaZ.inc, currently operates Meta[Z], an NFT-based sneaker marketplace where NFT owners can trade NFt-based collectible sneakers.
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