This week, there were a total of 42 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, and market sentiment has clearly improved | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

Organizer: Xiangxiang Xi, ChainCatcher

According to incomplete statistics from ChainCatcher, during the period from February 20 to February 26, 2023, there were a total of 42 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a cumulative financing amount of approximately $25.807 million. Both the number of financing events and the total amount have continued to rise, indicating a significant recovery in market sentiment.

From the distribution of sectors, infrastructure, gaming, and DeFi are the popular sectors this week. There were a total of 14 infrastructure projects, with a cumulative financing of approximately $9.07 million; 5 gaming projects, with a cumulative financing of approximately $4.79 million; and 6 DeFi projects, with a cumulative financing of approximately $3.63 million.

In terms of financing rounds and scales, early-stage projects accounted for the largest proportion, with 24 financing rounds ranging from $1 million to $10 million, and 15 financing rounds belonging to seed rounds. The three projects with the largest financing scales are Bitcoin mining consulting company Sabre56, group chat protocol and social application Towns, and privacy protocol Beldex.

(This week's projects with financing scales between $10 million and $200 million, data source: Rootdata)

1. Infrastructure

1. DID solution provider Lifeform completes Series A financing at a valuation of $100 million, led by Geek Cartel

Lifeform has completed Series A financing, valuing the company at $100 million for a 5% stake, led by GeekCartel, with participation from KuCoin Labs, DHVC, SevenX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, K24 Ventures, and the South Korean metaverse platform Another World. Previously, Lifeform's seed round was led by Binance Labs, and the prior seed round was exclusively invested by GeekCartel.

It is reported that Lifeform's UE5 version of the virtual human editor for PC was launched in November 2022, with a total minting of over 400,000 Lifeform Avatars and related clothing items. The Unity version for mobile was launched on February 17, 2023, and as of now, the total minting of Lifeform Cartoon Avatars has exceeded 800,000, with the official website achieving a daily PV of 20 million. According to official sources, the Avatar model will be integrated into the incubated blockchain game HALOWORLD in March. (Source link)

2. Privacy tech startup Beldex completes $25 million financing, with investment from DWF Labs

Privacy tech startup Beldex has completed $25 million in financing, with investment from digital asset market maker and investment firm DWF Labs, which will also establish a partnership. This funding will help drive the development of the Beldex ecosystem, while DWF will serve as an advisor and assist in marketing activities.

The Beldex ecosystem includes a private messaging application BChat, a decentralized virtual private network (VPN) BelNet, a Web3 browser Beldex, and a cross-chain privacy protocol Beldex that anonymizes cross-chain asset movements. (Source link)

3. Hardware wallet OneKey completes Series A+ financing at a valuation of $85 million, led by IOSG Ventures

Hardware wallet company OneKey announced the completion of Series A+ financing at a valuation of $85 million, led by IOSG Ventures.

According to rootdata data, OneKey completed approximately $20 million in Series A financing on September 28, 2022, led by Dragonfly and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Framework Ventures, Sky9 Capital, Folius Ventures, and others. (Source link)

4. Multi-signature wallet developer Den completes $2.8 million financing, led by IDEO CoLab Ventures

Multi-signature wallet developer Den has completed $2.8 million in financing, led by IDEO CoLab Ventures, with participation from Gnosis, Lemniscap, Spice Capital, and individual investors including former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. The funds will be used to continue developing multi-signature wallet products. (Source link)

5. Multi-chain wallet Blocto completes Series A financing at a valuation of $80 million, with participation from Mark Cuban and others

Multi-chain wallet Blocto has completed Series A financing at a valuation of $80 million, with investors including Mark Cuban, IPX, and 500 Global, although the financing amount has not been disclosed. Blocto currently supports Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Flow, BNB Chain, and Aptos.

According to crypto data platform RootData, Blocto has had past investors including Mark Cuban, Alameda Research, SevenX Ventures, Dapper Labs CEO Roham, Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma, SushiSwap CTO Joseph Delong, and Rally founder Kevin Chou. (Source link)

6. Crypto payment platform TipLink completes $6 million seed round financing, led by Sequoia Capital and Multicoin Capital

Crypto payment platform TipLink, based on the Solana blockchain, announced the completion of $6 million in seed round financing, led jointly by Sequoia Capital and Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Circle Ventures, Paxos, and other companies, including angel investors such as Vinny Lingham and Sarah Guo. TipLink plans to continue building link wallet features, improve its API, and expand its engineering and business development teams.

TipLink allows users to send cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and NFTs via links. The sender must connect to a Solana wallet and create a TipLink by depositing the tokens or NFTs they wish to send. They can then copy the TipLink URL or generate a QR code and send it to anyone. The recipient does not need to have a crypto wallet and can even log in via Gmail to receive tokens. With its newly launched API, TipLink allows developers and companies to store digital assets and create TipLinks for their users. (Source link)

7. Web3 observability platform Sentio completes $6.4 million seed round financing, led by Lightspeed

Web3 observability platform Sentio has completed $6.4 million in seed round financing at a valuation of $32 million, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Canonical Crypto, Essence VC, and GSR Ventures.

The company will use this funding to operate its established infrastructure and expand its team. Observability measures the current state of a system based on data generated by the system. In cryptocurrency, applications are built on top of smart contracts, and there is currently no unified process for executing this, meaning many either develop an internal solution to integrate decentralized third-party tools or operate without such monitoring.

Through Sentio's software development kit, users can collect metrics and event logs based on smart contract events, transactions, tracking, and status across blockchains, including Ethereum, Aptos, Polygon, and Avalanche. Sentio handles the indexing process for this information, but users can then build dashboards to visualize such data. This allows them to monitor potential violations or issues and receive alerts for certain activities on the blockchain. (Source link)

8. ZK startup Polyhedra Network completes $10 million financing, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital

According to The Block, ZK infrastructure startup Polyhedra Network has completed $10 million in financing, led by Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, with participation from Animoca Brands and Dao5.

It is reported that Polyhedra has developed various infrastructure products using zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology, including a ZK bridge (zkBridge) solution for sending assets between Web2 and Web3 systems, a ZK decentralized identity solution (zkDID), and scaling solutions. Polyhedra plans to integrate with more blockchains and make it easier for developers to access through API and SDK tools. (Source link)

9. Decentralized account management protocol Intu completes $2 million Pre-Seed financing, with participation from CoinFund and others

Web3 decentralized account management protocol Intu announced the completion of $2 million in Pre-Seed financing, with participation from CoinFund, Metaweb Ventures, Fantom Foundation, and others.

It is reported that Intu will release a beta version during ETHDenver (February 24). Intu aims to provide a crypto wallet solution, offering developers tools to create decentralized, recoverable, and autonomous Web3 accounts. (Source link)

10. Blockchain risk analysis company Chaos Labs completes $20 million seed round financing, led by PayPal Ventures and Galaxy Digital

According to Fortune, blockchain risk analysis company Chaos Labs announced the completion of $20 million in seed round financing, led by PayPal Ventures and Galaxy Digital, with participation from Coinbase, Uniswap, Lightspeed, Bessemer, and individuals such as Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant. The Chaos Labs team includes former members of the Israeli special forces.

It is reported that Chaos Labs is a cloud platform that enables teams to create high-fidelity agents and scenario-based simulations on mainnet forks, providing a realistic testing environment. By offering a rich library of customizable agents and scenarios, teams can rapidly accelerate development speed, shorten time to market, and help them remain competitive without compromising protocol security. (Source link)

11. Blockchain infrastructure provider Gateway.fm completes $4.6 million financing, led by Lemniscap

Blockchain infrastructure provider Gateway.fm has completed $4.6 million in financing led by Lemniscap. CMT Digital, the LAO DAO, Fantom Foundation, and Unstoppable Domain Ventures are among the investors participating in this financing. The funds raised will be used to accelerate product development as well as marketing and recruitment efforts.

It is reported that Gateway.fm is building a decentralized remote procedure call (RPC) solution. Gateway.fm offers three services: Gateway Grow, an institutional staking service; Gateway Access, its web3 RPC node infrastructure solution; and Gateway Jumpstart, which enables blockchains and protocols to accelerate their mainnet launches. (Source link)

2. Gaming

1. Web3 game Worldwide Webb completes $10 million Series A financing, with Pantera Capital as the sole investor

Web3 game Worldwide Webb has completed $10 million in Series A financing, with Pantera Capital as its sole investor. The funds will be used not only to enhance the influence of Worldwide Webb but also to expand its team and integrate other chains beyond Ethereum.

Thomas Webb, founder and CEO of Worldwide Webb, stated that they began fundraising in the second quarter of last year and completed the deal by the end of December. In the coming weeks, Worldwide Webb will also release a game called Blockbusterz, where NFT holders such as CryptoPunks, BAYC, or Doodles can compete against each other in battle tournaments. (Source link)

2. Web3 incubator and market maker iBLOXX completes $5 million financing, led by PrimeXM

Web3 incubator and market maker iBLOXX announced the completion of $5 million in financing, led by PrimeXM. This funding will be used to expand the company's game development department, iBLOXX Studios, which now has a post-investment valuation of $30 million.

iBLOXX's gaming division, BLOXX Studios, focuses on building blockchain games using Unreal Engine and Unity, developing GameFi economic health and monitoring solutions, and creating blockchain applications related to trading. (Source link)

3. Web3 game studio Kratos completes $20 million seed round financing, led by Accel

Indian Web3 game studio Kratos has completed $20 million in seed round financing at a valuation of $150 million, led by Accel, with participation from Prosus Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Nazara Technologies. Additionally, they acquired a sub-DAO of Yield Guild Games (YGG) called IndiGG through a token swap, meaning existing INDI token holders will be swapped for new Kratos tokens, which will be launched within 12 months.

It is reported that Kratos was established in September last year, and its business model brings game developers and players onto its platform to earn revenue from both sides. As part of the acquisition of IndiGG, Kratos will continue to build the IndiGG brand as a gaming DAO. (The Block)

4. Blockchain game company Azra Games completes $10 million financing, led by a16z

According to Fortune, blockchain game company Azra Games has completed an additional $10 million in seed round funding, led by a16z (through its $600 million gaming fund), with participation from NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, and Franklin Templeton. Azra plans to release the first installment of its game Legions & Legends later this year.

According to crypto data platform RootData, Azra Games completed $15 million in seed round financing last May, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z, through its $600 million gaming fund), with participation from NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, and Franklin Templeton. Azra Games will use the funds to develop its first combat role-playing game, Project Arcanas.

Azra Games was co-founded by entrepreneur Sonny Mayugba (serving as COO) and Travis Boudreaux, along with veteran game designer Mark Otero (serving as CEO), who is a developer of the game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. (Source link)

5. Blockchain game developer Curio completes $2.9 million seed round financing, led by Bain Capital Crypto

Blockchain game developer Curio announced the completion of $2.9 million in seed round financing, led by Bain Capital Crypto, with participation from TCG Crypto, Formless Capital, Smrti Lab, Robot Ventures, and several angel investors. The funds will primarily be used to expand the team, focusing on hiring blockchain engineers, microeconomists, game designers, and customer engineers.

Curio will also seek to hire an art director and a community manager. Curio was founded in 2022 by engineers and gamers Kevin Zhang and Yijia Chen, and its on-chain games are entirely driven by smart contracts. This enables a new way of multiplayer computation, allowing all participants to contribute to a "shared universe," which the founders say allows the game to be almost entirely created by players. The company's first game, Treaty, is an on-chain strategy game where users can write and deploy smart contracts. (Source link)

6. RPG game Chainmonsters completes $1.5 million financing and has launched on Immutable X

RPG game Chainmonsters has completed $1.5 million in financing, with specific financing details not disclosed. The funds raised will be used to launch on the Ethereum NFT layer 2 scaling solution Immutable X. Chainmonsters plans to officially launch on the Epic Games Store on March 6. (Source link)

3. DeFi

1. Aptos ecosystem derivatives protocol Tsunami.Finance raises $1.3 million in Pre-seed financing, led by BigBrainVC

Aptos ecosystem derivatives protocol Tsunami.Finance announced it has raised $1.3 million in Pre-seed financing, led by BigBrainVC, with participation from ZetaMarkets, HedgeLabs, Pontem, Brilliance Ventures, BuilderVC, Marin Digital Ventures, 0xSoju, Switchboardxyz, Coral DeFi, RandRCapital, Aptos Monkeys, and Time Research.

It is reported that Tsunami Finance allows for 0% slippage trading of spot and perpetual contracts. Users can use leverage of up to 30 times. (Source link)

2. DeFi startup Huma Finance completes $8.3 million seed round financing, led by Race Capital and Distributed Global

DeFi startup Huma Finance has completed $8.3 million in seed round financing, led by Race Capital and Distributed Global, with participation from ParaFi, Circle Ventures, Robot Ventures, and others.

It is reported that Huma aims to build an income-backed lending protocol. This protocol allows borrowing based on cash flow rather than tokens, using receivables such as payroll or invoices for borrowing. Huma's first product is an on-chain factoring marketplace that enables individuals or businesses to pledge their future income instead of existing token assets for loans. Its initial partners include stablecoin issuer Circle, blockchain payment network Request Network, and Superfluid. (Source link)

3. DeFi yield protocol Affine completes $5.1 million financing, led by Jump Crypto and Hack VC

DeFi yield protocol Affine Protocol has completed $5.1 million in financing, led by Jump Crypto and Hack VC, with participation from Circle Ventures and Coinbase Ventures.

It is reported that Affine aims to address the issue of impermanent loss in liquidity provision, with its flagship basket of dollar yields providing automated diversification and yield through liquidity management strategies. (Source link)

4. Multi-chain options protocol Optix completes $1.8 million financing, led by Skynet Trading

Multi-chain options protocol Optix announced the completion of $1.8 million in financing, led by Skynet Trading, with participation from Ascensive Assets, Arrington Capital, LVT Capital, Morningstar Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Huobi Global, and Phemex.

It is reported that the Optix protocol has been launched on multiple chains, featuring token options, permissionless structured products, DeFi, and block trading. Its native token OPTIX will be launched in Q2 2023. (Source link)

4. Social Entertainment

1. Web3 social protocol Towns completes $25.5 million financing, led by a16z

Web3 social protocol Towns has completed $25.5 million in financing, led by a16z, with participation from Benchmark and Framework Ventures.

It is reported that Towns is a group chat protocol and application designed to create a better "home" for online communities and enable free communication using end-to-end encryption. The project's vision is to create a digital town square where members can define boundaries, set rules, and build the world they want. (Source link)

5. Tools

1. Web3 CRM tool developer 3RM completes $3.5 million financing, led by Distributed Global

Web3 CRM tool developer 3RM has completed $3.5 million in financing, led by Distributed Global, with participation from Shima Global, Big Brain Holdings, Metareal, and 3SE Holdings. The new financing will be used to build tools to help Web3 projects better manage their relationships with customers.

It is reported that 3RM currently has over 1,200 organizations signed up to use the company's CRM tools, including Magic Eden, Fuel Labs, and Lens Protocol. (Source link)

6. NFT

1. NFT trading platform NeoSwap AI completes $2 million financing, led by DACM and AngelHub

NFT trading platform NeoSwap AI has completed $2 million in Pre-seed financing, valuing the company at $15 million, led by DACM and AngelHub, with follow-on investments from Gossamer Capital, Cavalry Asset Management, Stacks Ventures, Dhuna Ventures, and several angel investors.
NeoSwap helps people trade digital assets (such as NFTs) without needing to know in advance what trades they are looking for and requiring very little liquidity. It combines bidding information and AI predictions to find mutually beneficial multi-directional trades for each participant. The platform currently supports Stacks, Solana, and Polygon. (Source link)

2. NFT project Awaken completes $500,000 seed round financing, led by Hong Kong Web3 incubator TopoStation and several well-known investors

NFT project Awaken has completed $500,000 in seed round financing, led by Hong Kong Web3 incubator TopoStation and several well-known investors.

It is reported that Awaken is a story-driven NFT project led by several Japanese artists, aiming to create content to attract more Web2 artists to join Web3. (Source link)

3. NFT lending platform PaprMeme completes $3 million financing, with investment from Coinbase Ventures

NFT lending platform PaprMeme has announced the completion of $3 million in financing from Coinbase Ventures, developed by four former Coinbase employees.

It is reported that the platform does not provide direct peer-to-peer lending but employs a novel mechanism based on native tokens.

7. DAO

1. Web3 player co-creation game startup Strider raises $5.5 million, led by Makers Fund and Fabric Ventures

Web3 player co-creation game startup Strider has completed $5.5 million in financing, led by Makers Fund and Fabric Ventures, with participation from Shima Capital, Sfermion, Magic Eden, and several funds. To date, the company's total financing has reached $8.5 million.

Andrew N. Green, co-founder of Strider, was a well-known partner at venture capital firm a16z. They initially aimed to build a DAO governed by token holders for a story-driven gaming community, but later began to return to the essence of gaming. It is reported that they have established some early crypto infrastructure to support content ownership and cryptocurrency rewards. (Source link)

8. Others

1. Bitcoin mining consulting company Sabre56 completes $35 million financing

Bitcoin mining consulting company Sabre56 has completed $35 million in financing, with specific investors not disclosed. The funds will be used to build its hosting sites, aiming to prepare 150 megawatts (MW) of energy capacity by the end of this year. Sabre56 CEO Phil Harvey stated that the first four sites, totaling 115 MW, are online, located in Wyoming and Texas, and this capacity will be built in increments of 7MW-15MW per month, with the first batch going live in mid-March. (Source link)

2. Web3 security firm KEKKAI completes Pre-seed financing, with investment from Japanese VC Skyland Ventures

Web3 security firm KEKKAI has recently completed Pre-seed financing. The financing amount is 50 million yen, with investment from Japanese VC Skyland Ventures.

It is reported that KEKKAI is a Japanese startup aiming to enhance the security of cryptocurrency transactions while helping users reduce asset risks. The company's founder, Duma, stated that although KEKKAI was officially established in early 2023, the project has been internally initiated since 2022. In December 2022, KEKKAI's product was officially launched. (Source link)