Financing Weekly | 14 public financing events; crypto payment company Mesh completed a US$82 million Series B financing, led by Paradigm

What's the highlight of this issue

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 14 investment and financing events in global blockchain last week (3.10-3.16); the total funding scale exceeded US$166 million, a significant decrease compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:

• DeFi announced four investment and financing events, including Vest completed a US$5 million financing, and Jane Street and others participated in the investment;
• Web3 game track announced three investment and financing events, among which Japanese Web3 game development company Mint Town completed a new round of financing of approximately US$4.75 million;
• Four investment and financing events have been announced in the Web3+AI field, among which PoPP, a decentralized user agreement platform based on AI, completed a US$6 million financing, and Oasis Labs and others participated in the investment;
• In the field of infrastructure and tools, one investment and financing event was announced, Offline Protocol completed a US$1.1 million Pre-Seed financing, led by Portal Ventures;
• Centralized finance announced two investment and financing events, among which RedotPay completed a US$40 million Series A financing, led by Lightspeed.

DeFi

Vest completes $5 million in financing and launches decentralized risk pricing engine

Vest announced a $5 million financing to build The Universal Risk Engine. This round of financing was led by institutions such as Jane Street, Selini Capital, Amber Group, QCP, Big Brain Holdings, Mozaik Capital, and executives from financial giants such as BlackRock and Citadel participated. Vest aims to solve the current problem of fragmentation and isolation of risk pricing data in financial markets, and provides a verifiable neutral framework that enables financial participants to share risk models that dynamically adapt to market conditions, replacing traditional individual risk assessments. Vest Exchange, the first product of Vest, is a perpetual contract exchange that uses blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs (zk proofs) technology to ensure that the trading environment is transparent and fair and avoid market manipulation.

Templar Protocol completes $4 million in Pre-Seed round of financing

Templar Protocol, the crypto lending agreement, announced the completion of a US$4 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with Robot Ventures, Digital Asset Capital Management, Proximity Labs, Blackdragon Capital, NEAR Protocol and several strategic angel investors participating in the investment. This funding will accelerate Templar's development roadmap and product releases. According to reports, Templar Protocol is a startup dedicated to developing crypto lending platforms for Bitcoin and other digital assets. Its goal is to enable users to borrow Bitcoin or other assets without relying on centralized institutions. The team plans to launch the agreement in the second quarter of 2025.

Solana pledge agreement Rakurai completes seed round of $3 million

The Solana ecological high-yield pledge agreement Rakurai announced the completion of a US$3 million seed round of financing, led by AnagramVentures, and participated by institutions such as Colosseum, SlowVentures, RobotVentures, Crypto.comCapital, P2P.org, GlobalStake, CyberFund and other institutions. This round of financing will be used to accelerate high-performance node deployment and improve TPS (trading volume per second) and block rewards through proprietary scheduling and pipeline optimization.

Arda, a real estate tokenization company founded by former JPMorgan executives, completes $3 million in Pre-Seed round

Real estate tokenization company Arda received a $3 million Pre-Seed round from Lightshift Capital, which will use the funds raised from this round to develop product prototypes, recruit more engineers, and establish partnerships with real estate developers and other companies in the field. According to reports, the company was founded by Oli Harris, former head of digital asset strategy at JPMorgan Chase, and aims to help the entire real estate economy become digital and use blockchain technology to store this data. Harris said when Arda launches its products, it will make a profit by charging a fixed fee to view real estate data. The company will also charge transaction fees for updating specific property data and processing transactions.

Web3 Games

Japanese Web3 game development company Mint Town completes a new round of financing of approximately US$4.75 million

Japanese Web3 game development company Mint Town announced that it has raised a total of 700 million yen (about 4.75 million US dollars) of funds through a third-party targeted capital increase based on the fund "X&KSK" established by Japanese football player Keiyuki Honda as a major investor. The financing has brought the company's cumulative financing amount to about 2 billion yen (about 13.56 million US dollars). The funds raised will be used to strengthen the marketing of the company's "Soccer Tsubasa-RIVALS-" Mini Dapps, a comic-formed web3 game under the company, and to use its exclusive token "JOHN" to carry out strategic initiatives. The company plans to launch tokens on exchanges in the second quarter of 2025.

Web3 game developer M10 completed a seed round of $3 million, with Sui Foundation and others participating in the investment

Web3 game developer and publisher M10 completed a $3 million seed round of financing, with Sui Foundation, GSR, Big Brain Holdings, Monoceros, Blockchain Founders Fund and Presto Labs participating. According to reports, the M10 was founded by a group of veterans in the gaming industry who hope to surpass the F2P model. Team members include CEO Maitham Mohamed (Forbes 30 elite under 30, semi-professional FIFA players), President Lars Buttler (co-founder of Trion Worlds) and Chief Creative Officer Martin Capel (director of Ubisoft Assassin's Creed).

Web3 game developer Autoverse Studios receives $1 million investment from Coinbase Ventures

Autoverse Studios, a developer of Web3 racing game Auto Legends, has received $1 million in investment from Coinbase Ventures, which has previously raised $8 million . New funds may be used to support game development and expansion of the Auto Legends ecosystem. According to reports, Auto Legends is a blockchain-based linear racing game where players can own and trade digital assets. The game includes authorized vehicles from manufacturers such as McLaren, Mitsubishi, Honda and Mazda, providing a tailor-made experience for car enthusiasts. The game is currently in closed beta and can be registered via the Epic Games Store for Windows and Mac. The mobile version is also under development and is scheduled to be fully released later this year.

AI

PoPP, a decentralized user agreement platform based on AI, completes $6 million in financing

PoPP, a decentralized user agreement platform based on AI, announced the completion of the last round of $6 million in financing before TGE, bringing its total financing amount to $12 million. The investors in this round include Oasis Labs, X-Labs, Becker ventures, InnoAlpha, Starbase, Blocklike Ventures, Echo3 Labs, Greenwood Global Capital, HG Ventures, IBC Group, Presto Labs, PrimeLink, and 80 KOLs from South Korea, CIS, Indonesia and the Philippines. PoPP analyzes on-chain behavior and provides users with dynamic on-chain identity tags, achieving accurate matching between users and DApps, while providing developers with efficient and privacy-oriented audience positioning. PoPP’s latest roadmap shows that it will focus on building a Web3 user ecosystem, integrating PoPP AI-Profile, and creating a more intelligent and personalized Web3 experience for users and developers.

nunu.ai completed a $6 million seed round of financing, led by TIRTA Ventures and a16z speedrun

According to official nunu.ai, the company has completed a $6 million seed round of financing, led by TIRTA Ventures and a16z speedrun, and other participants include Factorial Funds, Y Combinator, Earthling, Hartmann Capital, FOV Ventures and New Renaissance Ventures. nunu.ai focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, games and robotics technology, and is committed to building the first AI agent that can test and play games, and promoting the intelligent development of the game industry.

Aura completes a $5.5 million seed round of financing on-chain AI model verification and leasing market

Aura completed a $5.5 million seed round of financing in on-chain AI model verification and leasing market, led by Daxos Capital, Manifold Trading and Selini Capital, and Hermeneutic Investments participated. With the completion of this round of financing, Aura is accelerating its technology roadmap and preparing for the next phase of platform development. According to reports, Aura is a fully decentralized platform designed for AI models, with architecture centered around the principles of discoverability, engagement and open innovation. Aura provides on-chain AI infrastructure to support AI model users and creators through a decentralized AI market, verifiable model integrity mechanisms and an incentive consistent AI deployment ecosystem.

Sogni AI completes $2 million in financing for decentralized creative AI platform

Sogni AI, a decentralized creative AI platform, completed a $2 million financing, led by Comma3 Ventures and Republic Ventures, and participated by Contango Digital, Oyster Ventures, ARC, DEXT Force Ventures, Nosana, Formless Capital, Gecko Ventures and more Web3 investors and industry veterans. According to reports, Sogni AI was founded by a former CoinMarketCap executive and has launched a decentralized GPU network Supernet, which aims to support AI-driven content creation. The network provides rendering speeds 176 times faster than traditional cloud services by allocating workloads on decentralized infrastructure.

Infrastructure & Tools

Offline Protocol completes $1.1 million Pre-Seed financing, led by Portal Ventures

According to the official announcement of Offline Protocol, the project has completed a US$1.1 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Portal Ventures, participated by Seed Club Ventures, and supported by angel investors such as Paul Taylor, Rushi Manchester, and Rahim Noorani. Offline Protocol is committed to building a decentralized, private, and censor-resistant offline network, allowing users to directly control communications, personal finance and information access. At present, its core product OfflineID has covered 15,000 users during the private testing phase, with a total of 70,000 sessions and 240,000 devices.

Centralized Finance

Crypto payment company Mesh completes US$82 million Series B financing, led by Paradigm

crypto payment company Mesh announced the completion of a $82 million Series B financing to expand its global payment settlement network based on stablecoins. This round of financing was led by Paradigm, with ConsenSys, QuantumLight, Yolo Investments, Evolution VC, Hike Ventures, Opportuna and AltaIR Capital participating, and most of the investment funds were settled through PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin. Mesh is building a blockchain payment network that enables users to pay with crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), while merchants can choose to settle in stablecoins such as Circle's USDC, PayPal's PYUSD or Ripple's RLUSD. Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi said the funding will be used for global expansion, promoting crypto payments as convenient as credit card payments.

RedotPay completes US$40 million Series A financing, led by Lightspeed

According to the official announcement of RedotPay, it has completed a US$40 million Series A financing, led by Lightspeed, with investments including HSG, Galaxy Ventures, DST Global Partners, Accel, Vertex Ventures and others. This round of financing will be used to accelerate the expansion of global crypto payment solutions. Founded in April 2023, RedotPay has developed more than 3 million users, providing seamless cryptocurrency payment and fiat currency conversion services, and is committed to providing financial services to unbanked groups.