Venture Trotter Weekly Review: Week Ending 12/16/22

Ruceto tracked over $500 million in institutional investments into crypto or web3 companies last week. Links to the target company website, investment announcement, and token info are provided via hyperlinks on the Target Name, $ Raised, and Token columns respectively.

Target Name $ Raised Lead Investors Description Token
Fenbushi Capital U.S.
Crypto trading firm
a16z crypto
Build Encrypted Ethereum
Distributed Global
Building a non-blockchain decentralized public network based on a new cryptographic primitive called Nil Message Compute
NIL
Blockchain Capital, Foundry Group, Rho, IOSG Ventures, Robot Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, HackVC, Industry Ventures
Builds infrastructure to monitor and manage the complexity of the mempool
Polychain Capital
Regulated insurance & risk mitigation solutions for cryptoassets & digital assets industry
LDA Capital
Runs PlayMining, a web3 gaming and NFT platform
DEP
Xange
Web3 game with NFT pets
Dragonfly
Enabling crypto purchase inside your app or website
Susquehanna
Zero gas fee, decentralized sports prediction market built on blockchain
For betting
Woori Technology Investment
Provides web3 services related to automated audits, Defi, and blockchain Infrastructure
ego death capital, Entrée Capital
Lightening service provider
Arca, Decasonic and CRIT Ventures
Building tools for creators, brands and agencies to monetize their IP
Archetype
No-code tools and protocol for creators to easily construct highly customizable web3 projects
HashKey, Not Boring Capital, Polygon Studios, and NGC Ventures
Protocol for dynamic, ownable augmented reality
GSRV, OKX Ventures
Web3 user ID verification
Alphabit Digital Currency Fund, Xeta Capital, Launchpool, Westridge Markets, NetZero Capital, XSquared Ventures, GBIC, Alpha Sigma Capital, FBG Capital
Building a hyper-realistic metaverse
Content

Amber Group is a crypto trading firm based in Singapore. Prior to the FTX collapse, Amber Group was trying to prepare for a prolonged crypto bear market by raising a Series B+ at a $3B valuation. The company was negatively impacted by the FTX collapse and had “less than 10%” of their trading capital with FTX. They terminated a $25M sponsorship deal with Chelsea, and laid off 40% of their staff. This negative turn of events prompted the company to pause their Series B+ process and instead raise a $300M Series C round that was led by Fenbushi Capital US.

 

Digital Entertainment Asset runs the PlayMining platform, which includes multiple web3 games and an NFT marketplace that contains art from some of Japan’s top manga artists. The PlayMining economy uses $DEP (DEAPcoin), a utility token that rewards participation on the F2P platform and can be used to buy NFTs as well as in-game items.

 

Dogami built a mobile web3 game called DOGA House and a marketplace for $DOGA NFTs. Players can earn DOGA from airdrops, or in-game by performing daily actions for their virtual pets such as housebreaking, playing, petting, feeding, or cleaning.

 

Nillion is building a non-blockchain network that uses a cryptographic technology they created called Nil Message Compute (“NMC”). The company believes that while blockchain technology allows for decentralized money, data and compute functions are not decentralized because those are completed by individual nodes across the network. Nillion is being built to “secure and decentralize data storage and compute functions across a permissionless node network in a scalable, secure, and private way.” Although the network is not built on a blockchain, section 4.3 of Nillion’s whitepaper indicates that there will be a native token, NIL.

 

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Disclaimer: The content presented is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or professional advice. The content is provided ‘as is’ without any representations or warranties, express or implied.

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