EP.58｜Force Web3 Weekly Investment and Financing Events
December 22–29, 2022
According to the newly released Global Metaverse Investment and Financing Report 2022, 15 provincial and municipal governments in China have introduced 29 metaverse-specific support policies since FY2022. Chengdu and Jinan are among the large cities joining this week.
In addition, a total of 704 financings took place in the global metaverse industry in 2022, with a total amount of 86.867 billion yuan. Among them, China (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) completed 125 cases with total funding of 12.782 billion yuan, and four industry unicorns were born, including Animaoca Brands, valued at $6 billion, making it the highest-valued Metaverse company in China; Xiaobing, valued at $2.308 billion as the second highest valuation, and Shanghai’s Soul and Magic Enamel Technology valued at $2 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively.
From the segmentation track, metaverse industry applications, underlying technology, games, social, media, and community, and digital people are the most sought-after by capital. In particular, digital people are receiving more capital attention in China. This can reduce labor costs to a certain extent, and can replace real people on the job after the development of digital people is mature.
In addition, this week’s Polygon and Ethereum attracted two more high-traffic NFT projects, DeGods, and Y00ts, which were originally built on the Solana ecosystem. Polygon also won the title of Decrypt’s best crypto project of the year, and its development momentum is promising.
In this week’s investment event, digital finance platform provider Akulaku raised $200 million in equity funding.
The investment was led by MUFG. The company intends to use the funding to continue its expansion, with plans to serve 50 million users in Southeast Asia by 2025.
Akulaku will serve underserved customers in emerging markets through digital banking, digital financing, digital investment, and insurance brokerage services. In addition to its virtual credit card and e-commerce platforms, the company operates Asetku, an online wealth management platform, and Neobank, a mobile digital bank powered by Bank Neo Commerce. It has a presence in Southeast Asia, with operations in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
Read2N, a project based on the read-and-earn concept, has also received a significant amount of funding. Here is the introduction to its website:
Read2N is a Web3 lifestyle application with built-in elements of Game-Fi and Social-Fi. read2N is built around a basic daily activity for most people: reading. We are the first project to effectively implement the functional read-and-earn concept. Users equip themselves with NFT in the form of books, and by reading the associated books, they earn functional tokens that can be used in games or cashed in for profit. Through Game-Fi, Read2N aims to drive tens of millions of people to read and build a DAO with a literary work as the “governing content," where each reading will enhance the consensus of this literary work in today’s world and allow authors or secondary creators to use this consensus to build a corresponding meta-universe. This meta-universe will greatly enrich the spiritual and cultural lives of human beings. And authors, readers, and secondary creators can all enjoy and benefit from this meta-universe.
Finally, blockchain payments company Centbee closed a $1 million Pre-A round of funding led by Ayre Ventures founder Calvin Ayre, which will be used to scale and grow, as well as strengthen its technology and operational capabilities.
1.Project Name: Centbee
Project Category: web3 payment company
Project Description: The company intends to use the funds for scale and growth as well as strengthening the technical and operating capacity
Financing: Pre-A
Amount of Financing: $ 1 million
Investors: led by Calvin Ayre, founder of Ayre Ventures
2. Project Name: Read2N
Project Category: Web3 startups
Project Description: Read2N is a Web3 lifestyle application with built-in elements of Game-Fi and Social-Fi.Read2N is built around a basic daily activity for most people: reading. We are the first project to effectively implement the functional read-and-earn concept.
Financing Round: Seed Round
Amount of Financing: $ 2 million
Investors: Chain Capital、LinkVC、Initiate Capital
3. Project Name: Akulaku
Project Category: banking and digital finance platform
Project Description: Akulaku is a provider of a banking and digital finance platform, which serves underserved customers in emerging markets through digital banking, digital financing, digital investment, and insurance brokerage services
Financing Round: equity funding
Amount of Financing: $200Million
Investors: Made by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG)
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