A&T Family: Why do we invest in Hooked Protocol?
The application layer or the main theme of the next cycle will be customer acquisition, which will be a crucial part.Author: A&T Capital
01 Financing Information
Web3 social network Hooked Protocol has completed its seed round financing, with investors including Binance Labs, Sequoia Seed Fund, and A&T Capital. The amount raised has not been disclosed.
It is reported that Hooked Protocol aims to establish a community-driven social network with token economics design, allowing users to gain a gamified experience. The team is currently integrating wallets and DID. Hooked Protocol will initially launch on the BNB Chain and will expand to other Layer 1 blockchains in the future.
02 Why We Invest in Hooked Protocol?
1 ► Investment Logic
- The application layer may be the main theme of the next cycle, and customer acquisition will be a crucial part
Application layer trend: Looking back over the past year and a half, although it has not been able to establish a long-term foothold, applications like Axie and Stepn have had a strong out-of-circle effect in a short period; if we look to the next crypto cycle, combined with the infrastructure that has attracted a massive amount of capital & is becoming increasingly refined, we can expect to see more applications adopted by mainstream audiences in the next cycle.
Customer acquisition is key: In a market filled with new application products built on this new underlying blockchain, how to acquire customers is a problem that every application must consider & solve.
- The Hooked team has excellent capabilities, and there is a gap in customer acquisition within the Binance ecosystem, making the probability of successful cooperation high
Hooked team: The core team has rich experience in 2C market promotion, and their strong product capabilities will enhance the quality of Hooked;
Binance ecosystem gap: Currently, within the Binance ecosystem, whether on Binance Exchange or the BSC chain ecosystem, there are no established Learn & Earn products, which are essential during the application cycle and are likely to be a win-win for both Binance and Hooked.
2 ► Industry Status
- There are more and more attempts at the application layer & product capabilities are increasing
Compared to the cycle in 2017, the proportion of application projects in this cycle that started in 2020 has significantly increased, with many out-of-circle cases such as NBA Top Shot, Axie, Stepn, and Yuga Labs.
In comparison to CryptoKitties, Axie and Stepn show significant innovation in their models, and the completeness & usability of their products have greatly improved.
3 ► Business Overview
- Development Stages:
Stage One: Single Product Platform: The goal of Hooked's first stage is to establish a crowdsourced application with built-in incentive mechanisms, guiding users from outside the circle into Web3 through the combination of gamified entertainment applications and incentives;
Learn & Earn task case: Integrating key cryptocurrency concepts such as staking & claiming, NFT minting into casual games, where users complete game content while answering questions to earn rewards daily;
Stage Two: X-to-Earn Aggregator: As more users participate and receive education on the Hooked platform, other types of x-to-earn will also be willing to collaborate with Hooked, further expanding Hooked's user base. Ultimately, the platform will be able to direct these users to other Web3 projects, including exchanges, Gamefi, NFTs, DAOs, etc.
4 ► Comparable Companies and Valuation
About A&T Capital
A&T Capital is a venture capital fund focused on emerging disruptive technologies. The fund specializes in supporting early to growth-stage startups. Backed by five fintech Decacorns (companies valued over $10 billion), early supporters of distributed ledger technology, and a team of experienced product leaders, A&T Capital has a unique advantage in driving the large-scale implementation of the next generation of decentralized digital era startups.
