Financing Weekly Report | 8 public financing events; Usual completed US$10 million in Series A financing, led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures
Reprinted from panewslab
12/30/2024·4MHighlights in this issue
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 8 investment and financing events in the global blockchain last week (12.23-12.29), with the total scale of funds exceeding US$51 million, which were significantly reduced compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:
- DeFi announced four investment and financing events, among which stablecoin issuer Avalon Labs completed a $10 million Series A round of financing, led by Framework Ventures;
- The AI track announced three investment and financing events. Its ChainOpera AI completed a US$17 million seed round of financing, led by IDG Capital and others;
- An investment and financing event was announced in the field of consumer applications . Kettle, an on-chain luxury watch trading market, completed US$4 million in financing, with ParaFi Capital leading the investment.
DeFi
Stablecoin issuer Avalon Labs completes $10 million in Series A financing, led by Framework Ventures
Avalon Labs, the issuer of Bitcoin-backed stablecoin USDa, has completed a $10 million Series A funding round to expand its Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. The round was led by Framework Ventures, with participation from UXTO Management, Presto Labs and Kenetic Capital. Avalon Labs is committed to transforming Bitcoin from a digital store of value into a more active financial instrument, providing users with services including stable currency USDa, Bitcoin-backed lending, income-generating savings accounts and credit cards. Users can obtain USDa tokens by mortgaging BTC at a fixed 8% lending rate. Currently, USDa’s total lock-up volume (TVL) has reached US$700 million.
Usual completes US$10 million in Series A financing, led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures
RWA stablecoin protocol Usual announced the completion of a US$10 million Series A financing. This round of financing was led by Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures. Investors include Galaxy Digital, OKX Ventures, Wintermute, Amber Group, GSR, Fasanara Digital and other well-known institutions. . Usual is committed to promoting new developments in the field of stablecoins through innovative stablecoin solutions and decentralized finance (DeFi) models. This round of financing will lay a solid foundation for building a decentralized ecosystem and promoting the "stablecoin renaissance" plan.
The cross-chain DeFi protocol EYWA completed a new round of financing, co-led by Kenetic Capital and Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov, and also received support from the co-founder of 1inch. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. So far, EYWA’s cumulative financing has reached US$8.5 million. Kenetic has previously invested in well-known blockchain projects such as Ethereum, Solana, Algorand, and Polkadot.
DEX platform Valhalla completes $1.5 million in Pre-Seed round of financing
DEX platform Valhalla announced the completion of a $1.5 million Pre-Seed round of financing, led by Robot Ventures, with participation from Miton C, Kronos, Sumcap, Hash3, Big Brain Holdings, GSR, Wincent, and multiple angel investors. According to reports, Valhalla is a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly from their wallets without relying on intermediaries. Valhalla's goal is to create a fully on-chain perpetual contract exchange.
AI
ChainOpera AI completed US$17 million in seed round financing, led by IDG Capital and others
ChainOpera AI has completed a $17 million seed round of financing and plans to develop blockchain L1 and AI operating systems to build decentralized AI agents and applications. The financing was led by Finality Capital, Road Capital and IDG Capital, with participation from a number of well-known investment institutions and angel investors, including BabylonChain co-founder David Tse and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan. ChainOpera will use the funds to build a decentralized ecosystem that supports AI co-creation and co-ownership, and promote AI innovation and data privacy protection. Its platform plans to launch flagship products and mobile applications in the next few weeks to further promote the integrated development of blockchain and AI.
Decentralized AI platform Nodepay completes second round of financing, totaling $7 million
Decentralized AI platform Nodepay announced that it has completed its second round of financing, totaling $7 million. Investors in the latest round of financing include IDG Capital, Mythos, Elevate Ventures, IBC, Optic Capital, Funders.VC, Etherscan founder Matthew Tan and CoinHako co-founder and CEO Yusho Liu. Nodepay’s previous investors include Animoca Brands, Mirana, OKX Ventures, JUMP Crypto and Tokenbay Capital. According to reports, Nodepay is a decentralized AI platform dedicated to democratizing AI training through real-time data retrieval. By turning idle internet bandwidth into resources, Nodepay powers the next generation of AI models.
Swan Chain announces completion of US$2 million in financing
The decentralized AI infrastructure project Swan Chain (formerly known as FilSwan) completed US$2 million in financing. This round of financing was led by DWF Labs, Optimism Foundation and Promontory Tech.
Consumption
Kettle, an on-chain luxury watch trading market, announced the completion of US$4 million in financing, led by ParaFi Capital. Strategic investors include Zee Prime Capital, Kronos, Signum Capital, IOSG Ventures, and Puzzle Ventures. Funds will be used to build the RWA platform. According to reports, Kettle is a peer-to-peer marketplace where users can trade luxury watches based on their full financial value. Kettle says the watches on its platform are insurance-certified and stored in the Kettle Vault in New York.
investment institutions
Switzerland-based Hashgraph Group has obtained a fund management license from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) in the United Arab Emirates. Hashgraph Ventures Manager, a unit of Hashgraph Group, has obtained a license allowing it to launch a $100 million Web3 venture capital fund from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
Hashgraph Group will contribute $20 million, or 20% of the fund, as seed capital. The fund will focus on investing in startups and established companies within the Hedera ecosystem. Stefan Deiss, co-founder and CEO of Hashgraph Group, said that the fund has received widespread support and attention from co-investors, including government agencies, sovereign wealth funds, venture capital funds, family offices and other qualified investors; the group will focus on Invest in companies leveraging the Hedera network and promote collaboration among Web3 companies.
The fund will prioritize strategic investments in companies in the Web3 and deep technology fields (developing artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, robotics and quantum computing solutions). Qualifying projects will have the opportunity to participate in the Hashgraph Association’s Entrepreneurship Studio program.
chaincatcher
