According to incomplete statistics from CoinVoice, this week (April 15-April 19), more than 23 blockchain project financing cases were announced, including 4 financings of tens of millions. The decentralized communication infrastructure network SendingNetwork completed a $20 million seed round of financing, which was the largest financing event this week. Other popular projects include the decentralized verification layer Aligned Layer, the cross-chain zero-knowledge expansion protocol Zeko Protocol, and the on-chain financial platform Centrifuge. Compared with last week, the number of investment and financing in the cryptocurrency market this week has fallen. In the sub-sectors, the investment and financing amounts this week are concentrated in infrastructure and Web3. The following is a list of financing events this week.
MerlinStarter completes seed round financing, with participation from Amber Group and others
Merlin Starter, the launchpad of Merlin Chain, announced the completion of its seed round of financing on X platform. Amber Group, Arkstream Capital, MoonHill Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Mapleblock, CGV, Basics Capital, Waterdrip and Sidedoor Ventures participated in the investment. Merlin Starter is the first native launchpad and infrastructure of Merlinchain. The total amount raised in the first two IDOs exceeded 900 million. The new funds will be used for the ecological cooperation between Merlin Starter and strategic institutions, aiming to promote the liquidity optimization, project incubation and Starter product iteration of BTC Layer2, and better realize the interoperability of assets and users between Bitcoin Layer 2 networks.
Corporate Loyalty Platform Superlogic Completes $7.6 Million Strategic Round of Financing, with Amex Ventures and Others Participating
Superlogic, an enterprise-level loyalty platform, announced the completion of a strategic round of financing of US$7.6 million, with participation from Amex Ventures, Sangha Capital, 10SQ Capital, Nima Capital, Actai Unicorn Fund, Chainlink Capital, etc. The total financing has reached US$15 million so far. Its early investors also include Warner Music Group, Mirabaud, Galaxy Interactive and Liquid 2 Ventures. Superlogic uses blockchain to tokenize traditional reward points and can convert redeemable product and service experiences into "digital badges" to help brands effectively manage their loyalty programs. Its customers include payment giant American Express, etc.
Runes DEX Completes $2 Million Seed Round
Runes DEX announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of financing, which will be used to expand Runes DEX's technical infrastructure and enhance its user interface. The investment institution has not yet been disclosed. Runes DEX is an AMM platform of the Bitcoin network Runes, committed to becoming the link where the future of Bitcoin meets the vitality of digital culture. (TheBlock)
Blast Ecosystem DEX Project Thruster Completes $7.5 Million Seed Round Financing
Thruster, a DEX project in the Blast ecosystem, completed a $7.5 million seed round of financing with a valuation of $70 million, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, ParaFi Capital, Manifold Ventures, and Arche Fund (formerly Coin98 Ventures).
Bitcoin Ecosystem Stablecoin Project Lambda Finance Completes $1.8 Million Angel Round Financing
Lambda Finance, a Bitcoin ecosystem stablecoin project, announced the completion of a $1.8 million angel round of financing, with participation from Curve founder Michael Egorov, Hashcow Group, AladdinDAO and others.
FilmChain, a film and television payment platform, has completed a €2.8 million financing round led by Holt InterXion
FilmChain, a film and television payment platform based on the Ethereum blockchain, announced the completion of a €2.8 million financing round, led by Holt InterXion, with participation from Roca X, DeBa Ventures, TechAngels, and HearstLab. FilmChain uses blockchain to improve transaction transparency and auditability, and uses blockchain to track ownership in payment architectures, injecting trust and responsibility into payment transactions in the film, television, and gaming industries.
Enterprise-level Web3 solution service provider Gate2Chain completes new round of financing, led by Ayre Ventures
Gate2Chain, a London-based enterprise-level Web3 solution service provider, announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Ayre Ventures. The specific amount and valuation data have not been disclosed. The company intends to use the new financing to expand its business and development. It is reported that Gate2Chain promotes innovation and empowers enterprises through blockchain technology, helping enterprises improve data integrity, efficiency and security.
Hedera Ecosystem Web3 Game Platform Circle of Games Completes $1 Million in Equity Funding
Web3 gaming platform Circle of Games (COG) announced the completion of a $1 million equity financing, with participation from The Hashgraph Association and Nazara Technologies FZ LLC. Circle of Games is built on the Hedera blockchain, and its vision is to create a Web3 casual gaming platform that uses blockchain to provide rewards.
GameFi project Saakuru Labs completes $2.4 million financing
GameFi project Saakuru Labs announced the completion of $2.4 million in financing, led by Based VC and ARC Community, with participation from Kyber Network, PG Capital, Wizard Capital, Decubate Ventures, Oracles Investment Group, BCW Ventures, Steady Stack, W3GG, Calib3r, Rarible, Worlds Beyond, Uptrend Digital, Arclight Studio and IBC Group. The new funds will be used to promote the adoption of the Saakuru protocol to provide more support in the GameFi field and ecosystem. (Chainwire)
Communications infrastructure network SendingNetwork completes $20 million seed round of financing
The decentralized communication infrastructure network SendingNetwork announced the completion of a $20 million seed round of financing, with participation from Nomad Capital, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Galxe, SWC Global, YGG founder Gabby Dizon, Symbolic Capital and Web3.com Ventures. This round of financing will help SendingNetwork meet the growing demand for decentralized communications to empower users and networks. It is reported that SendingNetwork provides a comprehensive three-layer client-edge-blockchain architecture that solves the vulnerabilities of messaging. It redesigns a powerful, secure and community-driven communication network that allows the use of a new TCP/IP protocol stack for decentralized communications in Web3.
Account abstraction app Plena raises $5 million, with Normie Ventures and others participating
Account abstraction application Plena announced the completion of $5 million in financing, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, DeWhale, GBV, WebWise, Galxe, Normie Ventures, FounderHeads, etc. In addition, Plena also announced the largest airdrop event in cooperation with DAO Maker, Chain GPT, Decubate, AI Tech and Viction Chain by Coin98, distributing 2% of its total supply before listing.
DePIN project GEODNET completes strategic financing of over 2 million US dollars, with participation from CoinFund and others
GEODNET Foundation announced that it has completed more than $2 million in strategic financing, with participation from CoinFund, Pantera Capital, VanEck and Santiago R. Santos. DePIN project GEODNET is a blockchain-based global navigation network. Currently, its real-time dynamic (RTK) network has registered more than 5,000 GPS/GNSS reference stations. Earlier news, GEODNET completed $1.5 million in financing in July 2023, led by Borderless Capital; and completed $3.5 million in financing in February 2024, led by North Island Ventures, and participated by Modular Capital, Road Capital, Tangent, Reverie, Borderless and IoTeX.
Perpetual DEX Aark announces completion of $6 million financing
Perpetual DEX Aark announced the completion of its seed round of financing, with participation from HashKey Capital, Arrington Capital, Cypher Capital, Morningstar Ventures, IVC and Metavest. Prior to this, it conducted a Pre-Seed round of financing in the second quarter of 2023, led by Delphi Digital, with participation from OKX Ventures and Big Brain Holdings. The amount of financing has reached US$6 million. It is reported that Aark is a leverage-based perpetual DEX that is involved in the field of Liquidity Re-Pledge Tokens (LRT). Aark provides a Delta neutral yield for LRT, thereby providing liquidity to traders.
Bitcoin Ordinals Browser Ord.io Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Funding
Bitcoin Ordinals browser Ord.io announced the completion of a $2 million pre-seed financing led by Bitcoin Frontier Fund and Sora Ventures. Participants include Eden Block, Arca, Longhash Ventures, Daxos Capital, Portal Ventures, UTXO Management, Rubik Ventures, VitalTao Capital, Antalpha Ventures, Kommune Fund, Edessa Capital, PetRock Capital, PG Capital, Shake and Bake Productions, Re7 Capital, Balaji Fund and angel investors. It is reported that this round of financing will be used to expand the Runes protocol and accelerate construction.
LSD protocol Puffer completes $18 million Series A financing
According to CoinDesk, LSD protocol Puffer Finance announced the completion of $18 million in Series A financing, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Lemniscap, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Mechanism, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca and GSR. The new round of funds will be used to help launch Puffer's mainnet.
Coinbase Ventures Joins Bitcoin L2 Network BOB’s $10 Million Seed Round
Bitcoin L2 network BOB (Build on Bitcoin) announced on X Platform that Coinbase Ventures has joined its $10 million seed round. The collaboration is to accelerate its development and launch a hybrid L2 network that combines the advantages of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Earlier in late March, BOB announced the completion of a $10 million seed round led by Castle Island Ventures, with participation from Mechanism Ventures, Bankless Ventures, CMS Ventures and UTXO Management, as well as some angel investors. BOB is a hybrid layer 2 network that sits on top of the Bitcoin blockchain but is compatible with Ethereum.
Solana on-chain AI model training platform NavyAI completes seed round financing, with participation from X Ventures and others
NavyAI, an AI model training platform on Solana, announced on X Platform that it has completed its seed round of financing, with participation from X Ventures, AlfaDAO, and Moni. The specific amount and valuation have not been disclosed. NavyAI is a blockchain layer dedicated to AI model training and self-learning, providing cost-effective solutions to reduce AI bias. Through decentralized GPU resources, users can access and train virtual AI models to improve artificial intelligence accessibility and fair innovation.
Web3 AI company Inference Labs completes $2.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by DACM and others
Web3 AI startup Inference Labs announced the completion of a $2.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Digital Asset Capital Management (DACM), Delphi Ventures and Mechanism Capital, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, BitScale Capital, Edessa Capital, ID Theory, Metropolis DAO, Mozaik Capital, Newman Capital, Seed Club Ventures and others. Inference Labs will use this round of financing to promote its innovation plans in the field of artificial intelligence, especially to create an efficient artificial intelligence verification network that includes proof of reasoning consensus. (Globenewswire)
Puffer Finance Completes US$18 Million Series A Financing
Puffer Finance has completed $18 million in Series A funding, led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, Lemniscap, Franklin Templeton, Avon Ventures (affiliated with Fidelity Investments), Mechanism, Lightspeed Faction, Consensys, Animoca, GSR, and several angel investors. With Series A funding in place, Puffer Finance now aims to launch its mainnet.
Real estate tokenization platform Homium completes $10 million Series A financing
Homium, a real estate equity mortgage lender and tokenization platform based on Avalanche, has completed a $10 million Series A financing round, led by Sorenson Impact Group and Avalanche Blizzard Fund. It is reported that Homium, a real estate equity mortgage lender and tokenization platform, has launched its first home equity loan on Avalanche. Homium loans are currently implemented in Colorado and plan to expand to other states. As part of obtaining the loan, the homeowner promises a portion of the appreciation in the home price.
Centrifuge Completes $15 Million Series A Financing, Led by ParaFi Capital and Greenfield
On-chain financial platform Centrifuge announced the successful completion of a $15 million Series A financing round, which will be used to accelerate the widespread adoption of institutional DeFi. This round of financing was co-led by ParaFi Capital and Greenfield, with participation from IOSG Ventures, Circle Ventures, Arrington Capital, The Spartan Group, Wintermute Ventures, etc. The new funds will be mainly used for product development, building on-chain practicality, ecosystem growth, and talent recruitment. Since its founding in 2017, Centrifug has built a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) by creating a secure, compliant, and high-end platform. To promote on-chain practicality, Centrifuge plans to establish an institutional-grade RWA lending market on the Base chain and integrate with Coinbase Verification to allow institutions to quickly and securely access real-world assets (RWA). The market will provide instant liquidity and lending capabilities for real-world assets without giving up compliance or regulatory requirements.
Blockchain research firm Nebra raises $4.5 million, led by Nascent and Bankless Ventures
Blockchain and zero-knowledge proof research organization Nebra announced the completion of a $4.5 million financing, led by Nascent and Bankless Ventures, with participation from angel investors such as Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation, Kartik Talwar of ETHGlobal, Nick White of Celestia, and Sandy Peng and Haichen Shen of Scroll. Nebra plans to use the new financing to promote the democratization of zero-knowledge proof technology to reduce the cost of proof settlement on Ethereum and other blockchains, thereby creating the so-called new Internet Shared Settlement Layer.
Merlin Chain Completes New Round of Financing, Spartan Group and Hailstone Labs Lead the Investment
Merlin Chain announced the completion of a new round of financing, led by Spartan Group and Hailstone Labs, with participation from more than a dozen institutions including Amber Group, Presto Labs, IOBC Ventures, Sandeep (Polygon CEO), UTXO Management (a fund under Bitcoin Magazine), and Primitive Ventures. The specific amount has not yet been disclosed. It is reported that Merlin Chain has facilitated more than 9 million transactions and hosted more than 70 real-time projects, with a total locked value (TVL) of more than 4 billion US dollars. (TheBlock)
Decentralized verification layer Aligned Layer completes $2.6 million seed round of financing, led by Lemniscap
Aligned Layer, a decentralized ZK Proof verification layer for Ethereum powered by Eigen Layer, has completed a $2.6 million seed round of financing, led by Lemniscap, with participation from Bankless Ventures, Paper Ventures, Sreeram Kannan, Brandon Kase, Daniel Lubarov, DCbuilder, Chainyoda, Weikeng Chen, Sami BENYAKOUB (samnode_), Peter Fittin (SizeChad) and Lucas Kozinski, and strategic investment from StarkWare and O(1)Labs. Aligned Layer will use the funds from this round of financing to expand its team and accelerate the launch of the Aligned Layer mainnet (expected in the second quarter of 2024). It is reported that Aligned Layer aims to provide affordable zero-knowledge proof verification for Ethereum, promoting scalability and interoperability. The layer integrates multiple zero-knowledge proof systems to reduce costs, increase speed, and promote innovation in blockchain technology.
Web3 AI startup Inference Labs completes $2.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing
Web3 AI startup Inference Labs announced the completion of a $2.3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Digital Asset Capital Management, Delphi Ventures, and Mechanism Capital, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, BitScale Capital, Edessa Capital, ID Theory, Metropolis DAO, Mozaik Capital, Newman Capital, Seed Club Ventures, and several angel investors. This investment will further optimize Inference Labs' innovative approach to artificial intelligence, with a focus on developing an efficient artificial intelligence verification network with Proof of Inference consensus. It will also help the team grow and fast-track product development to catalyze the entire ecosystem.
