Funding Weekly: 12 deals raised $11.8 million, with DePIN being the most watched sector
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Funding Weekly: 12 deals raised $11.8 million, with DePIN being the most watched sector
Between January 1 and January 7, 12 blockchain startups announced fundraising totaling approximately $11.8 million.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy TechFlow
According to RootData, between January 1 and January 7, 12 blockchain startups raised approximately $11.8 million in funding.
Featured Projects
Memeland
Overview: Memeland focuses on building and investing in SocialFi and the creator economy, aiming to leverage meme internet culture by connecting creators and communities through its MEME token and NFTs. A memecoin, literally, is a type of meme-based cryptocurrency with no utility, roadmap, promises, or expectation of financial returns—purely 100% meme.
Investors: Binance Labs announced investment in the native ecosystem token Memecoin (MEME) from Memeland.
Features:
1. Memeland’s developer, 9GAG, claims over 200 million users across its official website, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms, with more than 15 years of experience in building community-driven products;
2. Advisors behind Memeland include Gary Vaynerchuk (founder of VeeFriends), Kevin Rose (founder of Moonbirds), Nathan (founder of Kaiju Kingz), and KOL Keung;
3. In addition to NFTs and the MEME token, Memeland also offers MEME Farming.
Nubit
Overview: Nubit is a Bitcoin-native data availability layer designed to transform how transactions are processed on the Bitcoin network. Its unique architecture aims to provide an economically efficient and secure solution for Bitcoin data.
Investors: Riema Labs, the developer of the Bitcoin-native data availability layer Nubit, has completed its angel round, with participation from Bounce Brand and domo, though the funding amount was not disclosed.
Features:
1. Introduces a Bitcoin-native data availability layer using the BRC-1310 standard;
2. Reduces storage costs by up to 99%;
3. Expected to increase Bitcoin network's data throughput by approximately 100x, enabling more efficient data processing.
Bracket Labs
Overview: Bracket Labs is a DeFi derivatives platform built on Arbitrum, aiming to democratize financial products and introduce innovative on-chain solutions for volatility trading.
Investors: Bracket Labs announced completion of a $2 million seed round, with investors including Binance Labs, NGC Ventures, Cypher Capital, 0x Capital, PHD Capital, FJ Labs, SCC Investments, K300 Ventures, Scope Research, W3Coin Ventures, Titan Equity Group, and Bitfund DAO.
Features:
1. Its volatility trading product "Passage" introduces a limit order book and vaults;
2. Ranked second in Binance Labs' fifth incubation season in June 2023 and received investment;
3. The team has extensive backgrounds in both crypto and traditional finance, with former roles at D.E. Shaw, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bloomberg, Consensys, and DeerCreek.
Detailed Funding Information by Sector:
Bitcoin Ecosystem
Riema Labs, the developer of the Bitcoin-native data availability layer Nubit, completed its angel round with participation from Bounce Brand’s co-founder and domo, though the funding amount was not disclosed.
DeFi
Arbitrum-based DeFi derivatives platform Bracket Labs announced a $2 million seed round led by Binance Labs, NGC Ventures, Cypher Capital, 0x Capital, PHD Capital, FJ Labs, SCC Investments, K300 Ventures, Scope Research, W3Coin Ventures, Titan Equity Group, and Bitfund DAO. The funding will support the launch of its volatility trading product "Passage" on the BracketX trading platform. Bracket Labs was selected into Binance Labs’ fifth incubation season in June 2023. Passage also features a limit order book and vaults to enhance market liquidity.
Social
Decentralized synthetic social network CharacterX raised $2.8 million at a $30 million valuation, co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, INCE Capital, and Spark Digital Capital, with participation from 84000LP, Mask Network, CGV, ZC Capital, Web3Port, GRI Capital, Fermion Capital, and Fan Zhang. CharacterX was founded by a team from Stanford University and selected into the Stanford Blockchain Accelerator. The project combines AGI-powered social experiences with blockchain. The team recently launched Android and iOS mobile apps and a developer website, reaching 500,000 users with an average daily usage time of 30 minutes, allowing users to create and form emotional bonds with AI beings.
Inscriptions
KuCoin Labs announced investment in ISSP, supporting its development of a cross-chain inscriptions protocol on the Sui network. ISSP is the first cross-chain protocol system integrating an inscriptions marketplace and inscriptions swap, leveraging Sui’s Objects model to deliver high performance and stable inscription experiences.
NFT
Binance Labs announced investment in the native ecosystem token Memecoin (MEME) from Memeland. Memeland primarily focuses on building and investing in SocialFi and the creator economy, aiming to connect creators and communities through meme internet culture via its MEME token and NFTs.
Multi-chain NFT DEX EZswap completed its second round of financing worth $1 million last month, with EOS Network Ventures (ENV) leading a $500,000 investment, joined by IOBC Capital and Momentum Capital. EZSwap is a gaming-focused NFT DEX and inscription protocol setting new standards for game asset trading and inscription technology, powered by an automated market maker (AMM) mechanism.
WISe.ART AG, a digital art platform under Swiss cybersecurity and digital identity company WISeKey, announced completion of a strategic funding round, with participation from Hashgraph Association (THA), a Switzerland-based nonprofit supporting the Hedera network, although the specific amount remains undisclosed. WISeKey founder and CEO Carlos Moreira stated that the funds will accelerate the development of WISe.ART V3.0 and drive the creation of trusted NFT solutions, while advancing the expansion of the Hedera network and bringing its distributed ledger technology (DLT) to mainstream adoption.
DePIN
PowerPod, the first shared EV charging station project in the DePIN sector, completed a $1 million seed round led by Waterdrip Capital, with participation from Iotex, Future Money Group, JDI Group, Future3 Campus, and Wagmi Venture. The funding will be primarily used to strengthen hardware development and testing, validate minimum viable business models, and build community ecosystems. PowerPod aims to build a globally open and interconnected charging network to accelerate low-carbon emissions in global transportation.
KuCoin Labs announced a strategic investment in DeMR, a mixed reality (MR) metaverse infrastructure built on Solana. DeMR is a decentralized mixed reality (MR) infrastructure network (MR-DePIN) operating on the Solana blockchain.
Infrastructure
Xiao Ray, Director at IOSG Ventures, disclosed on X that Ethereum smart contract automation tool Gelato recently completed an extension funding round led by IOSG Ventures.
Block explorer developer Etherscan has now completed the acquisition of Solana ecosystem block explorer Solscan. Solscan stated it will continue enhancing user experience on Solana and integrating additional features.
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