Weekly Funding Express | 13 projects received investment, disclosed total funding amount is approximately $88.37 million (7.31-8.6)
Odaily incomplete statistics show that from July 31 to August 6, a total of 13 blockchain financing events were announced, a decrease compared to the previous week's data (15 events), with a disclosed financing amount of approximately $88.37 million, a decrease compared to the previous week's data ($110 million).
Last week, the project that received the most investment was the open-source software security solution Socket and the U.S. blockchain "mining as a service" ecosystem platform Xgminer ($20 million); additionally, the Web3 Mahjong chain gaming platform Mahjong Meta attracted some attention with its impressive lineup of backers.
Below are the specific financing events (Note: 1. listed in order of disclosed amount; 2. excludes fund-raising and M&A events; 3. * denotes companies in "traditional" sectors that have business involving blockchain):
Open-source software security solution Socket completes $20 million Series A financing, led by a16z
On August 2nd, the open-source software security solution Socket announced the completion of a $20 million Series A financing round, led by a16z, with participation from Abstract Ventures, Wndrco, Unusual Ventures, as well as several angel investors including Box co-founder Aaron Levie, Figma co-founder Dylan Field, Okta co-founder Frederic Kerrest, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, and Eventbrite co-founders Julia and Kevin Hartz.
Socket CEO Feross Aboukhadijeh announced that, with the previous $4.6 million seed funding, Socket has raised a total of $24.6 million in funding. The new funding will be used to expand the Socket team and support integration with more programming languages.
The company's clients include Brave, Figma, and Vercel (the co-founders of the latter two companies have invested in Socket). Aboukhadijeh expects that if the company maintains its current trajectory, its size will double in the coming months, at least in terms of number of employees. The current focus is on developing the engineering, security, operations, sales, and marketing teams of Socket.
Unlike traditional static analysis tools, Socket's open-source code vulnerability detection service provides actionable feedback related to dependency risks rather than hundreds of meaningless alerts. Specifically, Socket looks for advanced danger signals in software, such as malware, spelling errors (domain names typically misspelled for malicious purposes), misleading packages and unmaintained code, as well as unknown maintainers and excessive permissions. The platform offers a search feature that allows users to delve into code repositories and track changes in dependencies, as well as a free web browser extension that attempts to determine if an open-source package is secure and reliable.
In addition, Socket recently launched a ChatGPT connector that summarizes potential issues in software packages and identifies "uncommon" code patterns.
Blockchain mining-as-a-service platform Xgminer raises $20 million in funding
On August 3rd, US blockchain mining-as-a-service platform Xgminer announced that it has raised $20 million in new funding, with no specific information disclosed about the investors.
Currently, the Xgminer platform supports cloud mining services with multiple algorithms and multiple currencies. The new funding will be used to increase fixed investments in equipment and personnel, as well as further enhance the mining machine's computing power.
On August 3, Web3 Mahjong chain gaming platform Mahjong Meta announced the completion of a $12 million financing, with Dragonfly and Folius Ventures as the lead investors, and Meteorite Labs, Find Satoshi Lab, Parallel Ventures, Emoote, and others participating.
This round of financing will drive the product development of Mahjong Meta and expand the Web3 gaming ecosystem, further enhancing players' gaming experience and expanding its global influence.
In addition, Mahjong Meta will officially launch on August 7, 2023. Mahjong Meta launched its Beta version on May 12 and has attracted more than 15,000 players participating in over 490,000 matches.
Blockchain payment platform Orbital completes £5 million financing, led by Golden Record Ventures
On August 3, the UK blockchain payment platform Orbital completed a £5 million financing, led by Golden Record Ventures, with participation from New Form Capital, GSRV, Psalion, Luminous Futures, and others. This round of financing will enable Orbital to continue its rapid growth, obtain more licenses in new jurisdictions, and further develop its products.
Blockchain cloud company Common Computer completes ₩8 billion Series B bridge financing
On July 31, blockchain cloud company Common Computer completed a ₩8 billion ($6.3 million) Series B bridge financing.
Common Computer announced that it has attracted a strategic investment of 500 million Korean won from healthcare company InBody, as well as investments from existing investors HB Investment. Through this investment collaboration, the two companies plan to advance artificial intelligence chatbots to provide natural language experiences for over 10 million InBody users, validate the potential of large-scale models, and create service cases.
Diversified digital asset fund platform Solv Protocol completes $6 million financing
On August 1st, Solv Protocol, a one-stop, diversified digital asset fund platform, announced the completion of a $6 million financing. Investing institutions such as Laser Digital (under Japanese banking giant Nomura Securities), UOB Venture Management, Mirana Ventures, Emirates Consortium, Sequoia China, Bing ventures, Apollo Capital, HashCIB, Geek Cartel, and Bytetrade labs have invested. Solv V3 is committed to introducing trillion-dollar revenue assets to the industry through the fund platform. Solv has raised a total of $14 million in funding, with previous support from institutions such as Blockchain Capital and Binance Labs.
Since the launch of the Solv V3 platform, cumulative asset sales have exceeded $150 million, and the first low-risk income open product based on GMX has been launched.
Network security company Hushmesh completes $5.2 million financing, led by Paladin Capital Group
On August 3rd, network security company Hushmesh completed a $5.2 million financing round, led by Paladin Capital Group and with participation from Akamai Technologies. Hushmesh will use this funding to develop the key management program Mesh, which is a global cyberspace with built-in automated security features. It allows individuals and organizations to operate online without worrying about malicious attacks or data leaks. Mesh automates encryption key management, providing an unlimited number of keys to protect unlimited amounts of personal or entity data.
On August 3rd, African central bank infrastructure provider Emtech announced the completion of a $4 million seed funding round, led by Matrix Partners India, with participation from BTN, Vested, Equity Alliance, LoftyInc Capital, and others. Emtech plans to further develop the CBDC stack and its regulatory tech solutions.
Emtech's previous investors include Noemis Ventures, Octerra Capital, and 500 Global. To date, Emtech has raised a total of $10 million.
Web3 startup Naval completes $4 million seed financing with lead investment from BlockTower
On August 2nd, Web3 startup Naval completed a $4 million seed funding round, led by BlockTower.
According to reports, Narval, led by the University of Cincinnati, Kroger, GE, and Matt Schoch, is building a platform for Web3 wallet usage, allowing organizations to securely use digital assets such as NFTs in the Web3 field.
On August 6th, Web3 equity aggregation platform VIP 3 announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, with investors including IOBC Capital, Ankr, PAKA Capital, and other institutions. This round of financing will be used for VIP 3 product development and user expansion.
As a Web3 membership equity aggregation platform, VIP 3 uses SBT (Soulbound Token) as an on-chain membership card, and users holding SBT can enjoy various benefits and privileges from numerous Web3 projects on the VIP 3 platform. Currently, VIP 3 has established equity partnerships with more than 30 platforms including Binance, HashKey Exchange, OKX, TP Wallet, Ankr, Mahjong, etc. VIP 3 will provide users with various benefits such as trading fee discounts, gas subsidies, airdrops, whitelist, etc. VIP 3 will launch a limited-time free minting membership card activity on its official website vip3.io on August 8th.
On August 3, zkPass completed a $2.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Binance Labs, Sequoia China, OKX Ventures, dao 5, Susquehanna International Group, Cypher Capital, Leland Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, and others. zkPass combines technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs, multi-party computation, and secure transmission layer to enable users to disclose personal data on any website without revealing personal files. This technology can be used in privacy-based healthcare data markets and DeFi protocols that utilize off-chain data for credit applications.
On August 2, Terminal 3, a decentralized user data infrastructure service provider based in Hong Kong, announced the completion of its pre-seed financing with oversubscription. Participants include 500 Global, CMCC Global, Consensys Mesh, Bixin Ventures, BlackPine, D Web3, Hard Yaka, Bored Room Ventures, Mozaik Capital, and others. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed.
Terminal 3 aims to replace centralized data storage models, leveraging decentralized storage and zero-knowledge proofs to help businesses solve issues of user data compliance and security, allowing for free combinations of user data while maintaining complete privacy and security.
On August 2nd, Conductive.ai, a developer of Web3 game participation platforms, completed its seed funding round. It was led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Kraken Ventures, Bixin Ventures, Sound Ventures, Rubik Ventures, Sfermion, Oyster Ventures, Blue Lion Global, Axia 8 Ventures, Unanimous Capital, and Everest Ventures, among others. The amount of funding raised has not been disclosed.
Conductive.ai is addressing the issue of stagnant revenue growth in games with its proprietary platform. Its solution increases player engagement and provides developers with additional tools such as player reward allocation systems and analytics suites, enabling them to jointly develop strategies to encourage player retention.
The vision of Conductive.ai is to solve the biggest problem in the current gaming industry by improving user acquisition efficiency and enhancing player engagement. This will allow mainstream users worldwide to access Web3 technology without the need to be familiar with Web3 wallets or technical processes.
