October 2023 Financing Monthly Report: Which Projects Are Worth Watching?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
October 2023 Financing Monthly Report: Which Projects Are Worth Watching?
Web3 companies received 75 investments totaling approximately $427 million, the lowest since October 2022.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to Rootdata data, in October 2023, Web3 companies secured 75 investments totaling approximately $427 million— the lowest since October 2022. Compared to September's $535 million, total funding dropped by about 20.19%.
The top ten projects by funding amount in October were:
-
Animoca Brands ($50 million);
-
Web3 security startup Blockaid ($33 million);
-
Derivatives DEX SynFutures ($22 million);
-
Chain game developer Neon Machine (Shrapnel) ($20 million);
-
Cryptocurrency trading and lending platform Membrane ($20 million);
-
NFT project Memeland ($15.67 million);
-
RWA lending platform Untangled Finance ($13.5 million);
-
Cryptocurrency startup smlXL ($13.4 million);
-
Next-generation AMM on Starknet EkuboProtocol ($12 million);
-
Video game platform Forge ($11 million).
Which projects do we find interesting?
Neon Machine (Shrapnel)
Overview: Neon Machine is a Seattle-based gaming studio that announced a $20 million Series A round in October. The funds will be used to further develop its shooter game Shrapnel, with plans to release an early access version this December and a full launch in 2024.
Shrapnel is being developed on an Avalanche subnet.
Investors: Polychain Capital, Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, Tess Ventures.
Highlights:
1. The team spun out of HBO Interactive in 2014 and has worked on over 30 major games and films such as Halo, Call of Duty, and Madden NFL, winning more than 40 entertainment awards.
2. Broad token utility: SHRAP tokens are used to publish player-created content (PCC) as NFTs on-chain. Beyond serving as in-game currency, SHRAP is central to community participation.
3. Their agent characters will appear in an upcoming standalone comic series—an approach to building brand and IP.
Nocturne Labs
Overview: Nocturne is a protocol enabling private Ethereum accounts with built-in asset privacy through a combination of account abstraction and zero-knowledge proofs. It has raised a $6 million seed round.
Investors: Co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, Hack VC, Robot Ventures, and others.
Highlights:
1. Builds private user accounts directly on L1/L2 while remaining compatible with existing Ethereum accounts.
2. As account abstraction makes wallets easier to use, demand for privacy grows—especially for on-chain transactions and gambling-related activities.
3. Backed by investment and recognition from Vitalik Buterin.
Noble
Overview: A dedicated blockchain within the Cosmos ecosystem designed specifically for issuing native assets, as well as tokenizing real-world assets (RWA).
Investors: Led by Polychain Capital, with Borderless Capital, Circle Ventures, Wintermute Ventures among participants.
Highlights:
1. Circle was the first issuer to launch its $USDC stablecoin on Noble;
2. Noble supports IBC, allowing connections to over 50 other IBC appchains in Cosmos;
3. The Noble team consists of some of the most respected OGs in Cosmos (Zaki, Jelena, Jack, Stefan).
Recommended reading: Noble: Infrastructure for Native Universal Assets and RWA Issuance in Cosmos
Virtual Labs
Overview: A startup focused on developing ZK technology, particularly in the area of ZK state channels, aiming to eliminate gas fees and simplify wallet interactions to enhance user experience in the Web3 ecosystem. Their solutions (e.g., Virtual Rollups) enable zero-gas transactions, instant processing, and seamless functionality across different blockchain networks. In October, they announced a $1.2 million raise.
Investors: OP Crypto led the round, with Byzantine Marine, Koyamaki Ventures, NEAR Foundation, and several angel investors participating.
Highlights:
1. The company’s flagship product, Virtual Rollup—a so-called “ZK state channel”—allows games, social platforms, and loyalty points providers to bundle unlimited transactions and users without trust assumptions;
2. Supported by Binance’s incubation program;
3. Partnered with Winner to eliminate over 90% of gas costs and latency in on-chain betting, with plans to improve more on-chain betting/casino protocols.
MyShell
Overview: MyShell is an AI platform based on opBNB that allows users to create chatbots called "Shells." This Web3-centric artificial intelligence project serves content creators and end-users. In October, MyShell announced a $5.6 million seed round at a $57 million valuation.
Investors: INCE Capital led the round, with Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, SevenX Ventures, OP Crypto, and others participating.
Highlights:
1. Currently offers highly practical AI chat tools applicable to English learning, targeting consumers directly (TO C).
2. Tokenomics will continue evolving alongside the platform’s progression from application to data and computation layers.
Detailed funding breakdown by sector below:
DEFI
Solana-based DEX Convergence raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round at a $30 million valuation, led by C² Ventures, with Big Brain Holdings, Israel Blockchain Association, and Auros Global participating. Convergence RFQ will support spot and derivatives trading, launching in early November and planning expansion to Arbitrum. Additionally, Convergence RFQ has set its governance token ticker symbol as CVG.
Accumulated Finance, a liquid staking ecosystem integrated with Curve, completed a new private funding round. Investors include Curve, De Facto Capital, Stake DAO. The Accumulated Finance team announced in August the upcoming launch of Accumulated Finance V2, which will provide incentivized liquid staking and DeFi pools for mid-to-low market cap proof-of-stake protocols. The protocol will be governed by the ACFI token and is expected to officially launch in early 2024.
Arbitrum-based DeFi derivatives lending platform ParaFinance raised $5 million in a seed round led by OKX Ventures, with Uniswap Labs, Gate Labs, and Kosmos Ventures participating.
AirDAO received a $7.5 million investment from DWF Labs. The investment includes a one-year cliff and a 36-month vesting schedule, aimed at driving broader adoption of the AirDAO ecosystem.
First RWA perpetual DEX Ostium Labs raised $3.5 million, with General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, SIG, Balaji Srinivasan, and Alliance participating. It plans to launch its Arbitrum testnet in Q4. Ostium Labs aims to attract traditional commodity traders and crypto-native traders by offering transparent and flexible alternatives for trading assets like oil, Bitcoin, and forex pairs.
RWA lending platform Untangled Finance raised $13.5 million and has gone live on the Celo network. It plans to expand to Ethereum and Polygon via Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol. Untangled aims to bring traditional private credit markets onto the blockchain through tokenization, focusing on fintech (e.g., invoice financing and wage-advance consumer loans) and “green asset” lending. The platform provides infrastructure to host blockchain-based credit pools where investors deposit funds to lend and earn returns. Depositors receive ERC-20 tokens representing their positions.
Cryptocurrency trading and lending platform Membrane raised $20 million in a Series A round, with QCP Capital, Electric Capital, Jump Crypto, GSR Markets, and Framework Ventures participating. The company initially built a settlement engine allowing institutions to choose where and how to custody funds, then execute trades via front-end interfaces.
DeFi protocol Elixir raised $7.5 million in a Series A round at a $100 million valuation, led by Hack VC, with NGC Ventures, AngelList Ventures, and others participating. Elixir enables users to provide liquidity directly to orderbook exchange pairs and earn market-making rewards under risk-return profiles similar to AMMs. Elixir’s delegated proof-of-stake protocol is expected to launch on mainnet in the coming weeks and integrate with decentralized exchanges like Vertex, Bluefin, and WooFi. Elixir also plans to support permissionless market functionality on dYdX V4 in early 2024.
Singapore-based derivatives DEX SynFutures raised $22 million in a Series B round led by Pantera Capital, with HashKey Capital, SIG DT Investments, and others participating. They launched a new version, V3, on the Ethereum testnet. The mainnet launch is expected late this year or early next year. SynFutures remains open to launching a native token in the future. SynFutures says it developed Oyster, a proprietary automated market maker model combining the best features of orderbook and AMM models for its V3 platform.
Aera, a new venture by Gauntlet founder Tarun Chitra, raised $8 million, led by Bain Capital Crypto, with Jump Trading participating. Aera aims to help DAOs manage finances without sacrificing decentralization, offering crowdsourced portfolio management advice.
Next-generation AMM on Starknet EkuboProtocol raised $12 million, with Uniswap Labs participating. Uniswap contributed 3 million UNI tokens (worth ~$12 million) in exchange for 20% of Ekubo’s future governance token allocation.
Permissionless derivatives exchange Surf Protocol raised $3 million, led by ABCDE Capital, with OP Crypto and C2 Ventures participating. Funds will be used to develop a Base-based, permissionless Perp DEX. Surf Protocol aims to offer users richer tradable Perp assets while reducing trading slippage. Its compatibility-focused liquidity provision framework, powered by a unique AMM structure, gives liquidity providers (LPs) more options to balance yield and risk.
L1&L2
Initia, a Move-based L1 project in the Cosmos ecosystem, received investment from Binance Labs (amount undisclosed). Funds will support infrastructure and developer tool development. Initia’s architecture allows L2s to leverage EVM, WasmVM, or MoveVM while enabling seamless message passing and bridging between them. The project is still in development on testnet.
NASD, the company behind Cosmos-based appchain Noble, raised $3.3 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital, with Borderless Capital, Circle Ventures, and Wintermute Ventures participating. Noble will be the first non-EVM blockchain supported by Circle’s CCTP. Noble is an appchain built for issuing native assets in the Cosmos and IBC ecosystems and launched its mainnet on March 27.
Gaming
GameFi platform integrating traditional gaming with Web3.0 NexGami raised $2 million in a seed round, with Polygon Ventures, Fundamental Labs, and Ledger Capital participating, post-money valuation at $20 million. NexGami aims to provide seamless integration solutions for game products and enhance user gaming experiences within the Polygon network, bringing off-chain gamers into the GameFi ecosystem.
NFT-driven fantasy horse racing startup Game of Silks raised $5 million, with Duncan Taylor participating. Game of Silks issues NFTs tied to thoroughbred horses, allowing owners to earn rewards based on the real-world performance of those horses. Founded in June 2021, the company partners with organizations including the New York Racing Association, Belmont Park, The Jockey Club, and Americas Best Racing under Fox Sports.
Darewise, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, raised $3.5 million in a private sale, with Gamefi Ventures, London Real Ventures, Citizen Capital, Blocore, Animoca Ventures, and Animoca Brands co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu participating. Darewise will launch its first metaverse ecosystem token on the Bitcoin blockchain, expected in early 2024 with technical support from Horizen Labs, a strategic tech provider for ApeCoin.
Video game platform Forge raised $11 million in a seed round led by Makers Fund and BITKRAFT Ventures, with Hashkey Capital, Polygon Ventures, Formless Capital, and Adaverse participating, and has opened beta access to players.
EOS-based metaverse game Upland raised $7 million in a Series A+ round led by EOS Network Ventures, with Animoca Brands and C3 Venture Capital participating, planning to launch a token on Ethereum. This round will fund new gameplay features supporting players purchasing digitized land on real-world maps.
Third Time, parent company of Solana-based horse racing game Photo Finish LIVE, raised $2 million in a seed round led by Sfermion, with Reciprocal Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, 32-Bit Ventures, and 6th Man Ventures participating. Third Time launched this year.
Gaming platform HYTOPIA (formerly NFT Worlds) raised $3 million, led by Delphi Digital, with multiple VCs and angel investors participating, and is preparing to launch public testing. HYTOPIA integrates social features and offers developers a Minecraft-inspired creation toolkit with flexible monetization. It is building a transparent, open monetization layer powered by its own L2 blockchain and TOPIA.
Neon Machine, developer of chain game Shrapnel, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Polychain, with Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, and IOSG Ventures participating. Funds will accelerate development of its shooter game Shrapnel during a critical phase. The game team plans to release an early access version in December, followed by a full launch sometime in 2024.
Web3 gaming studio Moonveil Entertainment raised $5.4 million in a seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Arcane Group, with LongHash Ventures, IOSG, and Infinity Venture Crypto participating. Moonveil’s first game, Astrark: STAGE ONE, is an immersive tower defense mobile game centered around PvP and PVE combat and multiplayer cooperation. Its second game, a multiplayer strategy title, will have details released in November.
Infrastructure
Blockchain product development firm Trinetix received a $10 million strategic investment from Hypra, enabling expansion into Latin American markets. Trinetix provides global enterprises with blockchain engineering solutions, intelligent automation services, and cloud support, serving clients including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and ExxonMobil.
Fairblock Network, a privacy infrastructure provider built using the Cosmos SDK, raised $2.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Galileo, with GSR, Robot Ventures, and Reverie participating. Fairblock aims to make conditional decryption and pre-execution privacy possible. Unlike ZK technology, Fairblock’s design ensures information is encrypted or decrypted only under specific conditions. The blockchain recently upgraded to its second private testnet, with a public testnet imminent.
Bitcoin infrastructure project OrdinalsBot raised $1 million, with Lightning Ventures, Bitcoin Magazine Ecosystem Fund, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, Angsana Investments, and Deep Ventures participating. OrdinalsBot recently launched an SDK, providing developers with seamless tools to integrate Ordinals.
On-chain crypto analytics platform Parsec announced a $4 million raise led by Galaxy Digital, with Uniswap Labs Ventures, Robot Ventures, and CMT Digital participating. Parsec also launched a DeFi and NFT analytics product called "Team" and opened its API to the public.
Crypto wallet provider Account Labs raised $7.7 million, led by Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Venture Partners. They also launched UniPass Wallet, a self-custodial smart wallet. UniPass Wallet is a peer-to-peer (P2P) stablecoin transfer-focused self-custodial wallet that leverages account abstraction to improve user experience.
Virgo Group, holding company for Canadian compliant crypto platform VirgoCX and Australian trading platform Virgo.co, raised 5 million CAD, with Waterdrip Capital, Skylean Capital, and Nextport Capital participating. New funds will support growth of its compliant entities, ongoing expansion into new regions, and strengthening its integrated ecosystem from trading to asset management.
opBNB-based AI platform MyShell raised $5.6 million in a seed round at a $57 million valuation, led by INCE Capital, with Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, SevenX Ventures, OP Crypto, and others participating. The platform serves content creators and consumers—creators can build AI content bots, and users can discover and interact with them. A specialized LLM model designed for roleplay and character creation is即将 to be launched.
Squads Labs, the main developer behind Solana-based multisig protocol Squads, raised $5.7 million in a strategic round led by Placeholder VC, with Multicoin Capital, Solana Ventures, Jump Crypto, and others participating, and launched SquadsX—the first multisig network extension wallet on Solana, currently in testing.
Web3 file management application Fileverse raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by Gnosis Chain and actor, with Safe, Mask Network, Arweave EcosystemGalxe, former Coinbase CTO, and others participating. Fileverse aims to give users greater ownership of personal data, offering an alternative to centralized providers like Google or Notion. It uses smart contracts and stores encrypted data on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS).
Cryptocurrency platform Beluga raised $4 million in a seed round led by Fin Capital, with Anagram, UDHC, Dispersion Capital, Aptos Labs, 2 Punks Capital, Borderless Capital, Kyber Capitals, and others participating. Beluga’s management team includes veterans from Silicon Valley and senior crypto figures from Robinhood Crypto, dYdX, CoinDesk, and Coupa Software.
Web3 security startup Blockaid, founded by two former Israeli military cyber intelligence officers, announced completion of a $33 million funding round split across two rounds: a $6 million seed round and a $27 million Series A. Seed investors include Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and Cyberstarts. All three, along with co-leaders Ribbit Capital and Variant, participated in the Series A. Blockaid provides web3 security tools to help prevent crypto fraud, phishing, and hacking.
Cryptocurrency startup smlXL raised $13.4 million in a seed round, with a16z crypto, Greylock, and others participating. Its mission is to make blockchains more transparent, useful, and accessible. Raised funds will be used to build a 16-person team and develop products including EVM.code and evm.storage.
Privacy project Nocturne Labs raised $6 million in a seed round co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, Hack VC, Robot Ventures, and others participating. It plans to launch its initial protocol on mainnet in November. Nocturne combines the best ideas from ZK, AA, and stealth addresses to create abstracted Ethereum accounts with built-in asset privacy. Nocturne is developing a protocol designed to allow users to transact anonymously within the Ethereum ecosystem. Users can prove ownership of funds via zero-knowledge proofs and use them for payments, trading, gambling, and other transactions.
First functional ZK state channel startup Virtual Labs raised $1.2 million in a Pre-Seed round at a $20 million valuation, led by OP Crypto, with Byzantine Marine, Koyamaki Ventures, NEAR Foundation, and others participating. Virtual Labs aims to enhance Web3 user experience by eliminating gas fees, latency, and cumbersome wallet interactions. Its flagship product, Virtual Rollup, is a ZK state channel enabling unlimited transactions from an unlimited number of participants.
Web3
Web3 hotel platform Blackbird raised $24 million in a Series A round led by a16z Crypto, with Amex Ventures, QED Investors, and others participating. Blackbird aims to provide restaurants with loyalty and connection tools—every time users dine out, clicking Blackbird grants access, rewards, benefits, and FLY loyalty points.
Web3 social protocol Phaver raised $7 million, with Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, dao5, Foresight Ventures, and Superhero Capital participating. Phaver aims to help users join Web3 social platforms more easily, offering a Web3 onboarding experience similar to existing social platforms. Phaver has integrated its technology and social graph with decentralized social network ecosystems Lens Protocol and Web3 social network CyberConnect.
Web3 content creation platform RepubliK raised $6 million in a seed round at a $75 million valuation, with OKX Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Arcane Ventures, CMS Holdings, Comma3 Ventures, Define Ventures, Enjin, FBG Capital, HTX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, and others participating. It plans to launch and airdrop the RPK token, which will represent the full value of Republik’s community, governance, and utility.
Web3 social data portal Port3 Network received investment from DWF Labs, amount undisclosed.
Venture Capital
Deus X Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm led by Tim Grant, former head of EMEA at Galaxy Digital, announced $1 billion in assets under management, investing in private equity, venture capital, and fund allocations. The firm aims to build an innovative digital asset and fintech portfolio to reform the financial system and lower entry barriers. Deus X also engages in crypto market making and invests globally. Grant also chairs AlphaLab40, one of Deus X’s incubation initiatives.
Saudi Arabia’s NEOM Investment Fund plans to invest $50 million in Animoca Brands and form a strategic partnership to advance Web3 projects. Of this, $25 million will be issued via convertible notes, and the remaining $25 million will be used to purchase shares in Animoca Brands. Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu stated that NEOM has the potential to become the first region to fully harness blockchain technology.
Asset Management
On-chain credit risk management firm Cicada raised $9.7 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Choppa Capital, with Bitscale, Bodhi Ventures, and Shiliang Tang participating. Funds will seed multiple new non-custodial lending pools and support R&D for new blockchain lending use cases.
On-chain wealth and asset management protocol L1 Advisors raised $1.6 million in a seed round, with VanEck strategically investing $1 million, and Ironclad Financial, Ismail Jai Hokimi, and others participating, to build an operating system for on-chain wealth and asset management. L1 Advisors aims to empower financial professionals and their clients to leverage decentralized infrastructure (e.g., protocols and wallets) to manage, grow, and protect their assets.
Others
Tokenized enterprise fundraising platform Tokenize.it raised €2 million in a seed round, with w3fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and Seed+Speed participating. The platform plans to launch employee participation and public offerings (a form of public fundraising).
Anti-Sybil platform Verisoul raised $3.25 million, with HashKey Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures, King River Capital, Third Prime, and others participating. The product aims to identify fake users and help businesses counter threats from AI, bots, and fraud.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
深潮TechFlow
