Financing Selection | a16z leads investment in Pahdo Labs, a development studio for the metaverse platform; DCG participates in investment in Portals, a DeFi yield aggregator.
According to BlockBeats statistics, there were a total of 22 financing deals last week, with a slight increase in quantity compared to previous weeks. The total amount was approximately 78.3 million US dollars, with an average financing amount of 3.5591 million US dollars. Among them, the metaverse/GameFi field accounted for the majority, followed by the infrastructure field, with an increase in the digital asset management/payment field. The social/creator economy and DeFi fields had fewer financing deals, while there were no financing deals in the NFT/digital fashion and other fields, as well as the Web3+AI field. The following chart shows the financing distribution of each sector last week:
Metaverse/GameFi
There were a total of 4 financings in the Metaverse/GameFi field, with a total amount of 26.5 million US dollars, accounting for 33.84% of the total financing amount last week.
Pahdo Labs
On September 12th, Pahdo Labs, a development studio for the metaverse platform, announced that it has completed a $15 million Series A financing round, with a16z leading the investment and participation from Pear VC, BoxGroup, Long Journey Ventures, Neo, and Global Founders Capital.
Pahdo Labs was founded in 2021, and the team is cultivating a virtual world called Halcyon Zero, which is built by players. They prioritize player creativity, making user-created maps and game modes an essential part of the story and overall player experience. Pahdo Labs founder Daniel Zou stated in an interview with GamesBeat that their goal is to allow players to use AI tools and program generation to build their own virtual worlds, thus completely changing the anime RPG genre. Therefore, Halcyon Zero chose the Godot engine, which is simpler compared to UE and Unity, and games written with it can run as long as the files are compliant.
A16Z GAMES General Partner Jonathan Lai said, "Pahdo's execution speed has left a deep impression on us, and we believe that the team has the ability to provide an incredible next-generation anime RPG platform." Like other game studios, Pahdo Labs also attracted millions of views by showcasing early independent game development processes and the lives of young game developers in their New York office on TikTok when building their early community. Therefore, the niche market for games continues to grow, attracting audiences in the early stages of game development.
After receiving new funding, Pahdo Labs will continue to expand its team. Currently, Pahdo Labs has hired 21 full-time international employees in locations such as New York, Vancouver, Korea, and Berlin. This collaboration brings together technical professionals from Boston and Silicon Valley with industry veterans from Riot Games, Capcom, and Electronic Arts.
GamePhilos
On September 12th, according to Venturebeat, Web3 game studio GamePhilos completed an $8 million seed round of financing, led by Xterio, Animoca Ventures, SevenX Venture, and Chain Hill Capital, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Sanctor Capital, Game7, Bas1s, GSR, and GSG Ventures. GamePhilos plans to use the funds to develop a free mobile/PC strategy game called "Age of Dino", which will be built on the Xterio Foundation platform. The Xterio platform aims to benefit the gaming community and the developers who serve it. For hardcore gamers, Xterio hopes to become the central hub for discovering and playing high-quality Web3 games. For developers, Xterio provides a comprehensive suite of Web2 and Web3 tools and publishing services, as well as the ability to carry items and characters, increasing their value and cross-promotion between games.
The founders of GamePhilos include former members of Netease, Zynga, FunPlus, and ByteDance. According to GamePhilos, "Age of Dino" tells the story of the conflict between various factions of dinosaurs, including real-time battles and multiplayer games, as well as in-game trading systems and alliance building methods. The studio built the game on the FunPlus engine, which is the main engine for strategy games. The funds will be used to develop and release their own games and partner games, create new world-class intellectual property, and continue to develop the Xterio platform, which will feature a marketplace, social community center, and more.
Other financing in the Metaverse/GameFi field includes:
On September 11th, it was reported that Web2.5 game service platform Salvo Games completed a $1.5 million angel round of financing on September 10th. The round was led by a well-known gold producer from a listed Asian game company, whose masterpiece released 17 years ago still has countless fans and high visibility in the traditional gaming industry. The partnership with Salvo will combine their respective strengths to explore the Web3.0 field, and the project layout will involve the development and introduction of various high-quality games, platform empowerment and innovation, developer channel construction, and player asset trading and management platform construction.
On September 16th, according to official sources, NFT sports game analysis platform Podium (formerly known as SorareData) announced the completion of a €2 million financing round, led by Fabric Ventures with participation from Sfermion and Seedcamp. Podium stated that this round of financing aims to strengthen SorareData's position, promote its operations and products, and also support the launch of ReignMetrics, a data analysis tool customized for DraftKings Reignmakers.
DeFi
In the DeFi field, a total of 3 financings were completed with a total amount of over 4.25 million US dollars, accounting for 5.43% of the total financing amount last week.
Range Protocol
On September 12th, according to official sources, Range Protocol, a blockchain-based asset management platform, completed a $3.75 million seed round of financing. The round was jointly led by HashKey Capital and Nomad Capital, with participation from Spark Digital Capital, Mirana Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Asymm Ventures, and Comma3 Ventures. The funds raised in this round will be used to continue building Range Protocol's integrated blockchain-based asset management platform and further expand the team and community. Range Protocol aims to provide a fair competitive environment between retail investors and professional digital asset managers. The platform is currently deployed on Ethereum, BSC, Mantle, Polygon, and Arbitrum.
Range Protocol announced last week that the TVL of its AMM pool has exceeded $10 million.
As an active liquidity manager, professional fund managers can use advanced quantitative models on the Range Protocol platform to analyze historical data, develop strategies, and create non-custodial vaults for various assets and risk tolerances. Passive liquidity providers can provide their funds as liquidity on the Range Protocol platform and withdraw them at any time. They can earn passive income under the management of fund managers' non-custodial vaults on the chain. Liquidity providers can refer to specific vault strategies, consider factors such as historical data, existing liquidity structure, and cross-chain pricing, and choose more suitable asset strategies.
Portals
On September 13th, according to Chainwire, DeFi yield aggregator Portals completed a $500,000 seed round extension financing, with investors including Bankless Ventures, Digital Currency Group (DCG), and Founderheads. This seed extension is built on top of their recent $2 million seed round financing (led by Lightshift Capital), further solidifying the project's financial foundation and enabling the team to accelerate the creation of a user-friendly, efficient, and comprehensive DeFi experience.
Portals is a yield aggregator that supports one-click DeFi. Based on the composability of DeFi, similar to Lego, users can bundle multiple DeFi operations into a single transaction through Portals, such as one-click exchange of interest, liquidity pools, treasuries, and other assets. In addition to its user-friendly interface, Portals' feature may lie in its flexible and powerful API interface, through which developers can access Web3 data from DeFi protocols, including liquidity pools and token prices, contract positions, account balances, etc.
Portals charges a default fee of 0.3% for each transaction. API users can adjust the fee between 0-1% according to their needs, and the fees generated by API users are shared by Portals and API users.
Mountain Protocol
On September 11th, USDM stablecoin issuer Mountain Protocol announced the completion of its seed round financing, led by Castle Island Ventures co-founder Nic Carter, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik, New Form Capital, Daedalus, OpenZeppelin CEO Demi Brener, and others. It is reported that Mountain Protocol has launched a stablecoin called USDM, which generates income and obtained a digital asset issuance license from the Bermuda Monetary Authority on July 27th. Mountain Protocol added that "USDM is fully supported by short-term US Treasury bonds, and the difference is that USDM provides rewards to users every day in the form of rediscounts, with an annualized rate of 5%. The rediscount mechanism is very similar to Lido Finance's stETH, which will be familiar to most cryptocurrency practitioners."
USDM is not available to US customers and is not registered as a security in the US. Martin Carrica, co-founder and CEO of Mountain Protocol, stated that "the amount of funds is confidential due to regulatory requirements." It is reported that currently, USDM only has native blockchain support on Ethereum, with plans to support other blockchains in the future.
Social/Creative Economy
There were a total of 1 financing in the social/creator economy sector, with a total amount exceeding 6.5 million US dollars, accounting for 8.3% of the total financing amount last week.
Mythic Protocol
On September 13th, according to Finsmes, Web3 collaboration entertainment protocol Mythic Protocol completed a $6.5 million seed round of financing, led by Yida Gao of Shima Capital, with participation from Alpha JWC, Saison Capital, GDV Venture, Planetarium Labs, Arcane Group, Presto Labs, MARBLEX, EMURGO Ventures, HYPERITHM and some angel investors. The funds will be used to develop and launch the initial core product. It is reported that Mythic Protocol aims to establish a collaborative entertainment ecosystem, using game-first strategies to acquire, retain and expand users. The ecosystem that Mythic Protocol wants to build is divided into three layers: the interaction layer RIFTSTORM, a multiplayer cooperative, cross-platform action shooting Roguelike game; the consensus layer DUMB, a decentralized universal element on the blockchain; and the value layer LEGACY, assets influenced by the constructed ecosystem.
Infrastructure
There were a total of 11 financing deals in the infrastructure sector, with a total amount of over 21.55 million US dollars, accounting for 27.52% of the total financing amount last week.
Layer N
On September 13th, Ethereum Layer 2 network Layer N completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Founders Fund and dao5, with participation from Kraken Ventures and Spencer Noon. Founders Fund invested $1.8 million in this round of financing. Layer N focuses on improving transaction throughput and reducing latency. Its fully modular architecture allows for optimization of every component of the network stack, supporting the construction of complex financial protocols and simplifying the process for traditional enterprises and institutions to enter the world of blockchain. In the coming weeks, Layer N will deploy a public testnet and launch the Rollup network Nord for on-chain order book trading. Through Layer N's shared communication layer, it will be fully compatible with the upcoming public smart contract N-EVM layer, which is expected to be launched in the first half of next year. The founders of Layer N believe that other Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions are still too slow to attract high-frequency trading systems commonly seen on platforms such as Nasdaq. Layer N had previously planned to build its blockchain on Solana and announced funding from FTX Ventures before FTX collapsed in November 2022, but these funds were not able to be realized. Layer N plans to release its testnet in one to two months. Due to regulatory uncertainty and unresolved issues such as whether tokens will add value for users, the company has not yet decided whether to release tokens like other Layer 2 solutions such as Optimism and Arbitrum.
0xPass
On September 11th, according to TechCrunch, MPC solution provider 0xPass completed a $1.8 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from AllianceDAO, Soma Capital, Alchemy Ventures, Blockchain Builders Fund, Formulate Ventures, Kommune, Hashed EM, Signum Capital/UOB, Nonce Classic, and angel investors Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase) and Cory Levy of Z Fellows. It is reported that 0xPass, incubated in the Stanford Blockchain Club, allows developers to build multiple authentication methods in non-custodial wallets, based on MPC algorithms, and allows key shares to be distributed only among network nodes. One of the main advantages of 0xPass is the seamless integration of web2 and web3 login methods. By leveraging the pre-built Web3 wallet and Web2 login connector provided by 0xPass, developers can allow users to choose their preferred authentication method, which enhances user experience and saves developers a lot of costs.
Founder of 0xPass stated in an interview that 0xPass was built for developers seeking flexibility in identity verification rules. For example, it allows developers to program automatic trades, which may be cryptocurrency projects, that require web2 login methods or infrastructure provider wallets to verify user identity. To generate revenue, 0xPass plans to charge customers who access its key management system based on usage.
Infrastructure's remaining financing includes:
On September 15th, Web3 open source software development platform ONLY Dust completed a $3 million financing round, led by Fabric Ventures with participation from Frst, Ergodic (LambdaClass), and Stake Capital. ONLY Dust supports license-free innovation on open platforms, helping to build "trustless" peer-to-peer networks and token-driven incentive and governance systems. ONLY Dust provides support for ZK Rollups, privacy, decentralized finance, and other aspects to 500 developers from 17 countries. Starkware, Starknet Foundation, OP Foundation, Nethermind, Aptos, Zama, and Ethereum Foundation all use ONLY Dust to coordinate cash and token rewards for contributors.
On September 13th, Octav, a DeFi data analysis and tax reconciliation platform, announced the completion of a $2.65 million seed round of financing. Investors include Nascent, Polymorphic Capital, Parallel Studio, Spaceship DAO, Investmeows, Possible Ventures, Speedinvest, ACET Capital, as well as individual investors such as Markc Zeller, Aave's strategic lead, and 0xMaki, former CEO of Sushiswap.
On September 15th, Web3 incentive platform Cultos Global announced the completion of a new round of financing, with participation from boAt Lifestyle founder and CEO Sameer Mehta, Coto founder and CEO Tarun Katial, and Bosch Southeast Asia's Vijay Ratnaparkhe, among others. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. It is reported that Cultos Global provides brands with tools to create their own brand tokens and establish reward systems, thereby improving efficiency and conversion rates and increasing sales.
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On September 14th, Zero Number Technology announced the completion of its B2 round of financing. The amount of financing was not disclosed, and the investor was Beijing Guoxin Zhongshu Investment Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the National Information Center. This round of financing will mainly be used to promote product innovation, marketing, and team expansion. In the future, Zero Number Technology will further create an industry blockchain benchmark scene and implement application promotion plans. Shanghai Zero Number Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zero Number Technology") was established in 2016 and is a provider of data sharing and asset circulation infrastructure. Through blockchain and privacy computing technology, it serves the digital economy ecosystem and is one of the first companies in China to obtain the record of blockchain information service from the Cyberspace Administration of China.
On September 13th, Shanghai Boundary Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. completed tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing, jointly invested by Xia Lang Fund under Hengdian Capital and Fosun Fan Yi Fund. This round of financing will be used to increase investment in technology research and development, as well as global market expansion. It is reported that since 2020, Boundary Intelligence has launched a platform service model, based on underlying blockchain core technology, to create an open and compliant open alliance chain product that can serve many small and medium-sized enterprises, and provide customers with full life cycle Web3.0 distributed business system services in the form of platform services. As of now, Boundary Intelligence has launched products including self-developed enterprise-level alliance chain product "IRITA", open alliance chain "Wenchang Chain", multi-chain cross-chain distributed application service platform "AVATA", and other products.
On September 13th, Web3 startup company Immix completed a $2.7 million seed round of financing, led by MassMutual Ventures with participation from Ripple. These funds will be used to develop Immix's trading platform and improve its market-making product execution capabilities. Founded in 2019, Immix currently offers a non-custodial trading system for institutional investors. Compared to traditional cryptocurrency execution management systems (EMS), the platform offers "lower" trading latency, allowing investors to expand their trading activities in the Web3 ecosystem.
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On September 12th, Japanese Web3 financial services company pafin completed a new round of financing with participation from DG Daiwa Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund, and MZ Web3 Fund. Pafin is developing financial technology and Web3-related businesses, such as the Cryptact automatic profit and loss calculation service for encrypted assets and the defitact Web3 family bookkeeping tool. Pafin will use the funds from this round of financing to strengthen marketing and recruitment, expand the scope of its main business services, and build Web3 infrastructure. (PR Times)
On September 13th, Move language infrastructure Movement Labs completed a $3.4 million Pre-Seed round of financing. The round was led by Varys Capital, dao5, Blizzard The Avalanche Fund, Borderless Capital, and Cross-Chain Fund, which focuses on the Wormhole ecosystem. Participating investors include Colony, Interop Ventures, Elixir Capital, BENQI, and individual investors such as George Lampeth (dao5), Calvin Liu (Eigenlayer), Smokey The Bera (Berachain), Anurag Arjun (Avail), CoinFlipCanada (GMX), and a co-founder of Ankr.
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On September 13th, according to official sources, Web3 cross-chain community operating system Club3 announced the completion of a $3 million seed round of financing. The round was led by LinkVC, with participation from FarSight Capital, BCH Foundation, Digifinex, and others. As a one-stop Web3 cross-chain community operating system, Club3 provides project parties with accurate zero-code SaaS tools for user traffic and loyalty management based on user on-chain and off-chain data, helping them achieve their Go To community (GTC) strategy. It is reported that the Club3 team is headquartered in Hong Kong, with key members from internet companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Tencent. In addition, Club3 has officially launched a first round of $200,000 community subsidy program, aiming to provide growth subsidies for early high-quality projects. Currently, Club3 has established traffic and community partnerships with hundreds of platforms such as OKX, BNB Chain, Hashkey, ZKSync, TP Wallet, and Lens.
Digital Asset Management/Payment
There were a total of 3 financing rounds in the digital asset management/payment industry, with a total amount exceeding 19.5 million US dollars, accounting for 24.9% of the total financing amount last week.
Fipto
On September 14th, according to techfundingnews, French fintech company Fipto completed a €15 million seed round of financing, led by Serena Capital and Motier Ventures. This round of financing will help Fipto further develop its platform and provide integrated payment and financial solutions. The core of Fipto's platform is dedicated to using blockchain technology to improve international payments. Its comprehensive platform, as an integrated payment and financial solution, enables enterprises to seamlessly convert and transfer any currency, whether it is fiat currency or digital currency. One of the outstanding features of the Fipto platform is its ability to facilitate instant cross-border payments.
Parallax
On September 13th, Parallax, a cross-border payment platform, announced the completion of a $4.5 million seed round of financing. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, General Catalyst, gumi Cryptos Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Comma Capital, Firsthand Alliance, as well as angel investors Balaji and Zach Abrams. The new funds will be used to continue expanding the team and business scale. Parallax's initial product allows users outside the United States to open a virtual USD account and receive USD using only their passport. The team is building and expanding stablecoin cross-border payment capabilities.
数字资产管理/支付其余融资包括：
translates to:
Digital asset management/payment and other financing including:
On September 11th, Modular Labs, a cryptocurrency venture capital firm, completed its Pre-Seed round of financing, with Hashed and K300 as co-leaders and GuildFi and GBV as participants. It is reported that Modular Labs will provide support and resources for developers aiming to utilize the potential of modular blockchain to create decentralized applications more easily.
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