Financing Weekly Report | 18 public financing events; stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK completed US$50 million in Series B financing, led by Haun Ventures
Reprinted from panewslab
12/23/2024·5MHighlights in this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 18 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (12.16-12.22), with the total scale of funds exceeding US$160 million, a significant decrease compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- Three investment and financing events were announced in DeFi , among which BVNK successfully raised US$50 million in all-equity Series B financing, led by Haun Ventures, a giant fund focused on cryptocurrency;
- Four investment and financing events were announced in the AI field, among which Fraction AI completed US$6 million in Pre-Seed financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Spartan Group and Symbolic Capital;
- The infrastructure and tools track announced two investment and financing events, among which Layer-1 blockchain Plume completed a new round of financing of US$20 million, with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures and others;
- Five investment and financing events were announced in other blockchain/encryption applications , among which Aave developer Avara completed US$31 million in financing for the development of Lens, with Lightspeed Faction leading the investment;
- Three investment and financing events were announced in the field of centralized finance , among which Prometheum completed US$20 million in financing, which came from a group of undisclosed individuals and institutions.
DeFi
British stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK has successfully raised $50 million in an all-equity Series B round led by cryptocurrency-focused mega-fund Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and existing investor Tiger Global. According to people familiar with the matter, BVNK will be valued at approximately US$750 million after this round of financing. A BVNK spokesman declined to comment on the valuation.
According to reports, although BVNK is opening offices in San Francisco and New York and plans to launch services in the United States in January, it has been focusing on the European and Asian markets. An important part of BVNK’s value proposition lies in its license and relationships with financial institutions, which facilitate the movement of funds between different fiat currencies. BVNK holds a virtual asset service provider license in Spain, which allows BVNK to establish partnerships with a number of major European banks including Barclays, BBVA, Deutsche Bank and Santander.
DeFi application layer Rujira announced that it has completed US$7 million in financing
DeFi application layer Rujira said in its official blog: “Rujira has successfully raised $7 million from a group of investors who stepped in early after the merger announcement. With these funds, we have the ability to execute our plans and are currently unable to do so.” Additional funding is required. In the future, if necessary, we will be able to obtain additional funding through OTC transactions to further support the development of Rujira. The completion of this round of financing also clears a key obstacle for RUJI TGE, which is currently expected to be launched. Next year 2 Held on January 27th. As always, this schedule is for reference only and is subject to change. " According to reports, Rujira is a DeFi application layer on THORChain, created by the Rujira Alliance between Kujira, Levana and THORChain. It combines Kujira’s DeFi tools with THORChain’s liquidity and cross-chain capabilities to enable seamless, bridge-free access to blockchain networks.
UTXO Stack completes a new round of financing, valued at US$50 million
UTXO Stack announced the completion of a new round of financing led by UTXO Management, PAKA Fund and CMS Holdings, with a valuation of US$50 million. This financing will be used to accelerate the development of Lightning Network liquidity, introduce stablecoins into the Bitcoin ecosystem, and plan to launch airdrop incentives for Bitcoin liquidity providers in early January 2024, while conducting the first token generation event on the Lightning Network ( TGE).
AI
Fraction AI, an encryption and artificial intelligence startup focusing on decentralized data annotation, has completed $6 million in Pre-Seed financing. This round of financing was co-led by Spartan Group and Symbolic Capital. Other investors include Borderless Capital, Anagram, and Foresight Ventures. and Karatage. In addition, angel investors such as Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin also participated and served as advisors.
Founded in February 2024, Fraction AI is committed to reshaping the data annotation process through a decentralized approach, using a hybrid approach that combines human insights with AI agents. Its platform mainly includes three types of participants: stakers who receive rewards by staking ETH or liquid staking tokens (such as stETH), developers who create AI agents and participate in challenges, and reviewers who participate in evaluations through the native token FRAC (based on LLM that evaluates results against specific criteria). Fraction AI plans to launch the mainnet and native token FRAC at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter of 2025. It has completed closed beta and is expected to launch an open beta next month. There are currently more than 60,000 test users. The company is currently developing based on Ethereum and plans to expand to NEAR and multiple Ethereum Layer 2 networks.
FLock, a decentralized AI training platform, announced the completion of a US$3 million strategic round of financing, bringing the total financing to US$11 million. This round of financing was led by Grayscale parent company Digital Currency Group DCG, followed by Lightspeed Faction, with participation from strategic partners such as Animoca Brands, Fenbushi Capital, Gnosis VC, GSR Ventures, OKCoin Japan, Bas1s Ventures and A41. This round of financing will enable FLock to advance the path of democratized AI model development and continue to build a decentralized AI training platform. According to reports, FLock aims to use blockchain technology to solve problems such as insufficient transparency, weak data privacy, and unfair contributor returns in traditional AI centralized systems. Through its decentralized collaboration model, data is always retained locally and does not need to be uploaded to Third parties and contributors fairly share the benefits brought by data, computing power and feedback, giving everyone the opportunity to participate in AI development.
Skynet, a decentralized AI agency payment protocol, completed a $1.2 million Pre-Seed round of financing. This round of financing received donations from well-known angel investors including GitHub, Polygon, Veracode and Monotype. The funds will be used to develop "The World's Resource Blockchain", a system designed to connect global resources and enable artificial intelligence agents to autonomously perform payments and perform tasks across multiple platforms. According to reports, the Skynet interface provides AI agents with access to resources, transaction functions, and integration with decentralized applications (dApps) across multiple virtual machines (VMs). Skynet’s infrastructure is built on Arbitrum’s Orbit chain, providing payment and tracking mechanisms. This enables AI agents to complete real-life tasks, including booking flights, managing accommodation and handling financial portfolios.
The decentralized AI data chain Masa announced the completion of a new round of financing. Grayscale’s parent company Digital Currency Group DCG led the investment, and FBG Capital participated. The specific amount has not yet been disclosed. It is reported that DCG participated in its seed round of financing two years ago. The new funds will support its continued development of customizable AI frameworks and the use of real-time data to expand the AI agent ecosystem.
DePIN
VanEck has invested $2.5 million in the decentralized autonomous wireless network DAWN, with investment coming from VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha fund and VanEck Ventures. VanEck revealed that this strategic financing marks "the first time that multiple VanEck funds have made a direct investment in the same company." Part of the $2.5 million in funding will be used to expand retail participation through hardware, let users create small networks for internet sharing, and allow DAWN to expand internationally. Andrena CEO Neil Chatterjee said that with the launch of 5G and Starlink, society is moving from wired internet to completely wireless internet, and DAWN aims to capitalize on this "life change". Currently, the DAWN user base is mainly concentrated in the United States. The team’s two biggest goals are achieved through its plans: on-chain income and home users. Chatterjee declined to disclose specific figures for these two indicators, but noted that the team is working hard to achieve goals in the "millions" level.
Infrastructure & Tools
Plume, a fully modular integrated Layer-1 blockchain focusing on real-world asset finance (RWAfi), completed a new round of financing of US$20 million from Brevan Howard Digital, Haun Ventures, Lightspeed Faction, Galaxy Ventures, Superscrypt, Hashkey, Laser Digital ( Nomura Group), A Capital, 280 Capital, SV Angel, Reciprocal Ventures, etc. jointly invested, bringing its total financing to US$30 million. Plume will use the funds raised in its latest round of funding to expand from crypto-native users to traditional financial firms and asset managers. It is reported that Plume is a fully modular integrated Layer-1 blockchain focusing on RWAfi, providing a composable, EVM-compatible environment for accessing and managing various real-world assets. Plume provides an end-to-end tokenization engine and a series of financial infrastructure partners to simplify the asset access process and achieve seamless integration of real-world assets and DeFi.
Crypto and NFT transaction analysis platform DexCheck completed a new round of financing, with ChainGPT Labs participating in the investment
DexCheck, an encryption and NFT transaction analysis platform, announced the completion of a new round of financing in a post on the Wallet analysis, encrypted whale tracking, and expanded InsightsGPT tools help traders make informed decisions.
other
Web3 social
Aave developer Avara completes $31 million in financing to develop Lens, led by Lightspeed Faction
Aave protocol developer Avara announced the completion of a $31 million round of financing led by Lightspeed Faction. Alchemy, Avail, Circle, Consensys, DFG, Fabric Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Stellarcore, Superscript, Re7 and Wintermute Ventures participated in the investment. In addition, angel investors participating in this round of investment include Anurag Arjun, Anton Bukov, Rune Christensen, Alex Gluchowski, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Loi Luu, Spencer Noon and Duncan Robinson. With Lens, Avara is building a decentralized protocol that provides infrastructure for social and consumer applications. News of the funding round comes just weeks after Lens unveiled Lens v3, a new upgrade to its protocol. Lens v3 was originally built on the Polygon blockchain. Consumer applications using Lens v2 include NFT creation and sharing application Zora, Twitter-like platforms Hey and Kaira, and sub-community-focused application Orb. With Lens v3, the company is solving one of the biggest problems in web3 social experiments - transaction costs.
SocialFi project Metya completes strategic financing, led by CGV Capital
Metya, an AI-driven SocialFi project, announced the completion of strategic financing, led by investment institution CGV (Cryptogram Venture). The specific financing amount has not yet been disclosed. This round of financing will help Metya deepen the layout of the Web3 social ecosystem and promote product innovation and user growth. Metya is a SocialFi project that combines AI and blockchain technology. It pioneers the DatingFi model and is committed to creating a borderless and efficient social experience for users through decentralized networks and cross-language functions. Metya has attracted more than 8.5 million active users and previously launched MeAi, a smart hardware device.
Web3 content monetization platform Promeet completes US$3.1 million in Pre-Seed round of financing
Web3 content monetization platform Promeet announced the completion of a $3.1 million Pre-Seed round of financing. The investment was raised through SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), but the investor was not disclosed. With the new funding, Promeet plans to expand its team, enhance platform capabilities and expand its user base. According to reports, Promeet is now online and operational, and has attracted thousands of creators. By promoting transactions through USDC on the Polygon network, Promeet ensures that creators can get paid quickly and securely, and at a lower cost than traditional platforms. Low.
Consumer applications:
DuckChain completed US$5 million in financing, with participation from DWF Ventures and others
DuckChain, the TON ecological consumption layer, announced the successful completion of US$5 million in financing. Investors include DAO5, Offchain Labs, Kenetic Capital, DWF Ventures, Oak Grove VC, Skyland VC, Geek Cartel, Gate.io, Presto Labs, etc. In addition, angel investors from well-known projects such as CamelotDEX and Quantstamp also participated in this round of financing. DuckChain plans to use the funds to unleash the on-chain potential of more than 30 million Telegram Star users through TON-based EVM solutions. At the same time, DuckChain also launched the "Yellow Duck Mission" hackathon, with a total prize pool of US$1 million, and partners include Wallet, Arbitrum and OnePiece Labs.
The decentralized environmental intelligence platform Silencio Network completed a $2.5 million seed round of financing, led by Blockchange Ventures, with participation from Borderless Capital and Master Ventures, Blockchain Founders Fund, Prosper GmbH & Co. KG and Advanced Blockchain AG. According to reports, Silencio Network combines decentralized infrastructure with hyper-local data to transform industries such as urban planning, real estate, and hospitality. By delivering street noise intelligence, the platform provides governments, businesses and consumers with actionable insights to shape a smarter, more sustainable environment.
Centralized Finance
Tokenized securities company Prometheum completes $20 million in financing
Tokenized securities company Prometheum completed US$20 million in financing, which came from an undisclosed group of individuals and institutions, bringing Prometheum’s total funding to approximately US$64.3 million. Prometheum has two subsidiaries. One is an alternative trading system expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2025. The other is a custodian currently serving institutional investors, focusing on a handful of well-known crypto assets. The funds will be used to add more crypto assets and launch upcoming security tokens. According to previous news , Prometheum, an encryption company that once had close relations with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is facing new challenges. With President-elect Trump and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announcing that he will leave his post early next year, the company’s previous business model based on “encrypted assets as securities” may need to be repositioned.
Cross-border payment service provider Juicyway completes US$3 million in Pre-Seed round of financing
Juicyway, a stablecoin-based cross-border payment service provider, announced the completion of a US$3 million Pre-Seed round of financing, with participation from P1 Ventures, Ventures Platform Fund, and Future Africa. Juicyway mainly uses stablecoins and cryptocurrencies to simplify cross-border settlements and reduce transaction latency by bypassing traditional intermediaries. The new funds are intended to be used to support its provision of accessible quasi-bank and crypto wallet services, enabling stablecoins to act as a bridge. Seamless deposit and withdrawal services that facilitate instant settlement and reduce reliance on highly volatile currencies.
BitDCA Completes $2 Million Pre-Seed Round of Financing to Launch Bitcoin Savings App “Littlebit”
Fintech innovation company BitDCA has completed a $2 million Pre-Seed round of financing to launch a Bitcoin savings application called “Littlebit”. Investors were not disclosed. According to reports, Czech Republic-based BitDCA was founded in 2019 to simplify long-term Bitcoin investment by launching user-friendly dollar cost averaging (DCA) solutions. The Littlebit app allows users to automatically save a percentage of their daily spending as Bitcoin. The company's operational plans include entering the Czech Republic and Poland in the first quarter of 2025, followed by expansion into the UK.
investment institutions
Big Time Studios announces $150 million Open Loot fund
Big Time Studios announced the establishment of a US$150 million Open Loot fund aimed at promoting game development on the Web3 game platform Open Loot. The fund will provide game studios with financial support, marketing and development guidance to help develop high-quality crypto games. The Open Loot platform has 1.5 million registered players, supports developers to mint and distribute digital assets through the SDK, and rewards players and developers with $OL tokens. Currently, the platform has achieved nearly $500 million in transaction volume.
Blockchain venture capital Verda Ventures partners with Opera to launch $40 million MiniPay fund
Blockchain venture capital firm Verda Ventures announced a $40 million MiniPay fund in partnership with web browser company Opera to support blockchain startups in emerging markets. Investors in the fund also include Jump Crypto, Borderless Group and Richard Parsons, Startups benefiting from the MiniPay Fund will have access to Opera’s MiniPay wallet framework and build financial products around it, while also integrating related infrastructure to build on.
Web3 chess game company Immortal Games launches $2 million investment fund
Web3 chess game company Immortal Games announced the launch of a US$2 million investment fund to attract game guilds and Web3 game projects to join its on-chain e-sports tournament platform Coliseum.
jinse