Last week, there were a total of 13 public financing events in the cryptocurrency market, and the financing atmosphere remains sluggish | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

整理：饼干，RootData

According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from August 28 to September 3, 2023, there were a total of 13 publicly announced financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a total financing amount of approximately $121.45 million, and the financing atmosphere remains sluggish.

From the perspective of track distribution, the popular tracks that received financing are NFT and social, completing 3 and 4 financing rounds respectively. Among them, BuidlerDAO completed a $2 million angel round financing, led by Sequoia China Seed Fund and SevenX Ventures.

In addition, there were a total of 73 investment projects publicly disclosed by crypto VCs in August, a decrease of 6% month-on-month (78 projects in July 2023) and a decrease of 45% year-on-year (132 projects in August 2022).

*（Monthly financing trend, data source: * Rootdata）

I. Infrastructure

1. zk technology integration solution IronMill completes $2.6 million Pre-Seed round financing, led by gumi Cryptos Capital
IronMill, a zero-knowledge proof technology integration solution based in California, USA, announced the completion of $2.6 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by gumi Cryptos Capital, with participation from Blockchain Builders Fund, Superscrypt, LongHash, Kestrel 0x1, and SevenX.

It is reported that IronMill focuses on providing customized integration solutions, tools, and processes for software developers, enabling them to seamlessly integrate zero-knowledge (ZK) technology into applications. The new funds will be used to support IronMill in accelerating the development and experimentation of zero-knowledge applications and creating an infrastructure suite for verifiable internet concepts. (Source link)

II. DeFi

1. Stroom Network, a liquidity staking project on the Lightning Network, completes $3.5 million seed round financing, led by Greenfield
Stroom Network, a liquidity staking project on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, has completed $3.5 million in seed round financing. This round was led by Berlin-based crypto investment firm Greenfield, with strategic support from Ankr's venture capital arm Mission Street, and participation from Lemniscap, No Limit Holdings, Cogitent Ventures, and several other venture capital firms and angel investors.

It is reported that Stroom Network adopts a liquidity staking mechanism to provide users with services to use Bitcoin simultaneously on the Lightning Network and Ethereum. The funds will be used to further expand the team and launch Liquid Staking tokens on the Ethereum mainnet.

Additionally, the Stroom Network team believes that introducing liquidity staking for Bitcoin will help address the liquidity challenges faced by the Lightning Network. (Source link)

2. Coral Finance, a derivatives trading platform, completes a new round of financing with Momentum Capital participating
Decentralized premium derivatives trading platform Coral Finance announced the completion of a new round of $500,000 financing, with North American investment firm Momentum Capital participating. This financing will be used for product iteration upgrades, overseas market expansion, and community building.

It is reported that this is the second investment Coral Finance has received within a month, following the announcement of investment from Hong Kong digital asset trading platform BiFinance. (Source link)

3. On-chain derivatives protocol ProsperEx completes a new round of strategic financing with EMURGO Ventures participating
On-chain derivatives protocol ProsperEx has completed a new round of strategic financing, with EMURGO Ventures, the venture capital arm of Cardano (ADA) developer Emurgo, participating, although the specific amount has not been disclosed.

It is reported that ProsperEx is an innovative on-chain derivatives protocol that supports major derivatives plays such as spot trading, on-chain perpetual contracts, and on-chain options. Additionally, the protocol will further explore and lay out in the RWA (Real World Asset Tokenization) field to promote the deep integration of the Web2 and Web3 worlds. (Source link)

III. Metaverse NFT

1. Metaverse construction project STELSI completes $100 million strategic financing, led by NGC Ventures
Metaverse construction project STELSI announced the completion of $100 million in strategic financing, led by NGC Ventures. It is reported that STELSI is a Web3 lifestyle platform built on blockchain technology, aiming to revolutionize the construction and real estate industry. Currently, STELSI's partners include Korbit, Lambda256, Weple, enzyme, Betwin Space, and the Korean Institute of Architects. (Source link)

2. Decentralized GPU resource network GPU.Net completes $500,000 financing, with Momentum 6 and Alphablockz participating
Decentralized GPU resource network GPU.Net has completed $500,000 in financing, with Momentum 6 and Alphablockz participating. Additionally, the company has received support from Nvidia and Taanga Studios and is expected to launch the GPU.Net testnet next month.

It is reported that GPU.Net aims to meet the computing power needs of new technologies such as generative AI, Web3 metaverse, cryptocurrency mining, and high-end graphics rendering by providing decentralized GPU infrastructure. (Source link)

3. Education technology startup Kinjo, based on the metaverse platform Roblox, completes $6.5 million seed round financing
Education technology startup Kinjo, based on the metaverse platform Roblox, has completed $6.5 million in seed round financing, led by LiveOak Venture Partners, with participation from Silverton Partners, Breyer Capital, and Roble Capital.

Kinjo allows children to earn virtual currency called Robux through play, learning, and gaming by connecting to the metaverse platform Roblox, and scores them based on learning outcomes. The company also plans to expand its educational value scoring system to Fortnite and Minecraft. (Source link)

4. NFT marketplace platform FirstMate completes $3.75 million financing, led by Dragonfly Capital
FirstMate, a startup providing digital storefronts for NFT creators, has completed $3.75 million in financing, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and NextView.

FirstMate also released a beta version of its marketplace website building tool and established a partnership with another startup in the NFT space, Manifold. FirstMate focuses on creators rather than the marketplace, allowing artists to consolidate all their works on one platform, regardless of where they were created, and giving them full control over royalties.

FirstMate was founded in 2022 by former employees of Instagram and Walmart and has launched marketplace platforms for companies such as Bankless, Gmoney's 9dcc, FELT Zine, and Sound.xyz. Its marketplace currently supports over a thousand collections, covering everything from generative art to luxury fashion. (Source link)

IV. Social

1. BuidlerDAO completes $2 million angel round financing, led by Sequoia China Seed Fund and SevenX Ventures
Web3 talent and project network BuidlerDAO announced the completion of $2 million in angel round financing, led by Sequoia China Seed Fund and SevenX Ventures, with participation from Bing Ventures, M77 Ventures, DRK Lab, Gate Labs, MirrorWorld, Conflux, Nicholas Hu (PlanckerDAO), Xiao Zhang (zCloak Network Founder), Paka, Vitalbridge, Inverse Ventures, Doc Labs, and others.

BuidlerDAO officially stated that it was established in June 2022, with a seed round investment of $500,000 from Panda Capital, and is also a project of Sequoia China's startup accelerator YUÈ01. According to the crypto data platform RootData, BuidlerDAO is a crypto community that brings together engineers, researchers, and operators to produce high-quality content and develop Dapps, aiming to build a leading network of influence and productivity for Web3 builders and project accelerators. (Source link)

2. Social network and content monetization platform Lyvely completes seed round financing, led by Cypher Capital
UAE-based social network and content monetization platform Lyvely has completed seed round financing, led by Cypher Capital. Lyvely will develop a token that is seamlessly integrated into the platform, allowing anyone to profit from online content or services. (Source link)

3. Web3 social recommendation protocol Tako Protocol completes $2 million Pre-seed financing, with participation from DWF Ventures and others
Web3 social recommendation protocol Tako Protocol has completed $2 million in Pre-seed financing, with participation from Uask Network, DWF Ventures, UOB Venture, Signum Capital, AC capital, SmrtiLab, HashBrown Research, RSS3, and several angel investors.

Currently, Tako Protocol has established ecological strategic cooperation with mainstream Web3 social networks such as Lens and Farcaster, and will successively open product testing based on various social networks in September.

Tako Protocol aims to build an open social recommendation infrastructure protocol for Web3 social networks, allowing developers to use Tako to build cross-platform recommendation algorithms, advertising, curation, and sharing economy dApps, enabling users to create, share, and interact with value better in decentralized social networks. (Source link)

V. Others

1. Web3 marketing company DeForm completes $4.6 million seed round financing, led by Kindred Ventures
Web3 marketing company DeForm announced the completion of $4.6 million in seed round financing, led by Kindred Ventures, with participation from Elad Gil, Scalar Capital, A.Capital, Alchemy Ventures, Naval Ravikant, Sota Watanabe, Sep Kamvar, Scott Belsky, and Marc Bhargava. The new funds will be used to expand the team and develop solutions for cross-chain verification of consumer transaction histories.

It is reported that DeForm's parent company is Contribution Labs, which aims to provide blockchain-based tools for marketers and tailor marketing plans for Web3 users. (Source link)

2. Satoshi Network completes $2 million angel round financing
Satoshi Network announced the completion of $2 million in angel round financing, which will primarily be used to support the early Satoshi Network bond sUSD destruction plan. The destruction will take place on September 1, 2023, with the destruction record hash as follows: 0x7f520487d65ac08db1c272394f1ec281347b91371d31c93c650eb2ee4ca31f79

It is reported that Satoshi Network is launched and governed by BitDAO, aiming to build a globally distributed commercial consumption system based on the smallest unit of Bitcoin, "Satoshi."