The funds raised will continue building out Range’s all-in-one on-chain asset management platform and further scaling the team and community.

“Range understands that democratization is a core component of decentralized finance and that this wouldn’t be complete without equal opportunities for trading strategies. As the new financial system continues to grow in the coming years, we believe that Range is well-positioned as the upstream of this value and will help drive systematic trading strategies forward for all.” — HashKey

The major milestone comes in anticipation of several key partnerships, and the launch of new verticals across the DeFi ecosystem.

“We need a professional investment infrastructure platform that can help crypto investors manage their assets trustless and professionally. Unlike the traditional finance vintage products like Fidelity and BlackRock, Range is combining the best of both worlds, sophisticated strategies, and non-custodian execution.” — Ricky Li, GP of Nomad Capital

Range Protocol at a Glance

Range believes that DeFi will undergo the same transition seen in traditional finance: a wide-scale shift towards public access to advanced trading strategies that were once reserved for a select few.

As DeFi continues to mature, Range levels the playing field between retail investors and professional digital-asset managers by acting as a full DeFi Asset Management platform. We offer on-chain trading infrastructure so that the average DeFi user can get easy access to professional automated trading strategies on-chain to enhance their yield. This includes trading strategies for liquidity provision, derivatives, NFT Finance, and liquid staking derivatives. These are all multi-billion sectors despite being in their early stages and lacking systematic trading strategies for the average user.

Range Protocol is currently available on Ethereum, BSC, Mantle, Polygon, and Arbitrum.

The Path Forward

This investment marks a significant step forward in Range’s goal of becoming an all-in-one on-chain asset management platform.

ABOUT Range Protocol

Range Protocol is building the infrastructure for on-chain asset management through non-custodial vaults where sophisticated vault managers can run their automated strategies with transparent on-chain execution.

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The raised $3.3M seed funding round of Helio will be used to further the mission of bringing Web3 payments to the masses.

Co-founders Jim Walker and Stijn Paumen aim to create a payment platform for the Web3 economy that is as easy to use as Stripe and setting up a Gmail account. The round was led by Peak and Lightspeed Faction, with participation from RockawayX, Solana Labs, and prominent angel investors.

Moreover, with the new funding secured, Helio plans to expand its payment platform further, making it possible for merchants to accept payments in a variety of cryptocurrencies, including popular ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Helio’s payment platform runs on the Solana blockchain, enabling fast and cost-effective transactions for a seamless payment experience.

Management Quote

“Payments is the ultimate blockchain killer app, promising lower fees, instant settlement for merchants, and increased privacy & friction-free checkouts for users. Our goal is to bring these benefits to 100s of millions of users over time by lowering the barriers of using web3 technology and offering a familiar payment UX”, said Stijn Paumen, CEO of Helio. “We’re thrilled with the backing, which will allow us to execute on our roadmap, scale the platform and streamline onboarding new clients.”

Since launching in the summer of 2022, Helio has processed over $10 million in e-commerce, NFT sales, SaaS subscriptions, content paywalls, and other payments for over 900 merchant customers and 35,000 users. Helio features in the top 50 DeFi apps across all blockchains, according to DappRadar.

“Digital payments is a +10T market with double-digit growth driven by emerging payment technologies such as blockchain payments. We believe a sizeable share of transactions will execute on blockchains in the coming decade, creating a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity”, said David Zwagemaker, Partner at Peak. “Helio will be leading the way with their API and simple UI that makes it easy for anyone to integrate in minutes and process Web3 payments without any prior blockchain experience.”

Helio currently offers a secure and user-friendly payment solution for merchants, dApps, and creators to accept crypto payments across multiple blockchains, including Solana, Polygon, and Ethereum. Furthermore, Helio’s platform offers content paywalling features that allow creators to earn revenue by offering their content through watch-to-earn models. This feature is particularly useful for podcasters, YouTubers, artists, NFT projects, media, or platforms, as it provides a new way to monetize content and reach a wider audience. Indeed, Helio’s solution ensures a convenient and secure payment experience for all users.

About Helio

Helio powers payments for the Web3 economy. We offer a secure and convenient way for merchants, dApps, and creators to accept fully decentralised crypto payments for ecommerce, subscriptions, paywalling, invoicing and more across multiple blockchains

Website | Twitter

SOURCE

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/04/13/2646504/0/en/Helio-Raises-3-3-Million-to-Power-Web3-Payments-for-Merchants.html

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EigenLayer secured $50M in the seed funding round, led by Blockchain Capital.

The funding round was led by prominent venture capital firms and strategic investors who recognize the potential of staking as a valuable tool for blockchain networks. EigenLayer plans to use the funding to expand its network and increase the adoption of its staking protocol among cryptocurrency holders.

Furthermore, staking has become an increasingly popular method for earning passive income in the cryptocurrency market and has been gaining attention from both cryptocurrency enthusiasts and investors alike.  In return for their support, stakers receive rewards in the form of additional cryptocurrency.

EigenLayer’s staking protocol is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to all, regardless of their technical expertise. The platform offers a range of staking options, including both proof-of-stake and delegated proof-of-stake, which allow users to choose the level of involvement that suits them best.

The success of EigenLayer’s funding round is a testament to the growing interest in staking as a means of earning passive income in the cryptocurrency market. As more blockchain networks adopt staking, we can expect to see an increase in the number of users and investors looking to take advantage of this innovative technology.

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Tensor secures $3M in a seed funding round. With this in mind, the raised funds are intended for the development of a Solana-focused NFT trading platform.

The seed round of funding for Tensor, a Solana-based blockchain project, has attracted investment from several notable investors, including Solana Ventures, Alliance DAO, Big Brain Holdings, and co-founders of Solana Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, among others.

NFTs are unique digital assets that are verified on a blockchain network, making them valuable collectibles. As a result, the market for NFTs has experienced a surge in popularity, with high-profile sales reaching millions of dollars in recent years.

Tensor aims to leverage the speed and scalability of the Solana blockchain to create a decentralized NFT trading platform that is fast, secure, and affordable. By removing the need for intermediaries like centralized marketplaces or auction houses, the platform enables NFT creators to mint and trade their digital assets directly.

According to the company, Tensor’s platform will offer several advantages over existing NFT trading platforms, including lower transaction fees, faster transaction times, and increased security. The platform will also feature a user-friendly interface that is accessible to both experienced and novice traders.

The seed funding round will enable Tensor to accelerate the development of its platform and expand its team. The company plans to use the funds to hire additional developers and engineers, as well as to invest in marketing and community outreach efforts.

The platform’s focus enables NFT creators to mint and trades their digital assets directly without requiring intermediaries like centralized marketplaces or auction houses. As the company continues to develop its platform and expand its user base, it could emerge as a key player in the rapidly evolving NFT ecosystem.

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Renowned soccer player, Lionel Messi, has announced his support for a web3 soccer game startup, Matchday, in a recent seed funding round that amassed $21M.

The platform, which operates as a decentralized soccer gaming experience, is designed to offer fans an immersive and engaging way to create and manage their virtual soccer teams. By integrating blockchain technology, Matchday seeks to revolutionize the gaming industry by offering fans a unique and entirely new soccer experience.

The platform’s use of web3 technology makes it an appealing investment opportunity in the expanding decentralized finance (DeFi) space.  By utilizing web3 technology, by blending the worlds of soccer and blockchain technology, Matchday presents an exciting and innovative concept for both fans and investors alike.

Investors expect Messi’s backing to significantly boost the platform’s development. The soccer superstar’s global brand and following are likely to attract a broader audience to the platform. Additionally, Messi’s vast experience and knowledge of the game will likely provide invaluable input in the platform’s development, enhancing the overall user experience.

Matchday Promising Investment Opportunity for DeFi Investor

Matchday’s innovative use of blockchain technology has created an exciting investment opportunity for DeFi investors, with the platform offering a unique blend of soccer and blockchain technology. The platform’s potential to disrupt the gaming industry has not gone unnoticed, with investors showing a keen interest in the startup.

The funding round’s success highlights the growing interest in web3 technology, particularly in the DeFi space, where decentralized applications are gaining immense popularity. With its use of blockchain technology and soccer, Matchday represents an exciting and innovative concept that has the potential to revolutionize the gaming industry.

In conclusion, Matchday’s recent funding round and the backing of Lionel Messi have positioned the startup as one of the most intriguing web3 startups to watch out for. With its innovative use of blockchain technology and soccer, Matchday has created an entirely new and unique experience that could change the gaming industry as we know it.

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SYKY has completed a $9.5M Series A Funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s firm Seven Seven Six. Brevan Howard Digital, Leadout Capital, First Light Capital Group, and Polygon Ventures also contributed to the round.

Introduction

SYKY is building the future of fashion with a blockchain-enabled luxury platform that will serve as an incubator, marketplace, and social community for the next generation of designers and consumers, led by Alice Delahunt, the former Chief Digital & Content Officer at Ralph Lauren and Digital & Social Marketing Director at Burberry.

This round of funding will help Delahunt realize her vision and mission of empowering the digital-first generation to create, curate, share, and trade their fashion collections.

Management Quote

“There is limitless potential with Web3 and fashion’s place in this future is no exception,” said Alexis Ohanian. “The ideals of fashion can bring to bear the best virtues of an open internet and creative expression. With culture so greatly influenced by the runway, digital fashion will expand opportunities for creatives and consumers. We invested in Alice and SYKY because we believe in Alice’s vision to build the leading fashion platform and community for the next generation of designers and consumers.”

A recent report from Roblox and Parsons School of Design examining digital fashion and self-expression trends found that 70% of Gen Z’s physical style is influenced by their digital style and that nearly half of Gen Z look at digital fashion to experiment with new styles in digital and real life. Additionally, the trends report noted that nearly 75% of Gen Z said they would spend money on digital fashion.

“Fashion is on the verge of a renaissance, powered by technology and the next generation of creators,” said Delahunt. “With SYKY, we aim to build a platform that equalizes creative opportunity for aspiring designers, showcases the best of fashion from emerging and established brands, and cultivates a community passionate about the evolution of fashion.”

About The Keystone

Along with this achievement, SYKY will release The Keystone, its first NFT, on January 20, 2023. 50 Keystones will be awarded to aspiring designers as part of the larger release and in the spirit of SYKY’s mission to open access to creative opportunity. The Keystone is a membership pass for fashion lovers, leaders, and collectors who want to shape fashion’s future in digital, physical, and augmented worlds.

Keystone members will have access to SYKY’s membership space exclusively. As well as special access to digital and physical fashion events. Keystone members will also receive curated insights and in-depth reports in fashion and technology, as well as access to a network of like-minded creatives for collaboration and mentoring. Holders will also be given first access to designer collection drops. As well as advance notice of SYKY alpha and beta releases and partner projects.

About SyKy

SYKY is shaping the fashion industry’s future. They believe that technology has the potential to be a great equalizer. With the next generation of designers being digital-first and revolutionizing design in digital, physical, and augmented worlds. At that intersection, SYKY is constructing.

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SOURCE

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/web3-fashion-platform-syky-closes-9-5m-series-a-funding-round-led-by-alexis-ohanians-seven-seven-six-301723125.html

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Foundation has completed its $7M seed round with the participation of the other investor in the round. Including new investors Greenfield Capital and Lightning Ventures, and existing investors Third Prime, Warburg Serres, Unpopular Ventures, and Bolt.

Introduction

Foundation, which was founded in April 2020, creates products that make Bitcoin and decentralized technologies accessible to everyone. Allowing users to reclaim their digital sovereignty. Passport, a best-in-class Bitcoin hardware wallet from Foundation. Offers a unique combination of intuitive design, hardcore security, and a mobile-first approach with QR codes. Foundation launched its second-generation Passport device in March 2022. Which has gained traction and adoption among consumers, with thousands of Passports sold in the last 18 months.

Furthermore, Foundation is working on developing its Envoy mobile app as a standalone sovereignty toolkit complete with a Bitcoin software wallet. Envoy provides the simplest onboarding and user experience of any Bitcoin wallet. While also providing maximum privacy through the use of the Tor network, free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication.

The funding provided by Foundation will allow the company to continue expanding its engineering and design teams and developing next-generation sovereignty products, with a short-term focus on software services.

Management Quote

“Preserving freedom and privacy is more important than ever amidst worldwide censorship, privacy violations, and reckless financial and monetary policies,” said Zach Herbert, Co-Founder and CEO of Foundation Devices. “As the line between the physical and digital world continues to blur. We are excited to continue delivering decentralized products that usher in a new era of freedom and prosperity for users across the globe. This seed round marks just the beginning of our journey to build the world’s first sovereign computing platform.”

“The Foundation team has been creating gorgeous, incredibly secure. Yet easy to use products that further an individual’s ability to self-custody crypto assets.” said Olaf Carlson-Wee, Founder and CEO of Polychain Capital. “We are incredibly excited to support them on the next phase of their vision to empower self-sovereign individuals through decentralized technologies.”

“By building products that lower the barrier to becoming a sovereign individual. More people will confidently reclaim control of their money and data,” said Gleb Dudka, Principal at Greenfield Capital. “We are proud to be a small part of what the incredible team at Foundation is building.”

“The rave reviews that Foundation’s Passport has garnered already is indicative of the demand for sovereignty and freedom in this new era,” said Tyler Mincey, Foundation board member and Partner at Bolt. “This is a giant step in the right direction, both for self-custody and digital sovereignty. Which is one of the many reasons we are excited to continue supporting the Foundation team through this fundraise.”

About Foundation Devices

Launched in April 2020, Foundation Devices builds products that make Bitcoin and decentralized technologies accessible to everyone. Enabling users to reclaim their digital sovereignty. Foundation’s open-source products include Passport, a best-in-class Bitcoin hardware wallet, and Envoy, a mobile app.

Website | Twitter

SOURCE

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221219005094/en/Foundation-Devices-Announces-Completion-of-7M-Seed-Round-to-Accelerate-Development-of-its-Sovereign-Computing-Platform

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Many investors bring infrastructure and gaming ecosystem synergies to CARV, especially across the US, Europe, LATAM, and Southeast Asia markets.

The Los Angeles-based company set out with a mission to empower gamers with data sovereignty via gaming credentials. 

“Gamer activities span across devices, platforms, and into real life. However, their time, effort, and money spent remain data points scattered across isolated ecosystems, with limited value to gamers.” Says Victor Yu, CARV’s co-founder and COO. “By creating the infrastructure to piece these breadcrumbs together, we are unlocking tremendous opportunities in how gamers interact in the gaming universe.”

Gamers now own and self-sovereign their data, with which they can achieve their hard-earned achievements and be recognized for community contribution on CARV.IO. Moreover, gamers can explore the semantic discovery of friends & games, and unlock credential-gated gaming premiums and governance privileges based on their past gaming experience.

CARV is also building data infrastructure and analytics to empower game studios to accurately recognize gamer activities, capture an insight-driven understanding of the user base, and reach the desired group of users effectively. 

“There is a paradigm shift in how games think about user acquisition, business model, and in-game economy design. With the shift comes challenges to games’ sustainability. CARV is uniquely positioned to work with game partners to address these challenges.” comments Victor.

CARV launched its Alpha version in May 2022 after graduating from UPenn Wharton’s Cypher Blockchain Accelerator. Since then, CARV has integrated with more than 20 blockchains and enabled more than 300K registered users to view their all-in-one achievement display. A credential-based governance experiment is CARV’s Guardian Program, where more than 2000 community members applied to contribute towards community management and content creation. CARV has also worked with more than 100 game studios. These game partners include triple-A and innovative games globally, such as Illuvium, Apeiron, Splinterlands, Genopets, Delysium, Drawshop Kingdom, Big Time, Ultiverse, and more.

Amongst downturns in macroeconomic conditions and the crypto market, the timing of this round speaks volumes to investors’ conviction in CARV’s vision and execution capability. 

“With the belief that gaming will be the most important segment track for linking traditional users and enthusiasts in the web3 world, we are very optimistic about the future market of web3 gaming.” Comments LI Wei, partner at Vertex, the venture fund which invested in Binance in 2018. “Besides game studios, we focus on the infrastructure of web3 games, particularly on gaming identity platforms. Therefore, we deeply believe that CARV has the potential to be the fast-growing head player in this section.”

With the new funding, CARV will onboard additional talents and continue to build the interoperable credential infrastructure alongside ecosystem partners. 

CARV states that “the open infrastructure that encourages collaboration is important. But, more importantly, as an early mover, it is also our onerous to create world-class applications, tools, and support communities for gamers and games alike, to educate and onramp more users in an enjoyable, seamless way.” 

CARV’s team is situated in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Singapore, tapping into each region’s tremendous engineering, product development, and game operations talent pool. Many of CARV’s team come from product-first tech and gaming companies like Google, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, dLive.tv, Facebook, Microsoft, Tencent, and Garena.

CARV is continuously building the gaming space with partners. Recently, CARV has formed collaborations with 30+ games and ecosystem partners within BNBChain and kicked off a mega campaign — BNBChain Game CARVnival from Nov 22 to Dec 9, consisting of tournaments, game nights, insightful AMAs and various in-game quests with rich rewards supported by partners. Join to win 5,500 BUSD rewards, 20,000 $ARC, and more in-game premiums.

About CARV

CARV is building an interoperable credential infrastructure focused on gaming, enabling gamers with an all-in-one achievement display, semantic friend and game recommendations, and access to credential-gated gaming premiums. At the same time, CARV empowers games to recognize gamer activities, capture insights to better serve gamer base, and reach the desired group of gamers.

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SOURCE: MEDIUM

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Nucleo completed a $4M seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto and 6th Man Ventures. With participation from notable leaders in privacy infrastructure and zero-knowledge cryptography including Aztec Network, Aleo and Espresso Systems.

Introduction

Created in November 2021 after the loss of the ConstitutionDAO, co-founders Matthew Wyatt and Luke Newman saw a lack of infrastructure for organizations to use in the burgeoning privacy networks. Leveraging advanced multi-signature and zero-knowledge cryptography. Nucleo provides the privacy infrastructure for any organization. To take advantage of improved capital allocation, formation, and distributed ownership by going Web3-native. By partnering with leading privacy networks like Aztec, Aleo, and Espresso Systems. Nucleo will encourage the adoption of blockchain systems with privacy by offering non-custodial, programable, and auditability solutions.

Nucleo’s seed funding will enable the company to further expand its team and support private multi-sig integration with existing organization tools including Juicebox and Gnosis.

New capabilities Nucleo intends to develop with the proceeds

• include private DeFi for organizations
• multi-chain privacy
• innovations needed across the entire tech stack to provide greater flexibility and expressivity for using private multi-sigs.

Management Quote

“Nucleo is helping organizations move their assets on-chain through private, non-custodial and auditable multi-sig to enable improved treasury, fundraising, and business operations,” said Mike Dudas, Partner of 6th Man Ventures and Co-Founder of LinksDAO. “This is as important for Web3 as TLS/SSL was for Web1 and fills a much-needed void in crypto.”

“Organizations have been looking for a privacy solution like Nucleo to bring trust, auditability, and accountability to the blockchain,” said Stefan Cohen, Partner at Bain Capital Crypto.“Matt, Luke and the team’s proven expertise in zero-knowledge proofs and multi-signature cryptography will provide the infrastructure necessary for organizations to seamlessly and securely move on-chain, which is one of many reasons why I am excited to support them through this fundraise,” said Wei Dai, Research Partner at Bain Capital Crypto.

“We are thrilled to partner with Nucleo as they continue to develop important privacy technology utilizing the latest cutting-edge cryptography to solve a variety of new challenges that naturally arise in a nascent industry,” said Zac Williamson, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Aztec and co-inventor of PLONK.

“Nucleo was created to solve a very specific issue in crypto that was made apparent from the Constitution DAO. Privacy for organizations with auditability.” said Joe Andrews, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Aztec. “Since it started a year ago, however, the company’s use cases have expanded to help organizations shield their treasury and operations for multiple uses on-chain.

Nucleo is founded by a group of over seven professionals. With extensive experience in zero-knowledge proofs, multi-signature cryptography, product development, design, and software engineering. The company is currently hiring for full-stack and security engineer roles.

About Nucleo

Nucleo, the first private, non-custodial, auditable multi-sig on Ethereum, launched in 2021. Building the privacy infrastructure needed for organizations to go on-chain. Individuals, communities, and organizations can enjoy privacy while also maintaining auditability and the benefits of being web3 native with Nucleo.

Website | Twitter

SOURCE

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221122005155/en/Nucleo-Raises-4-Million-Seed-Round-to-Build-Privacy-Crypto-Infrastructure-for-Organizations

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The $15M seed funding round closed by Ping, will further advance and broaden its platform so that digital nomads can receive payments in dollars or cryptocurrencies wherever they are, and offramp their wages into local currency in a quick and affordable manner.

Ping Overview

The business, which initially founded to address payment issues in Latin America, is now the recognized global solution for independent contractors, freelancers, and remote workers. Pablo Orlando, a seasoned businessman with at least two successful exits in the consumer and fintech sectors, and the brother-sister duo Mary and Jack Saracco founded Ping on the platform of Latamex, the biggest fiat-to-crypto gateway in Latin America.

Jack brings the tech and engineering side, as a native engineer in the crypto space, and Mary brings the financial background from her time working in the M&A division at UBS Investment Bank and the World Bank.

Management Quote

‘’Ping is the perfect solution for freelancers to get paid and for gig economy platforms like Braintrust, freelancer.com, Upwork to offer to their users,’’ said Pablo Orlando, Co-founder and CEO. “We established a platform that ultimately helps democratize access to higher paid jobs as a result of remote work. Ping enables freelancers and contractors globally to see the possibility of earning in dollars and saving in an account in the USA as the highest possible dream.”

The Ping platform enables any individual, organization or company to instantly create a free international account in US dollars and receive bank transfers – either in their foreign currency or cryptocurrency. Embedded in the platform is Ping’s invoicing system where users can send invoices directly to their employers. Additionally, users can buy and receive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin through Ping. It is live in both Android and iOS app stores and has a desktop view.

“Ping’s digital platform is the first of its kind for Latin America, and efficiently remedies ongoing payment issues with a mission to provide financial inclusivity on a global scale,” said Robin Chan, General Partner from Goat Capital. “We pride ourselves on investing in projects led by proven serial entrepreneurs. The funds will assist Ping with its global growth – we will join Ping in its mission to provide an international payment solution for digital nomads.”

They will use the funds toward team expansion, hires for marketing and sales.

About Ping

Founded in 2022, Ping is the first international digital payment solution to simplify global payments. Originally created to combat payment challenges in Latin America, the company is now the official global solution and breaks through the barriers of international payments for remote workers, contractors, and freelancers.

​​Ping allows knowledge workers to access their salaries globally and get paid in their local currency, wherever they are, in both fiat and crypto. This is not just another payment platform, but rather a truly comprehensive service that allows you to save time, reduce costs and obtain greater efficiency.

Website | Twitter

SOURCE

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005365/en/Ping-Raises-15M-Seed-Round-to-Expand-Payment-Platform-For-Freelancers-and-the-Gig-Economy

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