Financing Highlights | Farcaster Completes $150 Million Financing; Laser Digital Leads Investment in Re-Pledge Protocol Kelp
According to BlockBeats statistics, the total number of financings last week was 18, which is less than before, with a total amount of approximately US$253.75 million and an average financing amount of US$14.0972 million. Among them, the social/creator economy field occupies the majority, the infrastructure field and DeFi field are relatively more, the financing of other fields and the digital asset management/payment field have increased, the Metaverse/GameFi field and NFT/digital fashion field are relatively less, and the Web3.0+AI field is not available yet. The following figure shows the proportion of financing in each sector last week:
Metaverse/GameFi
A total of 1 financing was made in the Metaverse/GameFi field, and the total amount was not disclosed.
Aria
On May 23, according to official news, the RPG chain game Aria announced the completion of its seed round of financing, led by Folius Ventures, Spartan Group and Merit Circle, and participated by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands, Formless Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Selini Capital, Bitscale Capital, LiquidX, 32-Bit Ventures and angel investors such as Miles Deutscher. The amount of this round of financing has not been disclosed.
The background of the game is set in a war between elves (Aria), in which the devil Satan was born. The heroes who were endowed with the power of the elves and their partners defeated Satan and sealed him, and then the world achieved peace.
Currently, Aria has launched a points task. The basic tasks include binding discord, adding "$ARIA" to Twitter usernames, following the official Twitter account, and binding web3 wallets. The daily tasks are to reply, forward, and like the specified tweet content. In addition, Aria's NFT is built on Ethereum, and the number is 50,000.
NFT/Digital Fashion
A total of 1 financing in the field of NFT/digital fashion, the total amount is not disclosed.
RunesTerminal
On May 21, the Runes Launchpad project RunesTerminal announced on its social platform that it had completed a round of financing, and the specific amount was not disclosed. Investors include Cogitent Ventures, CMS Holdings, Waterdrip Capital, IAngels, Pentos Ventures, Zephyrus Capital, THE CMS, Ran Neuner (CNBC host), BlackEdge Capital, BlokHash Labs, NewTribe Capital, X21 Digital, etc.
RunesTerminal is the infrastructure provider on the Runes protocol and the first overseas ecological project officially announced by ABCDE Labs. For Runes, due to the technical complexity of the technology itself, there is currently no easy way to distribute Runes tokens to followers, and EVM liquidity needs to have a secure and reviewed access point where they can deploy funds and invest in new Runes projects.
Through RunesPad, RunesTerminal creates the infrastructure to enable EVM liquidity to enter Runes and enter vetted Runes projects. At the same time, for investors who don’t know how to get started with Runes, it is a familiar launchpad environment where they can confidently invest in the best new Runes tokens.
DeFi
A total of 4 financings in the DeFi field, with a total amount of over US$17.9 million, accounting for 7.05% of the total financing last week.
Kelp DAO
On May 22, the Ethereum re-staking protocol Kelp announced the completion of a $9 million token financing at a valuation of $90 million, led by SCB Limited and Laser Digital (Nomura Securities' cryptocurrency department), with participation from Bankless Ventures, Hypersphere Ventures, Draper Dragon, DACM, Cypher Capital, GSR, HTX Ventures and DWF Ventures. In addition, angel investors such as Scott Moore of Gitcoin, Sam Kazemian of Frax Finance, Marc Zeller of Aave Chan Initiative, Saurabh Sharma of Jump Crypto and Amrit Kumar of AltLayer also participated in this round of investment.
Protocol co-founder Amitej Gajjala said Kelp DAO expects to launch governance tokens "soon" and is "currently conducting legal and exchange due diligence." Gajjala said Kelp also plans to launch liquidity re-staking services for other blockchains, including Bitcoin, Solana and BNB Chain, which are expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year.
Pencils Protocol
On May 23, the Scroll ecosystem project Pencils Protocol announced the completion of a $2.1 million seed round of financing at a valuation of $25 million. It is reported that this round of financing was participated by many well-known institutions such as OKX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Galxe, Gate.io Labs, Aquarius, Presto and Agarwood. At the same time, many individual investors including Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng, V Fund partner Ashely Xiong, Inception Capital co-founder David Gan, Cyberconnect founder Ryan Li and Arcanum Capital co-founder Lucia Zhang also participated in this round of financing.
Currently, Pencils Protocol has officially launched the Season 3 event. Participating in the event Staking Pool staking can earn high APR income, and obtain a series of point rewards including Scroll Marks, Pencils points, EigenLayer points, StakeStone W1 Points, Kelp Miles, Puffer Points, and Ecological Alliance airdrop rewards.
The rest of DeFi financing includes:
On May 21, decentralized derivatives trading platform ELFi Protocol completed two rounds of strategic financing totaling US$5 million, with the latest round of strategic financing led by IDG Capital and KuCoin Ventures. ELFi Protocol has been launched on the Arbitrum testnet and is conducting public beta testing of Genesis NFT.
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On May 23, DeFi platform Zaros completed US$1.8 million in financing, with SNZ Holdings, Seven Capital, Cogitent Ventures, DCI Capital, Antony Sassano, Fernando Martinelli, Kieran Warwick, Andy Chen and Kevin Lu participating. It is reported that Zaros aims to enhance perpetual futures trading by using Liquid Stake Token (LST) and Liquid Restake Token (LRT).
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Social/Creator Economy
A total of 1 financing in the social/creator economy field, with a total amount of over 150 million US dollars, accounting for 59.11% of the total financing last week.
Farcaster
On May 22, according to official news, the decentralized social protocol Farcaster completed $150 million in financing, led by Paradigm, and participated by a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto and others. The announcement stated that this year will focus mainly on daily active user growth and adding developer primitives to the protocol, such as channels and direct messaging.
Farcaster is a decentralized social media platform based on Optimism, which not only enables users to better control their own data, but also allows developers to enhance the platform through mini-applications called "frameworks."
Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero said in the news: "We are doubling down on Farcaster to develop it into an Internet-scale protocol. This funding will support our work for many years to come."
Infrastructure
A total of 8 financings in the infrastructure field, with a total amount of over US$62.1 million, accounting for 24.47% of the total financing last week.
Stripchain
On May 22, the interoperability protocol Stripchain completed a US$10 million financing round, led by Sora Ventures, with participation from Hyperithm, Shima Capital, Hypersphere, Mechanism and Ascensive Assets.
The startup allows developers to create commands called "intents" to perform actions such as transferring data between blockchains. Based on a system called stripVM, it will enable applications to communicate and coordinate with different protocols. The main difference between this solution and other interoperability protocols is its focus on the transaction layer and the use of a proof-of-authority system.
While early interoperability solutions targeted the protocol layer (such as Cosmos' inter-blockchain communication protocol) or the contract layer through bridges, Stripchain facilitates data transfer at the user layer. Stripchain is currently in closed beta, and the testnet is expected to be launched in the coming months.
Plume Network
On May 24, according to The Block, RWA Layer 2 network Plume Network completed a $10 million seed round of financing, led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, A Capital, SV Angel, Portal Ventures and Reciprocal Ventures. Angel investors include Anthony Ramirez of Wormhole Labs, Calvin Liu of Eigenlayer, etc.
Plume is a modular L2 blockchain dedicated to RWA that integrates asset tokenization and compliance providers directly into the chain. Its mission is to simplify the complex process of RWA project deployment and provide investors with a blockchain ecosystem. Plume enables the composability of RWA through its DeFi application and provides access to high-quality buyers to increase the liquidity of all RWA assets.
In addition, Plume Network provides a fully integrated and regulatory-compliant L2 solution designed specifically for RWA. From the current market perspective, its approach to integrating institutional and compliance supervision is relatively comprehensive, including KYC/KYB, AML/OFAC checks, custodians, account abstraction, on-chain arbitration, and transfer agents.
Related reading: " Understanding Plume Network: Modular L2 dedicated to RWA "
Dora Factory
On May 23, according to official news, the decentralized governance infrastructure Dora Factory announced the completion of a new round of US$10 million in strategic financing. Nomad Capital, No Limit Holdings, Yunjiu Capital, Singapore UOB Web3 Venture Capital Fund UVM Signum Blockchain Fund, Cai Wensheng's Longling Capital, Cosmos Ecosystem OG Interop Ventures, Eigenlayer co-founder Calvin Liu and other 15 well-known institutions and individuals participated in the investment.
Dora Factory's core products include the open, permissionless, governance-focused Cosmos SDK application chain Dora Vota, the anonymous privacy voting infrastructure aMACI, and multi-chain quadratic funding for the democratized public goods funding process.
Dora Factory is reportedly a leading decentralized governance and public goods technology protocol. This round of financing will accelerate the strategic expansion of Dora Factory's decentralized governance and public goods funding technology system.
Other infrastructure financing includes:
On May 21, Blockless, a DePIN network that focuses on providing computing power support, completed $8 million in pre-seed and seed rounds of financing. NGC Ventures led the $3 million pre-seed round, and M31 Capital and Frachtis jointly led the $5 million seed round. Other investors in these two rounds of financing include No Limit Holdings, MH Ventures, Interop Ventures and Plassa Capital. The structure of both rounds of financing is a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE), with a 1:1 ratio of token warrants.
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On May 22, the DePIN project WeatherXM Network announced the completion of a $7.7 million Series A financing round, led by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from Protocol Labs, Placeholder VC, Red Beard Ventures, Metaplanet, GS Futures, Consensys Mesh and Juan Benet. WeatherXM is a network that uses cryptocurrency incentives to improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, headquartered in Greece. The company plans to use the investment to grow its team and network, and continue research and development in crypto-enabled weather hardware and decentralized infrastructure.
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On May 23, Inception Capital tweeted that it had participated in the $6.9 million early financing of Ethereum L2 execution environment MultiVM with Lattice. MultiVM is building a new ZK Rollup on Ethereum, which unifies multiple virtual machines and languages, allowing EVM developers to extend beyond the Ethereum ecosystem and non-EVM developers to extend into the Ethereum ecosystem.
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On May 23, MANTRA announced that it had completed a new round of strategic financing. Laser Digital, a digital asset subsidiary of global financial services giant Nomura Securities, participated in the investment, aiming to accelerate MANTRA's goal of building an RWA Layer 1 blockchain in the Middle East and Asian markets. The specific amount of financing and valuation have not been disclosed yet.
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On May 23, US blockchain startup Alphaledger announced the completion of a $9.5 million Series A financing, led by EJF Capital and participated by KDX. Alphaledger used its permissioned blockchain to issue the first blockchain-based U.S. municipal bond, having previously completed a $6 million seed round in 2021.
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Digital Asset Management/Payment
A total of 1 financing in the digital asset management/payment field, with a total amount of more than US$10 million, accounting for 9.94% of the total financing last week.
Fantom Foundation
On May 24, according to The Block, the Fantom Foundation completed a $10 million strategic financing to support the Sonic Foundation. This round of financing was led by Hashed, and UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, SoftBank, Aave Foundation and others participated.
The funds from this round of financing will be used to support strategic growth and ecosystem development, with a particular focus on enhancing the liquidity of automated market makers and money market blue chip pools. The move is intended to attract users from Ethereum and other Layer 2 networks.
Other financing
There were 2 other financings with a total amount of US$13.75 million, accounting for 5.42% of the total financing last week. Including:
On May 23, Singapore collectibles design and production company Mighty Jaxx completed US$11 million in Series A+ financing to drive growth in the United States and Europe. Mighty Jaxx is an art toy production company. Since its establishment in 2012, Mighty Jaxx has cooperated with global brands such as Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., DC Comics, Looney Tunes and Sesame Street to produce various toy collectibles. The company incubated the blockchain technology platform MightyVerse in 2020, which can store information and digital assets in collections to promote the gamified collection experience. Currently, the company's business also involves the NFT market.
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On May 25, MetaLeX, a cryptocurrency governance consulting company of well-known crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro, completed a $2.75 million seed round of financing at a valuation of $27.5 million. This round of financing was led by Cyber Fund. MetaLeX is a hybrid law firm/technology company that focuses on solving the confusion caused by cryptocurrency projects when trying to "decentralize".
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