The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure, and the increasing attention that companies are showing to bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in the Cryplogger review.
Web3 startup Magic raises $52M in PayPal Ventures-led round
The venture arm of payments giant PayPal has led a $52 million funding round for startup Magic, which has developed software that helps corporations interact with Web3 customers.
Magic is a multi-platform provider WaaS.
The solution developed by the startup is designed to facilitate the storage of digital assets in a non-custodial wallet. Access to the latter can be configured using an email address, SMS or social media accounts.
Corporations can use the service to organize customer loyalty and membership programs, issue NFTs, reward employees, and sell tickets. Magic’s customers include department store chain Macy’s and toy maker Mattel.
Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital also participated in Magic’s strategic investment round. The amount of funds raised by the startup exceeded $80 million.
Taiko Labs raises $22M to build Type 1 zkEVM
Ethereum blockchain-focused startup Taiko Labs closed two investment rounds for a total of $22 million.
Sequoia China led the first $10 million fundraiser in the third quarter of 2022, while Generative Ventures led a recent $12 million Series A round.
Other investors include OSG Ventures, GSR and GGV Capital, as well as angels represented by POAP co-founder Patricio Warthalter, Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation, and Anthony Sassano.
Taiko creates an Ethereum scaling solution that is “as close as possible to the design and ideology” of the network. The company described the development as a zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine of the first type (zkEVM Type 1).
Previously, the project team launched the third version of the test network, which was called “the next step towards the decentralized equivalent of Ethereum zkEVM.”
According to Taiko co-founder Daniel Wang, the funding will ensure the successful launch of the mainnet. However, he noted that the startup needs more capital to create an investment fund and attract developers to the ecosystem.
Life Insurance Crypto Startup Raises $19M With Sam Altman
Cryptocurrency life insurance startup Meanwhile announced the closing of two seed funding rounds totaling $19 million.
The first was led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and the second by Gradient Ventures, Google’s artificial intelligence fund.
According to a press release, Meanwhile is the “only” insurance firm that offers fully cryptocurrency-denominated products.
The funding will allow the company to obtain a license from the Bermuda regulator, as well as expand the team and launch its first service, life insurance backed by the first cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin is on track to become a global store of value and functional currency. […] When combined with artificial intelligence, we see the potential to create a full-stack life insurance company that aims to reach more than a billion people worldwide,” said Meanwhile CEO Zach Townsend.
Using the latest blockchain and AI technologies, the company plans to create a “comprehensive insurance system that reduces manual labor and promotes transparency.”
Following the initial launch, Meanwhile will continue to work on expanding its product line with new cryptocurrencies and options.
Lens web3 platform raises $15 million
The Lens Protocol project, owned by DeFi landing protocol Aave, has closed a $15M funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures.
Other investors include General Catalyst, Blockchain Capital and Palm Tree, as well as Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, OpenSea CEO Alex Atalla, entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Lens Protocol is a composable and decentralized social graph that uses smart contracts on the Polygon blockchain.
Platform users can create apps, communicate, and subscribe to other people’s updates. Each account is a non-fungible token that provides profile management. NFTs contain “a history of all posts, mirrors, comments, and other content.”
The platform team will use the funds received to expand its ecosystem.
Tabi NFT Marketplace Raises $10M
Marketplace of non-fungible Tabi tokens, created in the BNB Chain ecosystem, raised $10 million.
Investors include venture capital firms Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, Draper Dragon, Hashkey Capital, Infinity Crypto Ventures, and Youbi Capital, as well as a number of angels represented by Dragonfly Capital’s Bo Feng, Saudi Arabia’s Riyad AD, and Mask Network’s Suji Yang.
According to the developers, the proceeds will be used to develop the Tabi ecosystem and create a new network identification protocol.
In addition to the usual NFT functions, the marketplace has an “experience points” system that converts user actions into bonus points. Also in Tabi there is a so-called gaming platform, where all the entertainment components of the trading platform are collected.
Startup founder Xavier Lee said he plans to launch an “NFT incubation fund” that aims to incentivize developers to develop their products and brands on the BNB Chain network.
Haun Ventures Leads Argus Labs $10M Investment Round
developing SDK to create interoperable blockchain games, startup Argus Labs closed a $10 million seed funding round. It was led by Haun Ventures, ex-partner Andreessen Horowitz, Kathy Haun.
The company has been backed by technology and gaming angels including Elad Gil, Balaji Srinivasan and Siki Chen, Kevin Aluvi, Sunny Agarwal, Calvin Liu and Scott Moore. Funding was also provided by Robot Ventures, Anagram and Dispersion Capital.
Using an SDK called World Engine, developers can create and customize compatible game worlds.
“Online games were born on the Internet, but they are isolated, cut off from the huge potential of an interconnected universe,” said startup founder Scott Sunarto.
The entrepreneur is known as the creator of “the first Dark Forws MMORTS game based on zk-SNARK technology.” The difficulties that arose due to the limitations inherent in the current blockchain architecture pushed him to create the World Engine.
Sunarto sees the SDK as “a connected L2 layer for blockchains in the form of open source shards that will serve as the basis for internet gaming.” This structure allows you to distribute the load across high-performance gaming segments.
A shard like this integrates seamlessly with major engines and delivers the features and performance expected of a traditional game server.
Cosmos developers raised $5.3 million in investments
Informal Systems has raised $5.3 million to fund its work as a core development team in the Cosmos ecosystem.
The investment round was led by venture capital firm CMCC Global with support from Nascent, Maven11, and angels from Celestia and EigenLayer. The funds were transferred in the form of convertible promissory notes.
“This fundraising marks an important step for Informal, allowing us to continue expanding the ecosystem by changing the quality standards of software, assets and organizations,” said Ethan Buchman, CEO of Informal Systems.
Part of the proceeds will be used to support the audit security division of Informal Security. This will help projects find bugs and improve protocol code.
Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press CTRL+ENTER
Cryplogger Newsletters: Keep your finger on the pulse of the bitcoin industry!
The cryptocurrency industry is attracting an increasing number of institutional players. This is evidenced by new investments in infrastructure, and the increasing attention that companies are showing to bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of recent weeks are in the Cryplogger review.
Web3 startup Magic raises $52M in PayPal Ventures-led round
The venture arm of payments giant PayPal has led a $52 million funding round for startup Magic, which has developed software that helps corporations interact with Web3 customers.
Magic is a multi-platform provider WaaS.
The solution developed by the startup is designed to facilitate the storage of digital assets in a non-custodial wallet. Access to the latter can be configured using an email address, SMS or social media accounts.
Corporations can use the service to organize customer loyalty and membership programs, issue NFTs, reward employees, and sell tickets. Magic’s customers include department store chain Macy’s and toy maker Mattel.
Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital also participated in Magic’s strategic investment round. The amount of funds raised by the startup exceeded $80 million.
Taiko Labs raises $22M to build Type 1 zkEVM
Ethereum blockchain-focused startup Taiko Labs closed two investment rounds for a total of $22 million.
Sequoia China led the first $10 million fundraiser in the third quarter of 2022, while Generative Ventures led a recent $12 million Series A round.
Other investors include OSG Ventures, GSR and GGV Capital, as well as angels represented by POAP co-founder Patricio Warthalter, Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation, and Anthony Sassano.
Taiko creates an Ethereum scaling solution that is “as close as possible to the design and ideology” of the network. The company described the development as a zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine of the first type (zkEVM Type 1).
Previously, the project team launched the third version of the test network, which was called “the next step towards the decentralized equivalent of Ethereum zkEVM.”
According to Taiko co-founder Daniel Wang, the funding will ensure the successful launch of the mainnet. However, he noted that the startup needs more capital to create an investment fund and attract developers to the ecosystem.
Life Insurance Crypto Startup Raises $19M With Sam Altman
Cryptocurrency life insurance startup Meanwhile announced the closing of two seed funding rounds totaling $19 million.
The first was led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and the second by Gradient Ventures, Google’s artificial intelligence fund.
According to a press release, Meanwhile is the “only” insurance firm that offers fully cryptocurrency-denominated products.
The funding will allow the company to obtain a license from the Bermuda regulator, as well as expand the team and launch its first service, life insurance backed by the first cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin is on track to become a global store of value and functional currency. […] When combined with artificial intelligence, we see the potential to create a full-stack life insurance company that aims to reach more than a billion people worldwide,” said Meanwhile CEO Zach Townsend.
Using the latest blockchain and AI technologies, the company plans to create a “comprehensive insurance system that reduces manual labor and promotes transparency.”
Following the initial launch, Meanwhile will continue to work on expanding its product line with new cryptocurrencies and options.
Lens web3 platform raises $15 million
The Lens Protocol project, owned by DeFi landing protocol Aave, has closed a $15M funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures.
Other investors include General Catalyst, Blockchain Capital and Palm Tree, as well as Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, OpenSea CEO Alex Atalla, entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Lens Protocol is a composable and decentralized social graph that uses smart contracts on the Polygon blockchain.
Platform users can create apps, communicate, and subscribe to other people’s updates. Each account is a non-fungible token that provides profile management. NFTs contain “a history of all posts, mirrors, comments, and other content.”
The platform team will use the funds received to expand its ecosystem.
Tabi NFT Marketplace Raises $10M
Marketplace of non-fungible Tabi tokens, created in the BNB Chain ecosystem, raised $10 million.
Investors include venture capital firms Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, Draper Dragon, Hashkey Capital, Infinity Crypto Ventures, and Youbi Capital, as well as a number of angels represented by Dragonfly Capital’s Bo Feng, Saudi Arabia’s Riyad AD, and Mask Network’s Suji Yang.
According to the developers, the proceeds will be used to develop the Tabi ecosystem and create a new network identification protocol.
In addition to the usual NFT functions, the marketplace has an “experience points” system that converts user actions into bonus points. Also in Tabi there is a so-called gaming platform, where all the entertainment components of the trading platform are collected.
Startup founder Xavier Lee said he plans to launch an “NFT incubation fund” that aims to incentivize developers to develop their products and brands on the BNB Chain network.
Haun Ventures Leads Argus Labs $10M Investment Round
developing SDK to create interoperable blockchain games, startup Argus Labs closed a $10 million seed funding round. It was led by Haun Ventures, ex-partner Andreessen Horowitz, Kathy Haun.
The company has been backed by technology and gaming angels including Elad Gil, Balaji Srinivasan and Siki Chen, Kevin Aluvi, Sunny Agarwal, Calvin Liu and Scott Moore. Funding was also provided by Robot Ventures, Anagram and Dispersion Capital.
Using an SDK called World Engine, developers can create and customize compatible game worlds.
“Online games were born on the Internet, but they are isolated, cut off from the huge potential of an interconnected universe,” said startup founder Scott Sunarto.
The entrepreneur is known as the creator of “the first Dark Forws MMORTS game based on zk-SNARK technology.” The difficulties that arose due to the limitations inherent in the current blockchain architecture pushed him to create the World Engine.
Sunarto sees the SDK as “a connected L2 layer for blockchains in the form of open source shards that will serve as the basis for internet gaming.” This structure allows you to distribute the load across high-performance gaming segments.
A shard like this integrates seamlessly with major engines and delivers the features and performance expected of a traditional game server.
Cosmos developers raised $5.3 million in investments
Informal Systems has raised $5.3 million to fund its work as a core development team in the Cosmos ecosystem.
The investment round was led by venture capital firm CMCC Global with support from Nascent, Maven11, and angels from Celestia and EigenLayer. The funds were transferred in the form of convertible promissory notes.
“This fundraising marks an important step for Informal, allowing us to continue expanding the ecosystem by changing the quality standards of software, assets and organizations,” said Ethan Buchman, CEO of Informal Systems.
Part of the proceeds will be used to support the audit security division of Informal Security. This will help projects find bugs and improve protocol code.
Found a mistake in the text? Select it and press CTRL+ENTER
Cryplogger Newsletters: Keep your finger on the pulse of the bitcoin industry!