Episode 57｜Force Web3 Weekly Investment and Financing Events December 15–22, 2022.
The crossover and integration of Web2 and Web3 are becoming more frequent. According to the latest news, Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape, will appoint Daniel Alegre, the former president of Blizzard, as its CEO. This move is a side note to the fact that Yuga Labs will probably next make a big push into the blockchain game, combining its native NFT series of IP to create its own entertainment empire.
At the same time, we have seen car brands such as BMW, Porsche, and Aston Martin dabbling in NFT and Metaverse sectors last month, and this week veteran car Mercedes Benz followed BMW’s strategy of action by filing a relevant crypto trademark application to be used for NFT, virtual goods, cryptocurrency trading and more. According to the data, since 2014, when Web2 and traditional companies started to get involved in the Web3 field, in the next 8 years, and the last 3 years, the take-off was obvious, and the brands of each company showed a state of competition where you catch up and never fall behind.
For the emerging crypto industry, it is the influx of capital and talent that will bring as many fresh faces to the new market as possible. In addition to this, the flow of new user growth is likely to come in on a massive scale as the initial landscape of the various crypto unicorns takes shape. Until then, the war in the infrastructure track will not stop and will continue to be favored by capital.
In this week’s investment market, Dragonfly has invested in two Web3 startups, Revel, an NFT social platform, and Utorg, a Fiat-to-crypto platform, which seeks to create an NFT social platform that sits halfway between INS and Robinhood, combining the functionality of both platforms in one. The latter seeks to build an “all-in-one app” that blends traditional and crypto finance, easing the hurdles for users to access it.
Alongside modern web3 functions, such as a non-custodial wallet, swaps, NFT integration, portfolio, and yield-saving accounts, Utorg’s upcoming super app will also provide regular banking features, such as credit cards and IBAN numbers, to make the app the most accessible solution on the market.
1. Project Name: Arrakis Finance
Project Category: Decentralized market maker
Project Description: Arrakis Finance was established last year. The duo launched the first version (V1) of the Arrakis Finance protocol in April last year, which allows running algorithmic strategies on Uniswap V3.
Financing: Seed Round
Amount of Financing: $ 4 million
Investors: Investors include Uniswap Labs Ventures, Accel, Polygon Ventures, and others.
2. Project Name: Foundation
Project Category: Bitcoin Tooling Developer
Project Description: The Boston-based startup, which was founded in 2020, develops tools to make bitcoin more accessible. Its flagship product is a bitcoin hardware wallet called Passport, and it has also developed a mobile app that contains a bitcoin software wallet called Envoy.
Financing Round: Seed Round
Amount of Financing: $ 7 million
Investors: Led by Polychain Capital.
3. Project Name: Utorg
Project Category: Fiat-to-crypto platform
Project Description: Utorg aims to build a service that could become the sole financial hub for any person on the planet, powered by blockchain technology
Financing Round: Seed Round
Amount of Financing: $ 5 million
Investors: Led by Dragonfly. TA Ventures and Hypra fund also participated in the round
4. Project Name: Utopia Group
Project Category: NFT Platform
Project Description: Utopia Avatars will mint a total of 9,922 NFTs on Ethereum and launch a set of 3D art-based tokens that can be used within the Metaverse
Financing round: Unknown
Amount of financing: $ 10 million
Investors: Led by Asterius VC
5. Project Name: Revel
Project Category: NFT startups
Project Description: Revel, an NFT or “social collectibles” platform
Financing Round: Seed Round
Amount of Financing: $7.8 Million
Investors: led by Dragonfly Capital
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