We are experiencing an explosion in Web3 investment funding, with public data showing that 51% of the investment funding received by blockchain companies worldwide in 2022 will come from the US, 18% from China, 5% from Switzerland and 4% from the UK. The blockchain market is expected to grow from $7.18 billion to $67.4 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 68.4%.From this week’s statistics (17 projects in total), the number of GameFi (6) pitches started to rise, web3 infrastructure (6) remained the focus of pitches, and the number of NFT (4) and DeFi (1) projects slowed down. CGV and CTC have put together a roundup of the week’s noteworthy pitches in the global crypto market. The following is a summary of the global crypto market’s noteworthy investment and funding information from 23 May to 29 May.
【Infrastructure】
1. Afriex｜Series A funding of $10 million｜Led by Dragonfly Capital
On May 24, Afriex, an African blockchain fintech company, announced the completion of a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital China and Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Goldentree, Stellar Foundation and Exceptional Capital. Afriex is valued at US$60 million.
Afriex, which helps users convert funds to Stablecoin and provide money transfer services primarily on the African continent, raised a seed round of $1.3 million in May 2021.
Link to original article:https://www.thenicheng.com/afriex-raises-10m-to-boost-blockchain-money-transfer/
2. Common｜Raising $20 million｜Polygon and others participated
On 24 May, DAO management platform Common closed a $20 million round of funding with participation from Spark Capital, Polychain, Jump, Wintermute and BitDAO. The new funding will be used to drive the further development and decentralisation of its community management platform, Commonwealth, and to launch its own Token CMN. in addition, Common plans to later launch an app shop for DAO, allowing each community to choose its own features.
Link to original article:https://decrypt.co/100437/common-raises-20m-to-build-dao-management-platform-launch-token
3. MetaEstate｜Strategic round of equity financing｜Led by Matrixport and SevenX Ventures
On May 25, MetaEstate, a metaverse provider, closed its latest multi-million dollar strategic round led by Matrixport and SevenX Ventures, followed by Everest Ventures Group, Y+ Ventures and other institutions, and the previous round’s investor, Japanese fund Cryptogram Venture ( CGV) continues to follow. In addition, several crypto-investor partners participated in their individual capacities.
MetaEstate is a metaverse service provider that aims to help more users make a low barrier entry into the metaverse world and to quickly establish a sense of presence and belonging in the metaverse.
Link to original article:https://www.newsbtc.com/press-releases/metaestate-has-closed-a-multi-million-dollar-strategic-round-of-funding-led-by-matrixport-and-sevenx-ventures/
4. StarkWare｜Series D funding of $100 million｜Led by Greenoaks Capital
On May 25, StarkWare, the Ethernet Layer 2 development company, announced the completion of a $100 million Series D funding round led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue, with participation from other existing and new investors including Tiger Global, for $8 billion. The new funds will be used to advance its product, engineering and business development, to grow its ecosystem around StarkEx and StarkNet, and to expand its team.
Link to original article:https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/148672/starkware-raises-series-d-funding-8-billion-valuation
5. ZenLedger｜Series B funding of $15 million｜Led by ParaFi Capital
On May 25, ZenLedger, a cryptocurrency tax services company, announced the closing of a $15 million Series B funding round led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Bloccelerate VC, King River Capital, G1 Ventures, Main Street Investment, Three Point Capital, Shorooq Partners, VaynerFund, Blizzard Fund and AngelList Quant Fund. Three Point Capital, Shorooq Partners, VaynerFund, Blizzard Fund and AngelList Quant Fund.
ZenLedger helps Token holders deal with the ambiguity of crypto taxes by collecting transaction data from wallets, trading platforms and NFTs.
Link to original article:https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/25/zenledger-raises-15m-to-expand-crypto-tax-products/
6. Transpose｜Raising $3 million｜Led by MaC Venture Capital
On May 27th, Transpose, a blockchain API platform, announced a $3 million funding round led by MaC Venture Capital with participation from HOF Capital, Soma Ventures and Pareto Ventures.
Transpose provides a wide range of data for development, including underlying blockchain data, asset layer data and account data.
Link to original article:https://www.alleywatch.com/2022/05/transpose-data-api-readable-platform-blockchain-web3-michael-calvey/
【DeFi】
7. Spritz Finance｜Pre-seed round raises $2.5 million｜Ledger Prime and others participated
On May 25, Spritz Finance announced the closing of a $2.5 million pre-seeded round of funding with participation from Ledger Prime, OrangeDAO, Shima Ventures, DCG Genesis, Awesome People Ventures and others. The funding will be used to expand the team and further develop the product.
Spritz Finance has completed its crypto payments integration and supports cross-chain payments, allowing users to complete payment transactions for bills and other services directly through the DeFi protocol without the need for a bank.
Link to original article:https://ourbitcoinnews.com/spritz-finance-raises-2-5-million-in-pre-seed-funding/
【GameFi】
8. MetaKing Studios｜Seed round funding of $15 million｜Led by Bitkraft Ventures
On May 25th, MetaKing Studios closed a $15 million seed funding round led by Makers Fund and Bitkraft Ventures, with participation from Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, Shima Capital, WW Ventures, Spartan Group, Huobi Ventures and others. MetaKing Studios will use the funding to accelerate the development of its medieval strategy MMO, Blocklords, which is expected to launch in early stages this year.
Link to original article:https://venturebeat.com/2022/05/25/metaking-studios-raises-15m-for-blockchain-mmo-blocklords/
9. Cinder Studios｜Led by Animoca Brands
On May 25, Cinder Studios announced the completion of a Series A round of funding led by Animoca Brands for an undisclosed amount, which will be used to accelerate product development, including developing P2E games, casting new avatars and launching their own exclusive Token.
Link to original article:https://wildfire.news/2022/05/24/cinder-studios-receives-investment-from-animoca-brands/
10. Joyride｜KuCoin Ventures and others participated
On May 25, Web3 game development platform Joyride closed a new round of funding from KuCoin Ventures for an undisclosed amount, which will be used to grow Joyride’s team, further develop the platform, and launch its first game.
Link to original article:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220525005095/en/KuCoin-Ventures-Invests-in-Joyride-Games-Inc.-a-Web3-Publishing-Platform-for-Game-Creators-Which-Will-Be-Supported-By-KuCoin%E2%80%99s-100-Million-Creators-Fund
11. Machinations.io｜Series A funding of $3.3 million｜Led by Hiro Capital
On May 25th, Machinations.io, a Web3 game development platform, announced the closing of a $3.3 million Series A round of funding led by Hiro Capital.
Machinations.io is dedicated to solving the difficulties of designing game economy systems, and the funds will be used for staff recruitment and feature development.
Link to original article:https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/22/05/b27392682/machinations-io-raises-3-3m-in-series-a-round-led-by-hiro-capital
12. Cantina Royale｜Raising $4.5 million｜Led by Elrond
On May 27th, Cantina Royale, a P2E shooter, announced a $4.5 million funding round led by Elrond and Mechanism Capital, with participation from Crypto.com, Morningstar Ventures, Animoca Brands, Skynet EGLD Capital, GBV Capital, Good Games Guild, Chingari and others.
Link to original article:https://cryptobriefing.com/elrond-based-cantina-royale-to-launch-free-to-play-play-to-earn-game-on-ios-and-android/
13. Monoverse｜Raised $3.1 million｜KOREIT Participation
On May 28th, Monoverse, a P2E game development company, announced that it had closed a $3.1 million funding round with participation from Korea Real Estate Investment and Trust (KOREIT), a Korean real estate fund.
Link to original article:https://igaming.org/crypto/p2e-game-developer-monoverse-raises-over-3m-from-korea-real-estate-investment-and-trust/
【NFT】
14. HALO｜Led by Kucoin Labs
On May 25th, HALO, a 3D virtual image NFT project, announced the completion of a multi-million dollar seed funding round led by Kucoin Labs, with participation from GeekCartel and others, with undisclosed funding information.
Link to original article:https://twitter.com/HALONFTOFFICIAL/status/1529372437262938112
15. ArtistFirst｜Seed round funding of $5.5 million｜Led by Multicoin Capital
On 25 May, music NFT startup ArtistFirst announced the closing of a $5.5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital with participation from Krafton, Pravega Ventures, GAMA, Woodstock Fund, IOSG Ventures, Polygon Studios, Gokul Rajaram, Prashant Malik and Miten Sampat, among others. The funding round will be used to expand its technical team and industry partnerships and to recruit artists.
ArtistFirst is the operator and developer of FanTiger, an NFT music platform that helps artists create and sell music NFTs.
Link to original article:https://www.freepressjournal.in/business/nft-music-platform-fantiger-raises-55-mn-in-seed-funding-to-empower-independent-artists
16. Primitives｜Seed round funding of $4 million｜Led by Redpoint
On May 25th, Primitives, Solana’s on-chain NFT app, announced a $4 million seed round led by Redpoint with participation from Union Square Ventures, Harlem Capital, Stellation Capital and others. Primitives is an application that helps users create and share NFTs for free.
Link to original article:https://martechseries.com/technology/primitives-raises-4-million-to-redefine-nfts-through-new-social-network/
17. Jupiter Exchange｜Seed round funding of $5 million｜Led by White Hilt Capital
On 27 May, asset trading platform Jupiter Exchange announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round led by White Hilt Capital, which has created a simple trading process that enables alternative assets such as art, cars, sneakers and other pop culture memorabilia to be minted into “ownership” NFTs, which can be subdivided into individual ownership tokens that can be listed on the Jupiter Exchange for secondary trading once they are sold out. NFTs, which can be subdivided into individual ownership Tokens, can be listed on the Jupiter Exchange for secondary trading once they are sold out on the Jupiter Marketplace.
Link to original article:https://cryptodaily.co.uk/2022/05/jupiter-exchange-raises-5-million-in-seed-funding-for-first-publicly-available-alternative-asset-exchange
About CGV FoF: Cryptogram Venture FoF (CGV FoF) is an Asia-based Fund of Funds (FoF) that focuses on investments in Crypto Fund and Crypto Studio. CGV FoF is composed of family funds from Japan, Korea, and China’s mainland and Taiwan, with headquarters in Japan and branches in Singapore and Canada.