Last week, the cryptocurrency market saw a total of 32 public financing events, with the amount of financing reaching a new high in nearly 8 months | Investment and Financing Weekly Report

Organizer: Biscuit, RootData

According to incomplete statistics from RootData, during the period from November 13 to November 19, 2023, there were a total of 32 public financing events in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, with a total financing amount of approximately $382.05 million. The number of financing events reached a new high in nearly 8 months, previously RootData recorded 42 financing events in the week of February 20 to 26.

From the perspective of sector distribution, the projects that received financing are mainly distributed in the infrastructure, CeFi, and DeFi sectors. Notable projects include the zkEVM development platform Kakarot completing its second round of financing, the cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com completing $110 million in strategic Series E financing, and the new company of Compound founder SuperState completing $14 million in financing. Additionally, the Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards completed $7.5 million in financing, led by Standard Crypto.

Furthermore, venture capital firm Menlo Ventures announced the completion of $1.35 billion in fundraising, primarily to invest in the next generation of artificial intelligence startups. Menlo Ventures Consumer and Gaming Partner Amy Wu (former head of FTX Ventures) stated that the funds will support founders in the consumer, gaming, and blockchain sectors.

*（Projects with financing greater than $5 million last week, source: * Rootdata）

I. Infrastructure

1. zkEVM Development Platform Kakarot Completes Second Round of Financing
The zkEVM development platform Kakarot has completed its second round of financing, led by Stake Capital and LongHash, with participation from Eterna Capital, Fenbushi Capital, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, SevenX Ventures, Builder Capital, Bixin Ventures, UOB Venture, NxGen, CMS Holdings, Aglaé Ventures, Signum Capital, Moonrock Capital, and others.

Previously, Kakarot completed its Pre-Seed round of financing on June 2, 2023, with participation from StarkWare, LambdaClass, and angel investors Vitalik, Nicolas Bacca, Rand Hindi, and others.

Kakarot zkEVM is an EVM implemented in Cairo, utilizing STARK proofs to verify transactions and blocks, ensuring transparency and security. It is reported that the development of Kakarot zkEVM is divided into three phases: 1. Existing as an EVM on Starknet L2; 2. Collaborating with Starknet sequencer Madara to create the third layer zkEVM; 3. Enabling Type 1 zkEVM through the combination of Kakarot and Madara. (Source link)

2. Decentralized Data Composability Protocol Glacier Network Completes $2.9 Million Seed Round Financing, with Participation from Foresight X
The decentralized data composability protocol Glacier Network has completed $2.9 million in seed round financing, with participation from Foresight X, UOB Venture Management, Signum Capital, Cogitent Ventures, and Gate Labs. Glacier has received multiple grants from Arweave ecosystem PermaDao, Stanford Boundless Hackathon, Aptos Grant Dao, and Foresight X Accelerator.

It is reported that Glacier aims to build a composable, modular, and scalable Layer2 data-driven network for large-scale decentralized applications and promote decentralized applications (Dapps) to create trustless data primitive use cases based on decentralized databases (DDB). Combining with L2 Rollup solutions, Glacier has built a programmable and composable multi-chain data network, allowing developers to manage data using NoSQL GlacierDB in Arweave, Filecoin, and BNB Greenfield. (Source link)

3. Blockchain Startup Kinto Completes $5 Million Financing, Plans to Launch AML-Compliant Layer2 Network
According to CoinDesk, blockchain startup Kinto announced it has completed $5 million in financing this year to develop an Ethereum Layer2 network compliant with anti-money laundering laws, aiming to connect financial institutions and real-world assets through DeFi.

According to RootData, Kinto received $1.5 million in Pre-Seed financing from Kyber Capital Crypto earlier this year. Recently, Kinto completed an additional $3.5 million financing, led by Kyber Capital Crypto, Spartan Group, and Parafi, with participation from SkyBridge Capital, Kraynos, Soft Holdings, Deep Ventures, Modular, Tane, and Robot Ventures. (Source link)

4. Web3 API Platform Uniblock Completes $2.3 Million Financing, with Participation from Outsider Ventures
Web3 API platform Uniblock announced it has completed $2.3 million in financing, with investors including Cadenza, Blockchain Founders Fund, Side Door Ventures, AQN, Serafund, and Outsider Ventures.

According to RootData, Uniblock aims to connect blockchain tools such as Alchemy, thirdweb, Moralis, Parsiq, Covalent, and QuickNode into an easy-to-use platform. Uniblock will integrate hundreds of Web3 connections and endpoints into one tool.

5. Decentralized Privacy Protocol Hinkal Completes $4.1 Million Financing, Led by Draper Associates
The decentralized privacy protocol Hinkal announced it has completed $4.1 million in financing, led by Draper Associates, with participation from Psalion, NGC Ventures, Aquanow, No Limit Holdings, Orange DAO, Draper Dragon, and Web3.com Ventures.

It is reported that Hinkal is a ZK-based solution that provides a privacy smart contract wallet experience, allowing users to participate in their favorite dApps directly from their privacy addresses without extracting assets for obfuscation. The protocol uses stealth addresses, shielded pools, and DID to achieve minimal privacy costs and high compliance levels for mature DeFi traders. (Source link)

II. CeFi

1. Cryptocurrency Exchange Blockchain.com Completes $110 Million Series E Strategic Financing, Led by Kingsway Capital
Cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com has completed $110 million in Series E strategic financing, led by UK investment firm Kingsway Capital, with participation from Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Blockchain.com has added two new board members: Manny Stotz, founder and CEO of Kingsway and a long-time cryptocurrency investor and expert, and Nicolas Brand, a partner at Lakestar.

According to Bloomberg, citing insiders, the company's valuation has dropped to below $7 billion, down from $14 billion in March 2022. Previously, in October 2022, Kingsway Capital also led another undisclosed financing round for Blockchain.com, which concluded in the third quarter of last year. (Source link)

2. Blockchain Payment Company Fnality Completes $95 Million Series B Financing, Led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas
Blockchain payment company Fnality has completed $95 million in Series B financing, led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, with participation from DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura, and WisdomTree.

Santander Bank, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Deutsche Bank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS Group participated in Fnality's $63 million financing in 2019 and committed to further investments.

According to the crypto data platform RootData, Fnality aims to explore how blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) can use tokenized cash assets to settle securities transactions, with the core goal of creating peer-to-peer digital cash assets for the final settlement of tokenized transactions. (Source link)

3. Digital Asset Brokerage Firm VersiFi Announces $10 Million Financing from Hunting Hill Global Capital, Former Genesis Executive Joins as Co-CEO
According to Bloomberg, digital asset brokerage firm VersiFi announced it has secured $10 million in financing from Hunting Hill Global Capital. Martin Garcia, former Managing Director and Co-Head of Trading and Lending at Genesis Global, has joined VersiFi as Co-CEO and will lead the expansion of this major digital asset brokerage. (Source link)

4. CFX Labs Completes $9.5 Million Financing, with Participation from Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust
US fintech company CFX Labs announced it has completed $9.5 million in seed round financing, with participation from Shima Capital, Decasonic, Antalpha, CMT Digital, Corazon Capital, Kraken Ventures, New Form Capital, and Philippines-based Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust.

The funds will be used to expand its Solana blockchain-based stablecoin payment and remittance network globally. (Source link)

5. Cryptocurrency Exchange OMTrade Completes $6 Million Seed Round Financing, with Participation from STEPN Developers
According to GlobeNewswire, cryptocurrency exchange OMTrade announced it has completed $6 million in seed round financing, with participation from STEPN developer Find Satoshi Lab, Folius Ventures, Meteorite Labs, Incuba Alpha, and KSK Fund (invested by former Japanese soccer captain Keisuke Honda).

It is reported that cryptocurrency exchange OMTrade focuses on social trading, realigning the interests of traders and followers through features such as batch trading, monthly high-water mark settlements, and market-based profit-sharing structures. (Source link)

III. DeFi

1. Credix Completes $60 Million Credit Financing
The Solana-based credit protocol Credix's Chief Growth Officer Chaim announced that Credix has completed $60 million in credit financing, obtained in collaboration with a US alternative investment management company focused on asset lending opportunities, which manages a portfolio of $3 billion.

It is reported that this round of credit financing will provide priority debt to support small and medium-sized enterprises in the tech founding platform in Latin America, with the first $7.5 million being used to help small and medium-sized enterprises in Brazil through accounts receivable financing.

According to RootData, Credix completed $11.25 million in Series A financing in September 2022, led by Motive Partners and ParaFi Capital, with participation from Valor Capital Group, Victory Park Capital, MGG Bayhawk Fund, Circle Ventures, FuseCapital, and Abra. The funds raised will be used to invest heavily in platform development, team growth, marketing, and integration with Web3 projects, as well as expansion in Latin America. (Source link)

2. Curve Ecosystem Yield Trading Liquidity Protocol Napier Finance Completes $1 Million Pre-Seed Round Financing
Curve ecosystem yield trading liquidity protocol Napier Finance announced it has completed $1 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with investors including Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov, Convex Finance co-founder C2tP, Convex Finance co-founder Winthorpe, B Dash Ventures, FLICKSHOT, Mrblock (Curve Finance), Charlie (co-founder of DeFiLlama), Brandon Neal (COO of Euler Labs), Sidney Gottlieb (co-founder of Prisma Finance), Jinwoo Park (founder of Hashed/MYTY), and others.

It is reported that Napier Finance is built on the Curve pool, and the Napier AMM can optimize fixed-term assets, synchronized with Curve v2. The NPR token uses the veToken model to control protocol fees, fixed-term asset pool parameters, and release amounts, among other things. (Source link)

3. Compound Founder’s New Company SuperState Completes $14 Million Financing, Led by Distributed Global and CoinFund
SuperState, founded by the creator of Compound, has completed $14 million in Series A financing, led by Distributed Global and CoinFund, with participation from Arrington Capital, Breyer Capital, CMT Digital, Department of XYZ, Folius Ventures, Galaxy Digital, HackVC, Modular Capital, Nascent, and Road Capital Management.

It is reported that SuperState plans to use the funds to build its team and develop private equity funds, allowing institutional investors to smoothly enter the crypto world. Specifically, they can provide tokenized versions of bonds or other ordinary assets and trade or lend them on platforms similar to Uniswap.

Additionally, according to the crypto data platform RootData, SuperState announced in June that it had completed $4 million in seed round financing, with investments from ParaFi Capital, 1kx, Cumberland, CoinFund, and Distributed Global. (Source link)

4. Decentralized Cross-Chain Trading Platform Kinetix Network Completes Multi-Million Dollar Strategic Financing, Led by Factor and Gnosis Chain
Decentralized cross-chain trading platform Kinetix Network announced it has completed a multi-million dollar strategic financing round, led by Factor and Gnosis Chain.

It is reported that Kinetix plans to launch its public testnet on Gnosis Chain early next year, with a three-month testing phase aimed at identifying bugs and improving user experience. (Source link)

5. Blockchain Interoperability Developer Union Labs Completes $4 Million Seed Round Financing, with Participation from Galileo
Blockchain interoperability developer Union Labs has completed $4 million in seed round financing, with participation from venture capital firms Galileo, Semantic Ventures, Tioga Capital, Nascent, Lightshift, and Chorus One. The funds will be used for hiring and scaling. Union Labs aims to develop cross-chain bridges based on zero-knowledge proofs. (Source link)

6. Crypto Derivatives Trading Platform Rho Labs Completes $2.2 Million Financing, Led by Speedinvest
Decentralized crypto derivatives trading platform Rho Labs, founded by former Copper Chief Product Officer Alex Ryvkin, announced it has completed $2.2 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by Speedinvest, with participation from Keyrock, Re7 Capital, Daedalus Collective, and Copper.co CEO Dmitry Tokarev.

It is reported that the crypto derivatives trading platform being built by Rho Labs will provide on-chain trading services based on specific interest rates and traditional rates, with its trading market expected to launch a beta version on the Arbitrum chain by the end of this year. (Source link)

IV. Gaming

1. Web3 Tech Company BLOCKSMITH Completes Angel Round Financing, with Participation from SBI Group
Web3 tech company BLOCKSMITH announced it has successfully completed angel round financing, attracting investments from SBI Group, Headline Asia, J-CAM Corporation, and others. Previously, 100% of the company's equity was held by its parent company KLab Inc. and founder Tetsuya Sanada, marking the company's first external funding. This financing aims to strengthen its financial position and prepare for an IPO. The funds raised will be used for product development, research, and more.

It is reported that BLOCKSMITH has successful experience in blockchain development and operations, including providing "Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS -" to Thirdverse Group. In addition to developing blockchain games, the company is also focused on R&D of related technologies, including the establishment of an AI lab and announcing a business collaboration with a Facial Recognition Web3 Wallet in September 2023. (Source link)

2. Chain Game Project EthXY Completes $1.6 Million Pre-Seed Round Financing, with Participation from a16z CSS23 Accelerator Program
Chain game project EthXY announced it has completed $1.6 million in Pre-Seed round financing, with participation from a16z CSS23 Accelerator Program, Orange DAO, Pioneer Fund, WWVentures, nonce Classic, Pepper Ventures, Founderheads, Space Whale Capital, MH Ventures, and others.

According to the crypto data platform RootData, EthXY is a new product that is an MMORPG based on Telegram chat, showcasing character interactions through the chat window. EthXY has implemented innovations on the Base network, allowing users to easily complete on-chain gaming within the chat interface. (Source link)

3. Artifact Lab Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Round Financing, Led by RW3 Ventures and IOSG Ventures
User profile and monetization platform Artifact Lab announced it has completed $2 million in Pre-Seed round financing, led by RW3 Ventures and IOSG Ventures, with participation from Raptor Group, Cypher Capital, and HerculesDAO.

4. Collectible Card Game Shardbound Developer Bazooka Tango Completes $5 Million Financing, Led by Bitkraft Ventures
Web3 tactical collectible card game Shardbound developer Bazooka Tango has completed $5 million in financing, led by Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from RW3 Ventures, Sfermion, Foresight Ventures, and Builder Capital. Bazooka Tango plans to launch a public beta later this year, with an official launch scheduled for 2024 on Steam, Epic, Apple Store, and Google Play Store.

The company was founded in 2019 by Bo Daly and Stephan Sherman, veterans of the AAA gaming industry and masterminds behind the multiplayer online battle arena game "Vainglory." "Vainglory" was developed and published by Daly and Sherman’s previous gaming company, Super Evil Megacorp. (Source link)

V. Social

1. Web3 Social Network Platform Sleek Completes $5 Million Seed Round Financing, with Participation from Binance Labs
Web3 social network platform Sleek has completed $5 million in seed round financing, with participation from Binance Labs, Shima Capital, Spartan Group, Symbolic Capital, Market Across, and Big Brain Holdings. Sleek co-founder Tania Tse stated that the funds were raised through a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT) protocol. She declined to comment on the valuation, but a source familiar with the matter said that Sleek's valuation for this round of financing was $50 million.

It is reported that Sleek was initially a no-code metaverse platform called ChapterX, which later pivoted to develop a Web3 social network. ChapterX was part of Binance Labs' Q4 incubation program. Sleek co-founder Chase Guo was previously the investment director at Binance Labs before founding ChapterX (now Sleek).

Sleek launched in April this year as a blockchain-based social media platform, helping people connect through Sleek cards and Telegram bots. Tse stated that it has accumulated 20,000 users through various events and meetings. Since its launch, Sleek has sold approximately 15,000 cards, which come in two styles—prism cards and premium cards, priced at around $30 and $35, respectively. (Source link)

2. South Korean Web3 Fan Economy Project Modhaus Completes Over $8 Million Series A Financing, Led by Sfermion
South Korean K-pop Web3 fan economy project Modhaus has completed over $8 million in Series A financing, led by Sfermion, with participation from Foresight Ventures, SM Culture Partners (the wholly-owned venture capital arm of SM Entertainment), Laguna Investment, KDDI Open Innovation Fund III, and others.

Modhaus was founded in December 2021, with total financing reaching $12 million, with existing investors including Hashed's wholly-owned subsidiary UNOPND, Naver D2SF, CJ Investment, and Futureplay. Modhaus's Cosmo is a blockchain-based entertainment platform that allows fans to participate in voting and decision-making on the blockchain. (Source link)

3. Crypto Social Protocol Beoble Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Financing, with Participation from Samsung Next
The crypto social protocol beoble announced it has completed $2 million in Pre-Seed financing, with participation from DCG, Samsung Next, HashKey Capital, GBV Capital, Token Bay Capital, and Momentum 6.

It is reported that Beoble is a social module with APIs and SDKs for Web 3.0. With Beoble, Web 3.0 services can easily integrate social profiles, messaging, and publish and subscribe social features into their services within five minutes. (Source link)

VI. AI

1. Generative AI Company CreateSAFE Completes $4.6 Million Seed Round Financing, Led by Polychain Capital
Generative AI-based music creative asset development company CreateSAFE announced it has completed $4.6 million in seed round financing, led by cryptocurrency and blockchain investment firm Polychain Capital, with participation from Crush Ventures, MoonPay, Chaac Ventures, Unified Music Group, and several executives from the music industry.

It is reported that CreateSafe's generative AI platform "TRINITI" can generate all creative assets required for artist activities and manage music IP using voice, sound, text, and image inputs, aiming to bridge the gap between music and UGC. (Source link)

VII. Others

1. Blockchain Music Collaboration Protocol Developer Baton Completes $4.2 Million Financing, Led by BITKRAFT Ventures
According to AlleyWatch, blockchain music collaboration protocol developer Baton announced it has completed $4.2 million in financing, led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Techstars, Dorm Room Fund, NYU Innovation Venture Fund, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Dark Arts, Franklin Templeton, Harmonic Future, and several angel investors.

It is reported that Baton has built a music collaboration protocol and a hybrid media collaboration protocol based on blockchain, aiming to help creators exchange music materials, track intellectual property, and obtain corresponding incentives. In the future, the company hopes to expand related applications beyond the music industry. (Source link)

2. Ordinals Project Taproot Wizards Completes $7.5 Million Financing, Led by Standard Crypto
The Ordinals project Taproot Wizards raised $7.5 million in a new round of financing, led by Standard Crypto, with participation from Geometry, Collider Ventures, StarkWare, UTXO Management, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Masterkey, and Newman Capital. The new funds will be used to rebuild Bitcoin's "Wizard Village."

Taproot Wizards is an Ordinals project focused on Bitcoin, inspired by the original Bitcoin Wizards Reddit memo from a decade ago. (Source link)