Weekly Financing Express | 17 projects received investment, with total disclosed financing of approximately US$395 million (8.14-8.20)
According to Odaily’s incomplete statistics, there were 17 domestic and overseas blockchain financing incidents announced from August 14th to August 20th, an increase from last week’s data (13). Thats up sharply from last weeks figure ($61.2 million).
Last week, the project with the most funding was cryptocurrency custody company BitGo ($100 million); full-chain interoperable Layer 1 network ZetaChain was not far behind ($27 million).
The following are specific financing events (Note: 1. Ranked according to the announced amount; 2. Excluding fundraising and mergers and acquisitions; 3. * is a traditional company whose business involves blockchain):
On August 16, cryptocurrency custody company BitGo completed US$100 million in financing at a valuation of US$1.75 billion. Specific investor information has not yet been disclosed. BitGo said investors are from the United States and Asia, with some coming from outside the cryptocurrency industry. This round of financing will be used for strategic acquisitions, and at least two transactions are already underway.
On August 16, the full-chain interoperable Layer 1 network ZetaChain announced the completion of US$27 million in equity financing. Blockchain.com, Human Capital, VY Capital, Sky 9 Capital, Jane Street Capital, VistaLabs, CMT Digital, Foundation Capital, Lingfeng Capital, GSR, Kudasai, Krust and others participated in the investment.
On August 17, Jada AI, an artificial intelligence project using blockchain technology, completed US$25 million in financing, with alternative investment group LDA Capital participating. The new funding will be used to expand its development team and add new organizations.
According to reports, the project aims to provide artificial intelligence services to help organizations make decisions and expand their operational scale. Jada AI runs in a blockchain-based environment where AI computations are performed between nodes participating in the network.
On August 16, the Metaverse platform ZTX (ZepetoX) established by South Korean Metaverse platform Zepeto and Jump Crypto completed a seed round of financing of US$13 million. Jump Crypto led the investment, with participation from Collab+Currency, Parataxis, MZ Web3 Fund, Everest Ventures Group, etc. cast.
Zepeto aims to drive cryptocurrency adoption by integrating 3D environment ownership into its platform through the ZTX initiative. ZTX expects to launch its first Genesis Home Mint project this month, which will include an NFT collection of 4,000 custom 3D homes that will be sold on the Arbitrum network. Purchasing these NFTs will provide users with Zepeto membership, as well as priority access to future participation in specific airdrops, events, and in-game enhancements.
On August 15, Dinari, a blockchain-based securities investment platform, announced the completion of a $7.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from SPEILLLP, 500 Global, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Third Kind Venture Capital, Sancus Ventures, and Version One VC.
Founded in 2021, Dinari offers blockchain-based equity trading through its dShare platform. Jake Timothy, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dinari, said that the dShare platform, which provides users with stock trading services such as Apple or Tesla on Arbitrum, does not support US users due to regulatory reasons.
L1 blockchain Linera completes US$6 million in financing, led by Borderless Capital
On August 16, Linera, a Layer 1 blockchain founded by former Meta employees, completed $6 million in financing, led by Borderless Capital, with participation from a16z, Laser Digital, ArkStream Capital, DFG, Jsquare and CADENZA. This project aims to introduce Web2-level scalability to Web3 applications through an unlimited number of small user chains. The new funds will be used to expand the team, launch the protocol’s development network and test network, cultivate strategic influence in the Asia-Pacific region, continue to develop its developer academy, and more.
Ellipsis Labs completes $3.3 million in seed round led by Electric Capital
On August 18, DEX Phoenix developer Ellipsis Labs announced the completion of a US$3.3 million seed round of financing, led by Electric Capital, Robot Ventures, Anagram, and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, and Monad Labs CEO Keone Hon and other angel investors participated in the investment. The financing will be used to accelerate the development of innovative DeFi protocols such as Phoenix.
On August 18, according to official news, cryptography technology provider PADO Labs announced that it had completed a US$3 million seed round of financing half a year ago and announced that its beta version of the product would soon undergo internal testing.
According to reports, PADO will use cryptographic algorithms to integrate off-chain data into the on-chain world through technologies such as interactive zero-knowledge proof (IZK) and secure multi-party computation (MPC). The algorithm ensures compliant, secure, private and verifiable links, facilitating the creation of interconnected and composable user credentials.
NFT music royalty marketplace MasterExchange completes $2.7 million in funding
On August 18, MasterExchange, an NFT music royalty market, completed US$2.7 million in financing, with participation from Vectr Fintech, Claes-Henrik Julander and Rob Small. MasterExchange has completed the sale of its first Initial Music Distribution (IMO) product, Sofia.
MasterExchange was founded in Stockholm in 2022 by AI and blockchain expert Alexander Fred-Ojala, Star Stable founder Johan Edfeldt and producer Jakke Erixson.
August 17th. Shuttle Labs, the development entity of the blockchain analysis platform Lore Explorer, completed US$2.3 million in financing, with participation from SALT.org, Arca, Balaji Srinivasan, Floodgate and others. Funds from this round will be used to build Lore’s artificial intelligence browser and EVM-compatible network analysis tools.
Lore Explorer is an AI-first on-chain data analysis solution that has integrated deep large language models (LLM) to make blockchain analysis conversational and accessible to everyone (including traders, casual enthusiasts, engineers and analysts) use.
On August 16, crypto payment company CityPay completed a seed round of more than 2 million euros in financing, including $500,000 in cryptocurrency investment, with participation from Tether, Presto Ventures and other angel investors. The new financing will be used for market expansion and to promote the development of the B2C platform.
JKLabs completed a $2 million pre-seed round of financing aimed at solving project governance issues
On August 15, JKLabs announced the completion of a $2 million pre-seed round of financing, with participation from 1kx, Boys Club, Seed Club Ventures and more than 90 angel investors. Sean McCaffrey, co-founder of JKLabs, said that decision-making is often bogged down by infighting, low transparency and legal complexity between community members and venture capital investors. JKLabs hopes to solve some governance issues through its jokerace platform, which allows projects to launch competitions and hackathons. , issue grants, provide incentives to on-chain community members, etc., and the weight of voting rights will be determined by on-chain reputation.
On August 15, Bitcoin social network platform Orange Pill completed a $250,000 Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Lightning Ventures, with participation from NBA star Matthew Dellavedova and Barefoot Bitcoin Fund. The Orange Pill App was previously launched in November 2022 and is available on iOS and Android platforms.
Sora Ventures invests in DeSci project founded by Coinbase CEO ResearchHub
On August 15, cryptocurrency investment institution Sora Ventures announced that it had invested in ResearchHub, a decentralized science (DeSci) project supported by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, for an undisclosed amount.
It is reported that ResearchHub is one of the most important community platforms for researchers to open source their works, allowing users to receive cryptocurrency rewards ResearchCoin (RSC) to contribute new knowledge to the scientific community.
On August 16, Web3 social data portal Port 3 Network announced the completion of a new round of multi-million dollar financing, with participation from EMURGO, Adaverse Accelerator, Gate Labs, etc., bringing the total financing to $10 million. Additionally, Port 3 Network received grants from Binance Labs, Mask Network, and Aptos.
The new round of funding and grants will be used to promote its on-chain interaction automation language BQL. It is reported that BQL can realize various on-chain interactive workflows, and users can run and execute complex interactions such as transactions and arbitrage with just one click.
On August 17, Web3 security company Aegis announced the completion of a multi-million-dollar seed round of financing, with participation from Generative Ventures, Northern Lights Venture Capital and Xianfeng Evergreen.
On August 18, according to official news, Otherside’s ecological data aggregation service and exploration platform Otherdex announced that it had completed a strategic round of financing. Adam Weitsman, CEO of Upstate Shredding, participated in the investment. The specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. The new funding will be used to accelerate development of Otherside’s ecological exploration tools.
