According to incomplete statistics from Crypto DAO, there were approximately 15 investment and financing events in the global crypto industry last week (10.2-10.8), with a total financing amount exceeding US$170 million. Compared with the previous week, the financing projects disclosed by the decentralized finance track showed significantly increasing. Through combing and screening, CryptoDAO selected 10 representative financing projects from the numerous financing information last week and compiled them into a table as follows:
In addition, Crypto DAO summarized the financing trends of last week, with the following specific analysis:
The number of financing announcements in the Infrastructure & Tools track has decreased compared to the previous week. Among them, privacy infrastructure provider Fairblock completed a $2.5 million financing, and Burnt, a project incubated by Injective Labs, completed a new round of financing.
The popularity of DeFi has increased significantly compared to before, and the types include on-chain credit risk management, on-chain asset management, liquidity pledge, and DEX and DeFi derivative lending, etc. Among them, the liquidity pledge platform Accumulated Finance V2 is worth noting, which is scheduled to be launched early next year.
The number of disclosed financings in the blockchain game track has declined. Last week, the project that announced the completion of financing was the GameFi platform NexGami, which completed a $2 million seed round of financing and a post-investment valuation of $20 million.
NFT and Metaverse related projects have also been favored by institutions, including decentralized social protocols, Metaverse infrastructure developers, and AI digital identity providers. Among them, Hadean announced the completion of a new round of financing with the participation of Yuga Labs.
In addition to the above-mentioned financing projects, other projects that have completed financing include the blockchain + catering concept project Blackbird led by a16z Crypto, the RWA concept project DigiShares, and the blockchain product development company Trinetix.
For more investment and financing details, please see below:
1. Infrastructure & Tools
Project name: Fairblock
Official website: https://www.fairblock.network/
Attention: High
On October 6, privacy infrastructure provider Fairblock completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing, led by Galileo, with participation from Lemniscap, Dilectic, Robot Ventures, GSR, Chorus One, Dorahacks and Reverie. It is understood that Fairblock is built using the Cosmos SDK, but is not limited to the Cosmos ecosystem. Fairblock aims to make conditional decryption and pre-execution privacy a reality. Conditional decryption refers to allowing users to set conditions that enable the protocol to execute transactions without leaking any on-chain information before execution. Unlike zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, Fairblock is designed so that information is only encrypted or decrypted under certain conditions.
Project name: Burnt
Official website: https://burnt.com/
Attention: High
On October 6, the crypto startup Burnt announced that it had received a strategic investment from Circle Ventures, with an undisclosed amount, and launched the XION public testnet. XION uses USDC as the main trading currency, allowing any application built on XION to denominate assets in USDC. Fees generated from USDC will be collected and exchanged for native tokens and distributed to validators. It is understood that Burnt was incubated by Injective Labs and raised $3 million in May 2021 for its decentralized auction protocol Burnt Finance built on Solana, led by Multicoin and Alameda Research. In March of this year, Burnt Finance was renamed Burnt and committed to the development of XION.
2. DeFi/Staking
Project name: Cicada Partners
Official website: https://www.cicada.partners/
Attention: Medium
On October 5, on-chain credit risk management company Cicada Partners announced the completion of a $9.7 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Choppa Capital and participated by Bitscale, Bodhi Ventures, and Shiliang Tang. The funds raised will be used to provide seed funding for multiple new non-custodial lending pools and conduct research and development on new blockchain lending application cases.
Project Name: L1 Advisors
Official website: https://l1advisors.com/
Attention: Medium
On October 5, L1 Advisors, an on-chain wealth and asset management protocol, announced the completion of a $1.6 million pre-seed round of financing, with VanEck leading the investment with $1 million, and Ironclad Financial, Ismail Jai Hokimi, Ram Ahluwalia and others participating. The funds will be used to build an operating system for on-chain wealth and asset management. It is understood that L1 Advisors aims to enable financial professionals and their clients to manage, grow and protect their assets using decentralized infrastructure, such as protocols and wallets.
Project Name: Convergence RFQ
Official website: https://www.convergence.so/
Attention: Medium
On October 5, Solana ecosystem DEX Convergence RFQ completed a $2.5 million pre-seed round of financing with a valuation of $30 million, led by C² Ventures, and participated by Big Brain Holdings, Israel Blockchain Association, Auros Global, etc. It is understood that Convergence RFQ will support spot and derivatives trading. The platform is expected to be launched early next month and hopes to expand to Arbitrum.
Project name: Ostium Lab
Official website: https://www.ostium.io/
Attention: Medium
On October 6, cryptocurrency startup Ostium Labs completed a $3.5 million financing round, with participation from General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, SIG and Balaji Srinivasan. The funds will be used to develop digital commodity perpetual contract protocols. It is understood that Ostium Labs aims to attract traditional commodity traders and crypto-native traders by providing transparent and flexible trading alternatives, including oil, Bitcoin, foreign exchange trading pairs and other assets.
Project Name: Accumulated Finance
Official website: https://accumulated.finance/
Attention: Medium
On October 2, the liquidity staking platform Accumulated Finance V2 has completed a private round of financing, with De Facto Capital, Curve Finance and Stake DAO participating in the investment. The amount of financing has not yet been disclosed. It is understood that Accumulated Finance V2 provides incentive liquidity staking and DeFi pools for mid- and low-market capitalization equity proof protocols, which will be managed by ACFI tokens and is expected to be launched in early 2024.
Project Name: ParaFinance
Official website: https://www.parafinance.network/
Attention: Medium
On October 4, ParaFinance, a DeFi derivatives lending platform built on Arbitrum, announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Kosmos Ventures, Uniswap Labs, and Gate Labs. ParaFinance mainly provides users with efficient and cost-effective lending solutions.
3. Blockchain Games
Project name: NexGami
Official website: https://www.nexgami.com/
Attention: Medium
On October 3, GameFi platform NexGami announced that it had completed a $2 million seed round of financing with a post-investment valuation of $20 million, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs and Ledger Capital. It is understood that NexGami is committed to providing seamless integration solutions for gaming products and enhancing the gaming experience of users within the Polygon network, and is committed to cultivating a prosperous ecosystem within the e-sports industry.
4. NFT & Web3 Creation & Metaverse
Project name: Hadean
Official website: https://hadean.com/
Attention: High
On October 9, Hadean, a developer of Metaverse infrastructure, announced the completion of a new round of financing with the participation of Yuga Labs, but the amount of financing has not been disclosed yet. Yuga Labs said that Hadean provided key technologies for Yuga's platform, optimized for high-fidelity virtual experiences, and brought together creators and players on a large scale. It is understood that Hadean completed a $5 million financing in March this year.
Project name: Phaver
Official website: https://www.phaver.com/
Attention: High
On October 5, Web3 social protocol Phaver announced the completion of a $7 million financing round, with participation from Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, 33DAO, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, f.actor and Superhero Capital. It is understood that Phaver aims to help users join Web3 social platforms more easily and provide a Web3 entry experience similar to existing social platforms.
Project Name: Prins AI
Official website: https://prins.ai/
Attention: Medium
On October 2, AI digital identity provider Prins AI completed a $100 million Series B financing, led by AAB VC. The new funds will strengthen Prins AI's financial situation and support its subsequent research and development work. The Prins AI platform uses blockchain technology and smart contracts to record AI digital human training and application behaviors, and uses a cryptocurrency reward mechanism to allow users to participate in the AI digital human training program. It is understood that AI digital identity provider Prins AI completed a $22 million Series A+ financing in August.
V. Others
Project name: Blackbird
Official website: https://www.blackbird.xyz/
Attention: High
On October 4, the blockchain + catering concept project Blackbird announced the completion of a $24 million Series A financing round, led by a16z Crypto, with participation from Amex Ventures and QED Investors. It is understood that Blackbird aims to provide restaurants with loyalty and connection tools so that every guest can have a dining experience like a regular customer. Every time you dine out, click Blackbird to get access, rewards, benefits and FLY loyalty points. Blackbird announced the completion of a $11 million seed round of financing in October last year, which was jointly led by Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital and Multicoin Capital, and participated by Variant, Circle Ventures and IAC.
Project Name: DigiShares
Official website: https://digishares.io/
Attention: Medium
On October 3, DigiShares, a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform, announced the completion of a $2 million financing, with no specific information on investors disclosed. DigiShares is raising an additional $1.2 million through the crowdfunding platform Republic. It is understood that DigiShares will use the new funds to develop a new and unique blockchain-based real estate platform.
