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- AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #37
🗓️ Week of: Sept 10-16, 2023
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(See "Funding Rounds" section for the complete list of deals)
$135M+ was raised across 30 funding rounds in Web3. This week was largely dominated by a flurry of Seed rounds, accounting for 60% of the deal flow—a noticeable increase after the summer's slump. This uptick makes sense, as many founders and investors likely timed their announcements to coincide with the Token2049 and Permissionless conferences, both of which occurred this week. It's noteworthy to observe that financial services (i.e., CeFi) and gaming attracted the most capital, while the infrastructure segment experienced its largest decline in funding since the beginning of 2023.
🏆 Largest Funding Round
➡️ Animoca Brands has raised $20M to advance its new project, Mocaverse. The funding round was led by CMCC Global and saw participation from Kingsway Capital, Liberty City Ventures, GameFi Ventures, Koda Capital, and other angel investors. The capital was raised via Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFEs) that will be automatically converted to ordinary shares after six months. Additionally, these agreements carry a free-attaching utility token warrant.
Mocaverse is a metaverse initiative by Animoca Brands that allows users to establish their own digital identity, build reputation, and earn and spend loyalty points. This platform is powered by Moca ID, a non-transferable NFT collection devised to help users sculpt their on-chain identities and engage in the Mocaverse ecosystem. This ecosystem will also integrate with Animoca Brand’s broader network. Furthermore, Mocaverse has stated its intention to adopt a DAO-based approach for platform governance and to encourage collaboration.
Why this matters?👉It's intriguing to observe Animoca raising funds once again, especially after amassing hundreds of millions in the last three years. I suppose that Mocaverse will operate as a distinct entity or business, justifying a separate cap table. However, this might also indicate a much-needed infusion of capital for one of the most prominent Web3 gaming and NFT enterprises in the sector. Both the gaming and NFT segments have witnessed a major drop in user growth over the recent year. Yet, if Mocaverse and its digital identities gain traction, it could potentially achieve significant scale, considering the millions of users already present in Animoca’s ecosystem.
😎 Noteworthy Company
➡️ Movement Labs is creating a modular framework to design and deploy Move-based infrastructure, applications, and blockchains in any distributed environment. This objective is realized through a suite of products and services, empowering non-Move protocols to harness the capabilities of the Move Programming Language.
Movement Labs recently developed the Movement Software Development Kit (SDK) to enhance Move’s interoperability across different blockchains. This SDK incorporates M1, a modular layer 1 that is both vertically composable and horizontally scalable. Notably, the framework is Solidity-compatible, consolidates EVM and Move liquidity, and provides developers the flexibility to design modular and interoperable app-chains. Additionally, the M1 protocol utilizes the Avalanche consensus mechanism, effectively sidestepping the cold-start challenge and rapidly establishing its ecosystem.
Move is a smart contract programming language originally conceptualized by Meta’s Diem project, formerly known as Libra. Distinctively, Move can define custom resource types and facilitate parallel transaction processing, which enhances throughput. Adaptations of this language have found homes in the Aptos and Sui blockchain networks.
Recently the company came out of stealth and announced it raised $3.4M in seed funding. The round was led by Varys Capital, dao5, Blizzard Fund, Borderless Capital with participation from Colony, Interop Ventures, Elixir Capital, and BENQI.
Why this matters?👉Move has been gaining popularity among Web3 developers. As of now, Aptos and Sui are the only Layer 1 networks to have adopted it. However, if Movement's SDK gains traction and enhances interoperability with EVM-based networks, we might see a broader adoption of Move. Moreover, Movement represents another project that embraces a modular blockchain approach—a growing trend evident among the next generation of Layer 1 networks.
👀 Observations, Trends & Themes
➡️ SEC Goes After NFT Creators
In another chapter of the ongoing saga between Gary Gensler and the crypto industry, the production company responsible for the Stoner Cats web series and NFT project faced an SEC enforcement action over an unregistered securities offering. While the company neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing, they agreed to pay a $1M fine, destroy all remaining NFTs in their possession, and set up a fund to reimburse those who invested in the NFTs.
Why this matters?👉This is the second NFT project to face an SEC enforcement action, signaling a potential trend as the SEC appears poised to target NFT projects offering unregistered securities, reminiscent of their actions post the ICO boom in 2018. While many of these cases involve the SEC targeting "low hanging" fruit, the NFT market, already experiencing a slump, may feel significant impact. If these enforcement actions continue, it raises questions about the stance of NFT marketplaces and other financial products tailored to the ecosystem. Certainly expect capital flow into NFT’s to continue to slow or perhaps go to companies outside of the US.
💸 Funding Rounds
Top 15 Rounds
Note1: Tassat raise was disclosed via Reg D filings on Sept 11 for which news of the deal was circulated this week although specific details on the deal have not be disclosed yet.
Want access to our complete dataset or propose an update? Contact: [email protected]
All Rounds
Seedify - Private Sale ($10M) | Incubator and launchpad for Web3 projects: https://seedify.fund/
Banna Gun - Private Sale ($1.2M) | Telegram ETH trading bot: https://bananagun.io/
GamePhilos - Seed ($8M) | Game studio and developer of massive multiplayer online (MMO) game Age of Dino: https://twitter.com/ageofdino
Okapi - Seed (Not Disclosed) | On-chain verified attestations and user validated reputations: https://www.okapi.xyz/
Salvo - Seed ($1.5M) | Web3 gaming platform and GameFi-as-a-service (GaaS) solution: https://salvo.cc/#/
Mountain Protocol - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Developer of USDM, a permissionless yield-bearing stablecoin: https://mountainprotocol.com/
Pahdo Labs - Series A ($15M) | Developer of Halcyon Zero, an anime inspired massive multiplayer online (MMO) role playing game (RPG) enabled by generative AI: https://www.pahdolabs.com/
Mocaverse (Animoca Brands) - Private Placement ($20M) | Animoca Brands membership NFT collection and metaverse platform: https://www.mocaverse.xyz/
0xPass - Seed ($1.8M) | Wallet connector for Web3 and Web2 login methods: https://0xpass.io/
Flashwire - Series A ($10M) | Digital bank supporting digital assets: https://www.flashwire.com/home
GRVT - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Hybrid exchange (HEX) for cryptocurrency derivatives enabled by zero-knowledge (zk) proof technology built on zkSync: https://grvt.io/
Tassat - Series A+ ($15.1M) | Developer of private permissioned blockchain-based solutions for commercial banking: https://tassat.com/
GasZero - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Gas-free Layer2 blockchain network enabled by zero-knowledge (zk) roll-up: https://gaszero.com/
Octav - Seed ($2.7M) | Free and editable data analytics platform that helps deciphering DeFi investment activity serving as a pre-tax facilitator: https://octav.fi/
Parrallax - Seed ($4.5M) | Global payments offering users FDIC-insured account in USD and enabled by blockchain technology: https://www.withparallax.com/
Range Protocol - Seed ($3.8M) | Automated liquidity management and DeFi asset management protocol: https://www.rangeprotocol.com/
Mythic Protocol - Seed ($6.5M) | Ecosystem of collaborative entertainment products that leverages blockchain technologies: https://www.mythicprotocol.com/
parfin Co - Private Placement (Not Disclosed) | Analytic software for digital assets and traditional investment products: https://www.pafin.com/
Portals - Seed+ ($500K) | Yield and protocol aggregator by bundling multiple DeFi actions into a single transaction: https://portals.fi/
Movement Labs - Seed ($3.4M) | SDK and modular framework to build and deploy Move-based infrastructure, applications, and blockchains in any distributed environment: https://movementlabs.xyz/
IMMIX - Seed ($2.7M) | Institutional grade trading and execution management systems (EMS) for digital assets: https://www.immix.xyz/
Club3 - Seed ($3M) | Web3 native community platform that helps brands build tokenized business strategies and communities: https://www.club3.xyz/
Layer N - Seed ($5M) | Hyperperformant rollup network designed to scale financial applications on Ethereum: https://www.layern.com/
Bianjie - Series A (Not Disclosed) | Developer of big data solutions enabled by blockchain technology and earlier contributors to the Cosmos network: https://www.bianjie.ai/zh-CN/
Fipto - Seed ($16M) | Global B2B payments and treasury management solution for fiat and digital assets: https://www.fipto.com/
Topic.Market - Strategic ($2M) | Social platform and marketplace to trade trending topics: https://www.topic.market/
Only Dust - Seed ($3M) | Social network for open-source contributors: https://www.onlydust.xyz/
ZORIX - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Licensed European crypto exchange: https://www.zorixchange.io/
Cultos - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Customer acquisition, engagement and retention management platform for Web3: https://www.cultos.io/
ProsperEx - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Universal decentralized exchange for crypto and real-world assets (RWA) designed to empower leveraged trading across all assets: https://www.prosperex.xyz/
New Funds
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🐕 About
AWeb3VC is a source for venture funding news, emerging startups and trends across Web3. I've been closely following cryptocurrencies and digital assets since 2013 and started working in space since 2018. Now I'm on a mission to build the most extensive venture ecosystem for BUIDLERS in Web3, starting first by tracking those BUIDLERS.