Data Sets
Funding is flowing into the metaverse and broader web3 endeavors. Since March 2021, sales of non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) have made headlines – both for the eye-watering prices that some were commanding at auction and for the potential for NFTs to become a robust market, as brands appeared to be eager to market themselves and connect with consumers by way of these relatively novel pieces of technology. For Q3 in 2021, Forbes reported that the sale of NFTs had amounted to $10.7 billion in Q3 2021, a more than 8-fold increase from the previous quarter. As of January 2022, the monthly volume of NFT sales on the OpenSea marketplace hit an all-time high of $5 billion. Fast forward to October 2021 and Facebook, Inc.’s announcement that it would rebrand to Meta, Inc. in furtherance of a shift away from being a social media company to becoming “a metaverse company,” seemingly solidified a larger shift among companies that a blend of “real” and virtual worlds is the future.
Against that background, brands have launched various ventures in the metaverse – from Gucci’s Garden pop-up in the Roblox metaverse (complete with virtual Gucci-branded handbags and apparel) to Nike’s “Nikeland” experience – and at the same time, rushed to file trademark applications for registration for their current (or far more frequently, their impending) uses of their trademarks on virtual goods/services and NFTs. All the while, cash has been flowing into the space (with more than $2 billion and $62.8 billion being invested in augmented reality ventures and virtual world projects, respectively, in 2021, per CrunchBase), and at least a one major acquisition has taken place.
With so much activity underway when it comes to the virtual world, from metaverse ventures to crypto funds, we have compiled a (running) timeline of investments and M&A events to provide a broad overview of which players are fundraising, merging, and what the trajectory of this segment of the market – which only appears to be gaining in steam – looks like more generally …
mmERCH has raised $6.4 million in a Seed funding round at a $25.7 million post-money valuation led by Liberty City Ventures, with participation from 6529 Holdings LLC, Christie’s Ventures, and Flamingo DAO, as well as Paxos CEO and co-founder Charles Cascarilla, web3 investor Mike Jacobellis, collector and investor Daniel Maegaard (Seedphrase), American entrepreneur and model Karlie Kloss, luxury fashion designer and philanthropist Tory Burch, as well as leading web3 fashion consortium, Red DAO, among others. The New York-based blockchain-enabled Web3 fashion start-up “targets a growing community of individuals at the intersection of art, fashion, and technology – leveraging generative design to create collections of singular pieces or what mmERCH calls ‘neo-couture.’”
Speaking on the raise, mmERCH founder and CEO Colby Mugrabi said “This investment marks a strong step towards realizing our vision of ‘neo-couture,’ offering collections of unique, one-of-a-kind products that have evolving digital and physical utility. With this latest funding, we’re excited to expand operations and redefine the future of fashion, where individuality, creativity, and community flourish without compromise.”
Finboot has raised an undisclosed sum in a new funding round led by a strategic investor together with Wealth Club. The Wales, UK-based supply chain tech provider touts itself as “a leading provider of supply chain technology committed to empowering its clients in their digital transformation journey.” Leveraging “innovative blockchain technology,” Nish Kotecha-led Finboot says that its “flagship service, MARCO, enables companies to seamlessly integrate blockchain into their value and supply chains, fostering traceability, transparency, and compliance.”
Bluwhale has raised $7 million in a Seed round led by SBI with participation from Cardano, Momentum6, Primal Capital, NxGen, Ghaf Capital Partners, Spyre Capital, Baselayer Capital, Haseeb Qureshi (Managing Partner at Dragonfly), Charles Huang (creator of Guitar Hero), and Jack McCauley (founder of Oculus), among others. The San Francisco-based AI Web3 startup leverages AI to connect companies with Web3 wallet holders to “directly reach their target audience and potential new users, optimizing their marketing expenditures.”
“It’s a new paradigm for a new era,” said Han Jin, CEO of Bluwhale. “For nearly two decades, online platforms have profiled and targeted users without their consent. Companies have poured billions of dollars into Google, Facebook, TikTok, and similar platforms to target and mass-advertise to consumers. At Bluwhale, wallet holders can take control of their digital profile and decide if they want to receive communications, while at the same time taking a majority share of the outreach spending.”
Karma3 Labs has raised $4.5M in a Seed round led by Galaxy and IDEO CoLab Ventures, which it will use to build OpenRank, a decentralized reputation protocol. The Palo Alto-based company says that with OpenRank, developers and web3 companies can “power consumer apps, communities and marketplaces” where people can discover, use, fund, read, or buy something on-chain without the the fear of being spammed or scammed. “A decentralized internet characterized by fairness and transparency hinges on the existence of a robust reputation system,” said Sahil Dewan, founder and CEO of Karma3 Labs. “We believe that on-chain social and consumer experiences will need a decentralized reputation protocol and we’re excited to onboard builders and developers for OpenRank.”
Yuga Labs has acquired PROOF, a digital art platform and art collector community. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Miami-based Yuga Labs, which touts itself as “the leading web3 lifestyle and media company and creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Otherside, TwelveFold, and owners of Meebits, CryptoPunks, and 10KTF,” said that the acquisition of PROOF’s team, intellectual property, and artistic portfolio, including the PROOF Collective, Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, and Grails exhibition series, “aligns with [its] vision to become the front door of web3.”
“As a company committed to championing art, culture, and community on the blockchain, we’re excited to have PROOF join the Yuga ecosystem,” said Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs. “Moonbirds is a collection with great potential and many unifying brand elements with Otherside. We look forward to PROOF Collective becoming an important part of our ongoing art and community engagement efforts.”
Watches.io has raised $1.9 million in a Pre-Seed round led by Lemniscap, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Marin Ventures, Soft Holdings Inc, Builder Capital, Darkside Capital, Non-Fungible Technologies, and a number of angel investors. The Miami-based company –which touts itself as “the first end-to-end tracking and trading ecosystem for watches” built on web3 – enables users to monitor their watch portfolios with precise, real-time market data, pursue diversification opportunities and execute seamless buy/sell transactions. It will use the new funds to “assertively establish a market leading position and expand our product offerings in line with user demand.”
Watches.io founder and CEO Jake Plonskier said in a statement, “Amidst growing recognition of luxury watches as an asset class, the archaic, legacy process of transferring ownership remains a huge barrier to fluid trading. At Watches.io, we want to broaden the accessibility of the luxury watch market, enabling enthusiasts and investors to trade watches in a frictionless manner and expand their digital portfolio while doing so.”
Meflex announced the closing of a $10 million contract “aimed at revolutionizing the AI fashion market within the rapidly evolving blockchain sphere” and paving “a new path for the intersection of fashionable expression and technological innovation.” The Panama City-based startup, which touts itself ability to enable individual and brands to “design, create, store and trade unique NFTs easily,” says that its “innovative platform utilizes AI to personalize and enhance the fashion experience while leveraging blockchain for authenticity and exclusivity.” CEO Kelly Lee said in a statement, “Our mission has always been about more than just staying ahead of the curve. We’re about creating it. This contract is a vote of confidence from the industry and consumers alike, signaling a collective readiness to embrace a more advanced, interactive, and secure way of experiencing fashion.”
Omega has raised $6 million in a new funding round from Lightspeed Faction, Borderless Capital, Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund, Bankless Ventures, Wave Digital, Blockchain.com, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kronos Ventures, XTBO Humla, Cadenza, Psalion Ventures, AlphaLab Capital, Side Door Ventures, and MH Ventures, among others. The Miami-based Web3 infrastructure provider will use the new funds for “the development and launch of a pioneering decentralized platform, designed to empower Bitcoin owners.”
Llama has raised a $6 million in a Seed round from Founders Fund and Electric Capital. Other notable investors include Elad Gil (early investor in Stripe, Airbnb, Figma), Sandeep Nailwal (Cofounder, Polygon), Stani Kulechov (Founder, Aave), Will Gaybrick (President of Product, Stripe), Amplify Partners, and FJ Labs. The New York-based startup provides an access control and governance platform for smart contracts. Llama co-founder Shreyas Hariharan said in a statement, “To scale our impact, we used our learnings to build the product we wish we had. In Llama, decentralization is achieved through access control. Each governance participant is granted the minimum amount of power to perform the function they are best suited to do.”
Treehouse, a Web3 company transforming digital assets data into actionable insights for professional investors and institutions, announced the intellectual property (IP) acquisition of Origins Analytics to bolster its NFT product offering. With this acquisition, Origins’ founding team will join Treehouse to integrate Origins’ technology into its product suite, offering Treehouse clients access to popular tools that will help Hyperion users understand and analyze NFT trading volumes, social sentiment, holder behavior, and more to make better NFT trading and collector decisions.”Treehouse is excited to make this move into NFT analytics. This strategic acquisition underscores our commitment to our clients, many of whom have NFT exposures. Our team is gearing up to integrate Origins’ system into our flagship product, Hyperion, confident that its technology aligns with our users’ needs and paves the way for us to serve the wider NFT community. Despite the bear market, Treehouse is expanding and is actively looking to acquire synergetic businesses,” said Brandon Goh, CEO of Treehouse.
Phaver has raised $7 million in Seed funding from Polygon Ventures, Nomad Capital, Symbolic Capital, Foresight Ventures, Alphanonce, dao5, Kyros Ventures, and Aulis Ventures, among many others, bringing its total funding to date to $8.6 million. The Helsinki, Finland-based builder of a gateway to make onboarding to web3 social platforms easy says that it will use the funds to continue to expand operations and its development efforts. Phaver, which is led by co-founder and CEO Joonatan Lintala, “is building a platform that provides an onboarding experience similar to what users would expect on web2 social platforms. Phaver wants to eliminate the technological challenges of joining communities in Web3.”
IYK has raised $16.8 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto with participation from Collab Currency, Lattice Capital, 1kx, and Synergis Capital, among others. The Ryan Ouyang and Christopher Lee-founded startup produces Near Field Communication (NFC) chips to connect smartphones with physical products and enable “brands, musicians, and artists” to launch real-life products tied to digital twins, as well as other “digi-physical” experiences. “By supercharging physical products with an IYK-powered NFC chip, they’re able to deliver novel consumer experiences while giving customers the ability to self-identify as a genuine product owner,” IYK said in a blog post.
The company further stated, “Lack of access to consumer information is an issue that expands beyond the world of music and entertainment. Fashion brands also have trouble identifying and staying in touch with consumers who purchase through third-party retailers or on the resale market. As a brand, not being able to stay connected with your community means you aren’t able to make them feel rewarded for their support. Loyal, merch-owning fans shouldn’t be fighting against bots in a ticket queue or buying merchandise from scalpers who got lucky on the latest drop.”
GEEIQ has raised $8.2 million in a Series A round led by YFM Equity Partners. The London-based metaverse data intelligence startup – which was founded in 2018 and boasts clients like Walmart, Porsche, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, L’Oreal, and Tommy Hilfiger – will use the new funds to accelerate its scale-up plans, explore potential international expansion, and further develop its data platform product. Geeiq CEO Charles Hambro said in a statement, “Global brands have been relying on GEEIQ and this latest investment will turbo-charge our ability to support them further, as well as enabling us to tap into new business opportunities. We want to ensure that our company is as well positioned as possible to help visionary brands gain a data-driven and profitable presence in the virtual space.”
Story Protocol has raised more than $54 million in a new round led by a16z crypto with participation from Hashed, Endeavor, Samsung Next, dao5, Insignia Venture Partners, David Bonderman (Founder & Chairman of TPG Capital), Si-hyuk Bang (Founder & Chairman of HYBE/BTS), Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media, CH Kim (CEO of Krafton/PUBG), Kyung In Jung (CEO of Black Label), Wattpad Co-founder Allen and Eva Lau’s Two Small Fish Ventures, Alliance DAO, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Nicolas Berggruen, Charlie Songhurst, David Lee (SLVC), Sanghun Kim (Former CEO of Naver), Chang Kim (Founder of Tapas), and Roham Gharegozlou (Founder & CEO of Dapper Labs), among others. San Francisco-based Story Protocol touts itself as “an open infrastructure designed to power a new era of creativity and intellectual property (‘IP’) ownership” by way of a global and extensible IP repository.
Specifically, the S.Y. (Seung Yoon) Lee-led company said in a statement that it “provides a streamlined framework to manage the entire lifecycle of IP development, enabling features like provenance tracking, frictionless licensing and revenue sharing. Made for creators across all media – prose, images, gaming, audio and more – applications built on Story Protocol give writers and artists the ability to track their work’s provenance, allowing anyone to contribute and remix while capturing the value of their contributions.”
FirstMate has raised $3.75 million in a new round led by Dragonfly Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures and NextView. The Brooklyn, New York-based software company – which designs and develops software tools to enable NFT creators to pull in orders from marketplaces like Opensea, LooksRare, x2y2, and Foundation in order showcase all their work in one place – will use the new funds to further develop its “creator-owned NFT storefront builder. Jacob Frantz-led FirstMate has just launched a creator-owned NFT storefront builder. “We believe that creative people and their supporters are underserved by today’s one-size-fits-all NFT platforms,” FirstMade said in a statement. “These platforms put their own interests above the needs of the individual creative person.”
Raleon has raised $3.8 million in a Seed round led by Blockchange Ventures with participation from Play Ventures, Web3 accelerator Alliance DAO, and crypto-focused investor Portal Ventures. The North Carolina-based Web3 engagement platform said in a statement that it will use the new funds to expand its team and “continue to build out the best engagement and retention platform in Web3, including our latest product, Embedded Quests.” Founded by Nathan Snell and Adam Larson, Raleon helps brands, games, and dApps engage and retain users, namely by enabling them to “elevate their customer engagement strategy and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with their audience, ultimately fostering lasting connections and increasing loyalty.”
Moonbox has received a strategic investment from Bing Ventures, the CVC arm of BingX, a global cryptocurrency exchange. The AI and Web3 startup with an NFTs ecosystem will use the new funds to “further accelerate [its] product growth and advance its core technology, which leverages cutting-edge generative AI to fuel applications for the evolving Web3 and NFT ecosystem.” A rep for BingX said in a statement, “Moonbox’s fusion of AI and Web3 showcases a visionary convergence that leads us toward a future of limitless possibilities.”
ZTX has raised $13 million in a Seed round led by Jump Crypto, with participation from Collab+Currency, Parataxis, MZ Web3 Fund, and Everest Ventures Group among others. The Singapore-based Web3 virtual world and creator platform is a joint initiative of Jump Crypto and South Korean mobile chat app ZEPETO. In a statement, ZTX said it is week away from “launching its inaugural Genesis Home Mint – a collection of 4,000 bespoke 3D District Homes that will provide holders with benefits such as becoming a member of one of the four Districts – Arts, Financial, Fashion, Games – alongside special access to future drops, events and enhanced gameplay in ZTX.”
ShapesXR has raised $8.6 million in a Seed round led by Supernode Global, with participation from Triptyq Ventures, Boost VC Management, Hartmann Capital, Geek Ventures, WXR Fund, StratMinds VC, Ludus Ventures, Venture Reality Fund, HTC Vive XR Fund, Leta Capital, and Remote First Capital. The spatial apps creation and collaboration platform startup, whose clients include Qualcomm, Logitech, and TikTok parent ByteDance, will use the new funds to expand its platform to new devices, including Apple Vision Pro, Pico and Magic Leap. “VR has such huge potential to transform how we all collaborate on projects and design new products; however, one of the main barriers to entry is the level of technical skill required to get started,” ShapesXR founder and CEO Inga Petryaevskaya said in a statement. “ShapesXR has been built to remove these hurdles — it’s as easy to learn as PowerPoint. This truly democratizes 3D content creation and enables anyone to become a VR, AR and mixed-reality storyteller.”
VIP3 has raised $2 million in a seed round from IOBC Capital, ANKR, and PAKA Capital. The New York-based company, which touts itself as “the first all-in-one web3 benefits and membership platform,” will use the new funds to “enhance [its] product development initiatives and expand its user base.”
Ayre Group has finalized agreements to take a controlling interest in nChain, the global leader in blockchain and Web3 technology, in a €500 million-plus deal that will “provide a huge boost to the blockchain and Web3 sectors.” In a statement, Ayre confirmed that the deal, which is “believed to be the single largest enterprise blockchain IP investment to date,” will see it invest up to a total of €516 million, a sum that consists of “an equity acquisition of nChain by the Ayre Group, an IP licensing deal for Ayre Ventures portfolio companies, and a line of credit.” Ayre founder Calvin Ayre stated: “For the better part of a decade, nChain and its London-based Chief Scientist Dr. Craig Wright have been quietly amassing a patent portfolio of unparalleled scope, literally the foundational elements of enterprise blockchain, AI and Web3. My goal is to accelerate the pace of nChain’s development and increase the commercial adoption of its extensive IP library.”
Yuga Labs has agreed to acquire Roar Studios, a company that it say is “at the convergence of gaming, social media, and the metaverse with deep technology and AI roots.” A web3 leader and owner of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, 10KTF, and Otherside projects, Yuga Labs said in a statement that Roar Studios’ ROAR, an immersive media experience, “combines innovative proprietary technology with established MMO game and platform systems to produce an entirely new product category: an experiential, semi-autonomous music and entertainment world driven by individual content creators and community consensus.”
Roar Studios’ founder and CEO, Eric Reid, said in connection with the deal, “Our team’s mission is to empower players to create and be social in a community-driven, open media experience, so our work fundamentally aligns with Yuga’s larger web3 metaverse strategy. When Daniel and Mike Seavers opened the door for us to contribute to Yuga’s paradigm-shifting approach to content and immersive experiences, we jumped at the opportunity.” Daniel Alegre, CEO of Yuga Labs said: “Roar Studios has redefined what it means to experience media content in the metaverse. Yuga’s North Star is creating new ways for communities to connect and express themselves, and I am excited to welcome Roar’s talented team to our Yuga family. Roar’s dedication to creative content creation and social connections will accelerate our execution of our bold vision for Otherside and Yuga’s ecosystem more broadly.”
Passage has raised $6 million in a “private sale” led by Akash Network, with participation from Druid Ventures, Vitwit, Cosmostation, Hyperchain Capital, Chorus One, and Cogitent Ventures, as well as additional leading Cosmos ecosystem participants, individuals, and DAOs. The Road Town, British Virgin Islands-based company – which provides a platform for creating and connecting 3D virtual worlds and experiences – will use the new funds “to further develop its world-building tools, which allow creators to produce and optimize high-quality virtual experiences.” Lex Avellino, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Passage, said in a statement: “Passage is a totally new way to connect online. It’s the only virtual platform that feels human and personal. We were able to validate this early on in 2020 when we built experiences for large brands and retail audiences. Back then, producing a 3D experience was a long, expensive process that we managed personally. Now, anyone will be able to create an immersive world using simple drag-and-drop tools in their browser. Through our partnership with Sortium AI, this is even easier, making it possible for everyone to generate beautiful 3D assets and experiences.”
Cymbal has raised $18.5 million in a new round from First Round Capital, Solana Ventures, CAA Connect, Coinbase Ventures, Patron, GV, Acrew, and UTA Ventures, among others. The Menlo Park, California-based blockchain startup, which is building a human-readable blockchain explorer that “allows users to view the Ethereum blockchain and search for all the billions of events and activities stored on-chain (these include holdings, transactions, social media accounts, etc.),” will use the new funds to expand its operations and development efforts. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Eric Feng.
DGG has raised €4 million in a new funding round led by European VC IRIS alongside existing investors RenderedVC, FTTF, and 3VC, as well as angels Charlie Songhurst and Chris Schagen. The Darmstadt, Germany-based deeptech startup will use the new funds to “accelerate its 3D optimization software, RapidCompact,” to fuel its global expansion, partners program, and R&D into real-time 3D, AR, and XR applications. Co-founded by Max Limper, Miguel Sousa, Julian-Alexander Neagu, Sebastian Wagner and Felix Limper, DGG enables e-commerce clients and platform partners – like Adidas, Crate & Barrel, Shopify, and Adobe – to integrate the tech into their backend infrastructure so that their merchants can automatically upload 3D models of their products whatever their size, complexity, or format, by making many thousands of 3D models accessible to all kinds of real-time 3D and XR applications, within a few hours.
“What might sound complicated is actually really simple for our users: our technology allows them to create and display 3D models just the way YouTube allows content creators to upload their content with a drag-and-drop feature. Our ultimate goal is to make 3D technology accessible to all retailers and product creators through an API with the essential building blocks, and this new funding will help us boost our growth and R&D,” says DGG co-founder and CEO Max Limper.
Whop has raised $17 million in a Series A round from Insight Partners, Zinal Growth, Peter Thiel, Justin Mateen, Justin Kan, The Chainsmokers, Cory Levy, Vivek Ranadive, David Blitzer, Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson (Animal Capital), James Harden, Kevin O’Leary, and Josh Browder. Founded by Steven Schwartz, Cameron Zoub and Jack Sharkey, Whop “powers the next-generation internet economy, helping entrepreneurial developers market and sell the things they’ve built – software, communities, information, etc – all in one place.” The New York-based digital product marketplace will use the funds to “enhance its product catalog and extend the business toolbox, making investments in AI, payments, and general marketplace infrastructure.” Schwartz told TechCrunch that “Whop is a comprehensive online platform aimed at connecting sellers and buyers within the digital economy. Its mission is to centralize all products on the internet, offering a one-stop solution for anyone looking to participate in the digital economy.”
Web3 development platform Thirdweb, has acquired Paper, a fellow-San Francisco-based embedded wallet creator. Thanks to the acquisition, Steven Bartlett, Furqan Rydhan, and Jake Loo-founded Thirdweb says that it will incorporate Paper’s wallet and checkout solutions to its platform, which provides tools to build, launch, and manage Web3 apps. Founded by James Sun, Edward Sun and Phillip Ho, 2-year-old Paper provides a developer platform that adds Embedded Wallets, Checkouts, and Airdrops to NFT platform or project. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Komi has raised $12 million in Series A funding round led by VC investors RTP, Third Prime, Antler, E& Capital, Brighteye Ventures, Contour Ventures and Vicus Ventures, as well as Sony Music, Live Nation and Laffitte Management Group. The Los Angeles and London-headquartered creator commerce platform will use the new funds to expand its product suite and expand its team in the U.S. Co-founder and CEO Lewis Crosbie told TechCrunch that the company, whose clients include Lizzo and Elton John, wants to cement itself as “the all-in-one platform for creators to grow their businesses,” including by offering “new commerce features will allow fans to browse merchandise from their favorite creator/celeb across multiple stores, add products to a single cart and check out all on the same page.”
Xterio has raised $15 million from Binance Labs, the venture capital and incubation arm of Binance. The Zug, Switzerland-based company that develops and distributes Web2 and Web3 games and interactive entertainment will use new funds to “further game and tech development, including integration of AI, and the launch of its tokens.” Xterio is in the process of developing an AI toolkit that generates style-consistent, production-quality 2D and 3D assets while also offering an “emotion engine for artificial intelligence.” This technology will be accessible to all content partners within the Xterio ecosystem, aiming to provide users with meaningful companionship that goes beyond the utility typically associated with AI.
Karta has raised $1.1 million in funding in a round led by GameTech Ventures with participation from Toikido, Sports Loft, ex-Chief Catalogue Officer to Hipgnosis Amy Thomson, CEO of Sports Loft Charlie Greenwood, Chairman of UK Finance Robert Wigley, Powster founder and CEO Ste Thompson, and Big Ideas Group. The London-based startup, which provides metaverse-specific marketing services to brands and artists, will use the new funds will meet the growing demand for metaverse experiences by growing its team and expand regionally. The Erik Londré-co-founded and led company said in a statement that it has worked with brands, including as Unilever and Amazon Music, and metaverse platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and Decentraland, to “create advertising and marketing opportunities in metaverse projects.”
Giza has raised $3 million in a Pre-Seed round led by CoinFund, a leading crypto-native investment firm and registered investment adviser, with participation from Arrington Capital, StarkWare and TA Ventures, along with angels like Rand Hindi and Julien Bouteloup, among others. The New York-based company will use the new funds to launch its AI platform for smart contracts and web3 protocols, which will support web3 and AI developers to integrate machine learning into smart contracts and decentralized protocols. “Smart contracts are not as smart as their name would suggest,” said Francisco Algaba, CEO of Giza, said in a statement. “They lack the capabilities and ease of use of many web2 applications because, until now, smart contracts cannot trustlessly integrate machine learning. Giza is on a mission to unlock the capabilities of machine learning for web3 smart contracts and protocols leveraging collective and open development. The successful integration of AI into web3 will not only expand the capabilities of smart contracts but will also enable the possibility of new models of ownership for AI.”
Brilliant Labs has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, Plug & Play Ventures, among others. The Singapore-based developer of generative AI-embedded AR glasses will use the new funds to “expand its team, invest into R&D, and grow its operations. The funds will be allocated to a dual-approach of nurturing an open-source AR ecosystem that fosters innovative generative AI applications that transforms human-computer interaction, while building as-yet-unannounced AR wearables in a more comfortable and compact form factor that makes AI more easily accessible to everyone.” In a statement, the Bobak Tavangar-led company said that it is “pioneering a new era of human-machine interactions through the convergence of Augmented Reality (AR) and wearable Generative AI,” and noted that the round follows from the successful launch of its open-source “Monocle” AR device, which couples AR with AI.
DREST has raised £15 million in a round led by Graham Edwards’ family office with participation from fellow co-founder and co-CEO Lucy Yeomans (former Net-a-Porter and Porter editor-in-chief and global content director). The London-based gaming company that “merges the creative worlds of luxury fashion, beauty and lifestyle with the infinite possibilities of the metaverse” will use the new funds to roll out “a highly improved, metaverse-enabled version of its current product, which will include a series of new features, with the aim to become the leading creative platform for fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle gamification.” The company said that it “further plans include scaling Drest through the developer ecosystem, marketing channels and strategic revenue streams as well as building on the user base growth experienced by the platform. Additional games within the web3 and lifestyle space are being explored and will enter into a Research & Development phase over the next 18 months.”
Swave Photonics has raised €3 million in a Seed extension round from Acequia Capital, along with existing investors imec.xpand, Flanders Future Techfund, and QBIC, bring the Seed total to €10 million. The Belgium-based tech co. “leverages augmented reality to enable manufacturers of mobile phones and displays, along with content creators, to improve the visualization and communication markets with immersive, ultra-high-resolution, lifelike, holographic displays.” CEO Mike Noonen said in a statement, “This seed round positions Swave well to execute on its augmented reality roadmap and engage future customers, partners and investors interested in driving true holography for spatial computing.”
BlockSpan, has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed round in furtherance of “an effort to make it easier than ever for software companies and builders to develop powerful Web3 applications with speed, confidence, and clarity.” The Pittsburgh-based, Jon Pastor-led startup said it will use the new funds to “continue to work toward breaking down Web3 development barriers, growing its team of engineers, expanding its feature list and analytics capabilities, and furthering its customer acquisition efforts.”
HyperPlay has raised $12 million in a Series A round co-led by Griffin Gaming Partners and BITKRAFT Ventures, along with MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys. The Web3-native game launcher and aggregator of multiple game stores – which launched in November 2022 as a joint collaboration between MetaMask, the leading self-custody Web3 wallet, and Game7, a DAO focused on building Web3 gaming infrastructure – says that it “aims to make interoperability the default for all Web3 games through a wallet overlay on top of games that allows players to carry their MetaMask wallet directly inside of native or browser-based games.” HyperPlay said in a statement that it will use the new funds to the funds to scale, fully enhancing its flagship game launcher and increasing its international presence.
Fusionist has raised $6.6 million in a Seed round co-led by Binance Labs, the venture capital arm and accelerator of Binance, and web2 gaming giant Funplus. Led by CEO Ike T, Fusionist is a blockchain-based gaming company that currently offers three games featuring collectible NFTs and boasts a community of 800,000 members. The web3 gaming co. will use the new funds to “accelerate the development of games and build out the Endurance Mainnet ecosystem, which was introduced in January 2023, intensify user growth and recruit top-tier gaming and Web3 professionals to further bolster their team’s capabilities.”
Demos Labs has raised a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round led by led by HackVC with participation from DCVC, Amplify Partners, Coinbase Ventures, CRV, OpenSea, and CSquared, and debuted Leo Wallet, “a first-of-its-kind privacy-focused cryptocurrency wallet for use with the Aleo blockchain.” The San Francisco-based “zero-knowledge” tech startup will use the new funds to support the creation of zero-knowledge blockchain infrastructure for enterprises, deploy privacy-based frameworks for innovative developers, and advance Leo Wallet’s privacy technology and interoperability with other blockchains. “Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) allow a piece of information to be verified as true without revealing the information itself through the use of complex encryption. The applications of this technology include digital identity protection, privacy-preserving transactions, shielded transactions, global compliance, and ownership verification,” the Barron Caster-led startup said in a statement. Caster said that “Leo Wallet is just one example of how ZKP will empower individuals to use modern technologies and maintain legal and regulatory compliance without sacrificing personal privacy.”
Wallet has raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures, with participation from Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone, and Volt Capital, bringing its funding to date to more than $80 million. The San Francisco-based wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) provider says that “enables web3 mass adoption” by providing “a seamless enterprise grade, low-effort solution to web3 migration that is opening up lucrative new avenues from customer loyalty programs and digital collectibles to employee recognition, ticketing, memberships, and more.” Its customers include brands across retail, music, fashion, and gaming, such as Mattel, Macy’s, Xsolla, and Immutable. “Since launching in 2018, we have witnessed a steady increase in web3 use-cases among large enterprises across a wide variety of verticals. Global brands have realized the potential of blockchain beyond crypto and are utilizing it to engage with their customers and monetize the experience in new ways. Magic is working closely with Fortune 500 companies to bring their web3 use cases to everyday users,” said Sean Li, Magic’s co-founder and CEO.
The company will use the new funds to expand its enterprise-ready product suite to support its customer base.
Augeo, a global leader in loyalty and engagement technologies, announced the formation of Kigo, which combines Heaps (Augeo’s crypto loyalty subsidiary) and Thred, an innovative NFT engagement platform. The two ventures have collectively raised $16 million in funding, including $6.5 million in new commitments from Valor Siren Ventures and Augeo to accelerate the launch of Kigo. The company – which is led by David Kristal, who is the founder and CEO of Augeo and Executive Chair of Kigo – said in a statement, “As major brands seek to shape new experiences and embrace digital assets, Kigo trailblazes a new era of Open Loyalty™ defined by sharable experiences, ownable digital assets and cross-brand collaborations.” Partnering with Kigo, organizations can “create, distribute and manage blockchain-enabled customer, employee and membership experiences – from dynamic digital badges that amplify milestones to shareable rewards, personalized digital memberships and cross-brand collaborations at scale.” They can also “integrate an expansive digital rewards marketplace, where people can redeem loyalty rewards for hyper-relevant digital collectibles, commemoratives, access passes and more, in addition to leading cryptocurrencies.”
Sort has raised $3.5 million in a Seed round co-led by Lemniscap and The General Partnership, with participation from Alliance DAO, Punk DAO, Orange DAO, Blizzard Fund, Parasol, Red Rooster Ventures, and a number of angels from Coinbase, Gemini, and Snyk. The San Francisco, CA-based provider of a platform that aims to simplify Web3 app development will use the new funds to grow its team, advance its platform’s product suite, and expedite the launch of “Sort applications,” the full-stack for writing a UI for a blockchain contract. The round is “the latest milestone in Sort’s mission to onboard the next million developers to the Web3 ecosystem, by creating a platform easy enough for anyone to use, irrespective of skill level,” the Jason Zucchetto-led company said in a statement.
eBay Inc. and Certilogo, a provider of apparel and fashion goods digital IDs and authentication, announced that eBay has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Certilogo. In a statement, the companies revealed that Certilogo’s platform uses digital technology to empower brands and designers to “manage the lifecycle of their garments, while providing consumers a seamless way to confirm authenticity, access reliable information about branded items, and easily activate circular services.” eBay says the acquisition further solidifies it as “a trusted destination to shop for pre-loved apparel and fashion, and marks a key investment in the growing pre-loved fashion category.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Anotherblock has raised €4 million in a seed funding round led by Stride.VC, with Swedish House Mafia member Axwell participating in the round. Previous investors in the Stockholm-basedblockchain-based company include Inventures, J12 Ventures, Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello, and Dune Analytics co-founder and CEO Fredrik Haga. The web3 music startup says that it will use the new funds to scale its product offerings to a wider audience. Michel Traore, CEO and co-founder of AnotherBlock, said the is looking to “reach a wider audience particularly outside of the crypto space, enabling even more creators to get involved.”
CLO Virtual Fashion, a global leader in digital garment solutions, and Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine, announced that they have purchased shares in one another. “We strongly believe that digital garments will play a significant role in the future of digital entertainment and metaverse platforms,” said Simon Kim, CEO of CLO Virtual Fashion, which boasts “a comprehensive ecosystem of products including 3D garment design software, a digital CMS and collaboration platform, and an open marketplace and community where thousands of true-to-life garment designs are bought, sold, and showcased.”
“Bringing high-quality digital fashion into real-time virtual worlds is complex and can be a creative barrier for digital fashion creators. It is exciting to see how CLO Virtual Fashion’s solutions work with Unreal Engine to help designers across industries make life-like digital fashion garments,” said Kim Libreri, Chief Technology Officer at Epic Games, the developer behind Fortnite.
The terms of the respective purchases have not been disclosed.
Pudgy Penguins has raised $9 million in a seed round led by 1kx with participation from with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research, Old Fashion Research, CRIT Ventures, and the founders of LayerZero Labs. “Pudgy Penguins is more than just an NFT project – it is a transcendent IP brand that is providing a community of both crypto-native and non-crypto native consumers with enjoyable products, experiences, and content,” said Luca Netz, Chief Executive Officer of Pudgy Penguins. “With the backing of our partners and community, we are excited to create the leading Web3 IP brand of tomorrow, and to introduce Web3 to the public in a simple, seamless way.” To date, Pudgy Penguins, which describes itself as leading Web3 IP company and Ethereum NFT collection, has released a clothing/accessories line and is now planning to launch Pudgy Toys, a collection of real world toys based on Pudgy Penguin IP.
Vibe.xyz has closed a $4 million seed round supported by Alchemy Ventures, Aglaé Ventures, global K-Pop Sensation Psy’s music label, P Nation and others in furtherance of its launch of a “comprehensive non-fungible token platform that [aims] to create the paradigm shift of ‘NFT-to-Product,’ the new standard of non-fungibility by providing creatives the tools to curate and customize their NFTs.” Vibe, which was founded and is led by CEO Rachel Chu, says that “most NFTs have failed to reach their true potential, as many are simply JPEGs with limited or no utility or value outside of their scarcity.” The San Francisco-based startup is angling to change that by way of its “first-of-its-kind, no-code platform that enables creatives to turn NFTs into fully fledged applications and products via NFT smart contracts and metadata.”
Universal Ledger raised $10 million in funding via SAFE notes led by Hard Yaka. Led by CEO Kirk Chapman, the Chicago-based crypto startup enables users to build their own crypto wallets via its wallet-as-a-service platform, “providing developers and engineers with an API and event-driven architecture on which they can build compliant digital wallet experiences that allow assets to be moved globally, in real time.”
MetaGravity has closed a $9.5 million seed round with participation from Sino Global Capital, Spartan Group, Market One Capital, Gravity Fund, Perridon Holdings, Pancasila, Ex-Capital, Mulana, Cogitent Ventures, Agrippa Capital, K5 Global Ventures, Moonpay, and Project Godijra. The London-based virtual world and metaverse infrastructure developer, which was founded in 2021 by CEO Rashid Mansoor and CBO Tobin Ireland, will use the new funding to “bolster its engineering and product teams to build the infrastructure layer to support the metaverse experiences.”
Coinflow Labs, a web3 payment stack provider, announced the closing of its $1.45 million pre-seed round led by Jump Crypto and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from CMT Digital, Digital Currency Group, Gumi Cryptos, Builder Capital, Prompt Ventures, Blocktech Ventures and various angel investors following Coinflow’s participation in the Pit, Jump Crypto’s hub for innovators. Coinflow Labs’ web3 payments infrastructure solution “aims to provide a simpler, more secure, and efficient way for web3 companies to accept traditional payments such as credit cards.” Coinflow offers a comprehensive web3 payment stack that allows web3 companies to accept traditional payment methods for things, such as buying NFTs with a credit card. Coinflow will use the new cash to further accelerate its product, software and business development initiatives, onboard new customers, and expand its team.
Tonic.xyz has raised $5 million in a seed round co-led by Patron.xyz and TTCER. The “world’s premium art NFT gallery built for non-crypto native collectors,” Tonic provides “a safe space for consumers to learn about and collect generative fine art that bridges the digital and physical worlds,” according to CEO Susannah Maybank. The San Francisco-based company, which falls under the umbrella of Heretic Ventures, will use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.
MonkeDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization set up by owners of the Solana Monkey Business NFT collection, has acquired the project’s IP, including “all rights, assets, accounts and keys from HadesDAO” for $2 million following a community vote. “MonkeDAO believes the SMB project and all holders of the SMB Gen2 NFTs will benefit from this acquisition and that HadesDAO will benefit more from money in its treasury rather than maintaining ownership of the SMB project,” MonkeDAO said.
Hug has raised $5 million in seed funding in furtherance of quest to build out a social marketplace that connects digital art and NFT creators with current and prospective collectors. Randi Zuckerberg-founded Hug’s round was led by DIGITAL with participation from OKX Ventures, L’Oréal’s BOLD corporate venture fund, Venrex, Jae Holdings, Cryptology, Samara, and Aa Sons. The New York-headquartered company will use the new funds to “accelerate product growth and integrate creator-first commerce features with its existing social curation and discovery tools.”
Absolute Labs has raised $8 million in a seed round from Aglaé Ventures, Alpha Praetorian Capital, The Luxury Fund, Near Foundation, MoonPay, Plassa Capital, Punja Global Ventures, Samsung Next, Sparkle Ventures (Animoca Brands), and W3i. The San Francisco-based provider of a Wallet Relationship Management (“WRM”) platform for companies’ web3 endeavors says it will use the new cash to expand operations and its business reach. A handful of companies that are already making use of its WRM tech include LVMH, The Sandbox, Moonpay,and Mocaverse.
Illumix has raised $18 million in a Series A round involving LightShed Ventures, Henry Kravis, co-founder of KKR & Co, Matthew Ball, Mark Cuban, Sony Innovation Fund, RW3 Ventures, OV, Visible Ventures and Xavier Niel. The San Francisco-based startup, which was founded by Kirin Sinha, describes itself as offering up “a low-code augmented reality (AR) software that enables marketing leaders, and creative executives to easily make immersive AR experiences, without the need for technical expertise.” This funding follows from an $8.6 million seed round in 2018.
“Illumix is enabling high-quality and real-time virtual try-on which has implications for the fashion industry ranging from higher conversion rates, fewer returns, and more environmentally-friendly. While we have started with accessories, eventually virtual try-on will apply to every category and be as regular a part of online shopping as product images or reviews are today,” Sinha said.
DressX has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Greenfield with participation from Slow Ventures, Warner Music, The Artemis Fund, and Red Dao, among others. The multi-brand retailer of digital fashion clothing will use the new cash to “scale its vision of the future of fashion, ensure interoperability of the digital fashion assets offered by DressX, and improve the performance of the DressX app and non-fungible-token (NFT) marketplace.”
Hexa has raised $20.5 million in a Series A round led by Point 72 ventures and existing investors. The Tel-Aviv-based startup boasts a 3D asset visualization and management platform, which digitizes products – including apparel – using existing 2D images and AI to create 3D digital twins that can displayed on websites, social media and in AR applications. Macy’s, Logitech, and Crate & Barrel are among the companies that use Hexa’s tools to “make, manage and deploy their 3D assets.”
Avalon Corp. has raised $13 million in a round led by Bitkraft Ventures and with participation from Hashed, Delphi Digital, Mechanism Capital, and Coinbase Ventures, and angels, including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and former Microsoft exec Charlie Songhurst. The Orlando, Florida-based company will use the funding to build out an interoperable digital metaverse platform. “We imagine that, in the future, people will work together with tools that make it really easy to build worlds and experience those dreams. Those experiences put together could create something like the metaverse,” according to Avalon CEO Sean Pinnock.
Korean startup Guhada, which operates an O2O luxury online commerce platform using blockchain, has raised 8 billion won ($6.1 million) in a Series B round with participation from Korea Investment Partners, Woori Bank, DTNI Investment, and BM Ventures, bringing its total funding to date to 13.5 billion won ($10 million). The blockchain based online retail platform says that its model “simplifies the complex distribution structure by linking IT with a number of European boutiques directly contracted with luxury brands,” with Guhada enabling customers to purchase luxury goods “at reasonable prices in Europe and have them delivered to their home.”
OWND has raised $750,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Nordic VCs byFounders and Skyfall Ventures. The Copenhagen-based startup will use the cash to launch and grow its platform that enables consumers to invest in digital collectibles, including fashion-focused NFTs. The platform is expected to launch in April. “We want to empower the online-first generations to invest in something they know better than Wall Street: fashion. With OWND, we enable our users to go from consumers to co-owners of the brands they believe in,” OWND co-founder, Mads Lunau Liechti, said in connection with the round.
Unikbase has raised €2 million in a seed funding round led by Weber Investissements, with participation from other unnamed investors in the U.S. and France. The Paris-based company creates digital twins to “identify, authenticate, and unlock the power of ownership for the world’s most valuable objects.” The company’s co-founder and CEO Etienne Hermite, said in connection with the round, “We bring web3 and Track & Trace technologies to the world of physical objects. Our digital twin solution increases traceability and therefore, trust around the history of long-lived objects.”
Virtual entertainment company Superplastic raised $20 million in an extended Series A round led by the venture capital arm of Amazon, “as it looks to expand its universe of digital characters.” Gucci-owner Kering, Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures, and Betaworks also participated in the round, which brings Superplastic’s total funding to date to $58 million. The company – which will roll out an animated comedy with Amazon Studios featuring its “Janky” and “Guggimon” characters – sells toys, apparel and NFTs in collaboration with brands, including Gucci, Fortnite, Mercedes-Benz, Tommy Hilfiger and celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Post Malone and The Weekn, per Reuters.
Spatial Labs raised $10 million in seed funding led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Jay-Z’s Macy Venture Partners, which previously invested in Spatial Lab’s 2021 pre-seed round. The web3 infrastructure and hardware company, which was founded in 2021 by Iddris Sandu, offers up blockchain-based digital twins – using its LNQ One Chip – to track physical items’ authenticity, origin, ownership history and real-time value. The company will use the new cash to scale its blockchain-enabled technology and expand into other industries, such as media and entertainment. “Spatial Labs is designing next-gen technologies to connect brands to younger demographics that shop and interact with products in completely new ways. Through our technology solutions, we provide brands with rich consumer data and previously inaccessible revenue models,” Sandu said in a statement.
Emperia has raised $10 million to scale its effort to bring brands into the metaverse. The London-based company – which has already worked with brands like Dior, Ralph Lauren, and Lacoste, among others, to create virtual stores – is looking to accelerate the adoption of “metaverse e-commerce” and help brands to bulk up their omni-channel retail strategies by creating new digital touchpoints that drive engagement and increase sales. Founded in 2019 by fashion and retail expert Olga Dogadkina and VR innovation expert Simonas Holcmann in 2019, Emperia will use the new funding to grow its team, develop its virtual store SaaS platform, and deepen the capabilities of the data suite that powers it.
SYKY (pronounced “psy-key”) raised $9.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Alexis Ohanian’s firm Seven Seven Six with participation from Brevan Howard Digital, Leadout Capital, First Light Capital Group, and Polygon Ventures. The New York-based company, which calls itself a “next generation luxury fashion platform,” says it will use the funds to accelerate growth and expand its business reach. Founded in 2022 by Alice Delahunt, who previously held titles of Chief Digital & Content Officer at Ralph Lauren and former Digital & Social Marketing Director at Burberry, SYKY “provides a blockchain-enabled luxury platform that will serve as an incubator, marketplace, and social community for the next generation of designers and consumers to enable this digital-first generation to create, curate, share and trade their fashion collections.”
House of Blueberry has raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Makers Fund with “continued participation” from Everblue Management. The digital fashion business, which is in the process of building “the largest digital fashion house in the metaverse,” will use the new funds to expand partnerships with new games and online worlds to reach a broader audience. Since its launch in 2012, House of Bluberry says that it has sold more than 20 million assets across platforms like Roblox, The Sims, and Second Life, boasting “10 thousand SKUs and over 400 thousand unique customers.”
“Over 62 million [items of] clothes and accessories were created by players on Roblox alone in 2022,” said Lia Zhang, investor at Makers Fund, in a statement in connection with the round. “The numbers have been rapidly increasing every year and we’re starting to see more games and platforms understand the importance of user generated content. We believe that as many of the top games and virtual worlds have become social networks, it’s more important than ever to offer customizability for our characters as they represent our digital identities.”
L’Oréal has announced a minority investment in metaverse platform and NFT marketplace Digital Village by way of its venture capital fund, Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development. Founded in 2021, Digital Village offers “scalable technology solutions for the creation and interaction of digital identities.” “As L’Oréal continues to explore and define what beauty means in Web3, we seek to work with the most promising startups who adhere to the highest possible visual and technical standards,” Camille Kroely, chief metaverse and Web3 officer at L’Oréal, said in a statement.
Warner Music Group (“WMG”) announced an investment in – and impending partnership with – DRESSX, a digital fashion retailer and the largest digital closet with a deep commitment to sustainable fashion. The terms of the investment were not disclosed. However, the parties described the “first-of-its-kind partnership” as providing a platform for select WMG artists to design their own virtual fashion lines. According to a release from the two companies, “In the agreement, artists will collaborate directly with DRESSX to design and launch 3D and AR virtual clothing that fans can collect and enjoy across Instagram, Snapchat, and other platform partners. The deal will enable artists to unlock new revenue streams, while creating additional outlets for fans to showcase their fandom across multiple digital worlds.”
Yuga Labs confirmed the acquisition of WENEW, a web3 service provider and platform “known for web3-centric partnerships with celebrated brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Playboy, Wimbledon, Gucci, Puma, and others.” Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs will also acquire WENEW’s flagship NFT collection, 10KTF, which “is an interoperable digital storefront where holders from top NFT collections (BAYC, Cool Cats, Moonbirds, and others) can mint and collect one-of-a-kind NFTs featuring their digital avatar on various metaverse-ready digital wearables.” The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Following the acquisition, Michael Figge, co-founder and CEO of WENEW, will join Yuga’s leadership team as the Chief Content Officer, “responsible for pushing the boundaries of imagination and creativity at Yuga through out-of-the-box content strategies and experiences,” per Yuga. Fellow WENEW co-founder Mike Winkelmann aka Beeple – who made headlines last year when his “5000 Days” NFT collection sold for $69.346 million in a Christie’s auction – will join Yuga Labs as an advisor. Pitchbook also lists Yuga Labs-manager Guy Oseary as a co-founder of Los Angeles-based WENEW, which launched in June 2021.
Anything World, the platform for developing interactive 3D experiences through the power of Machine Learning announces today that $7.5 million has been raised in their Series Seed Plus funding round with investors including Acrew Capital, Alumni Ventures and Warner Music Group. “The capacity for anyone to create immersive and accessible experiences in virtual and 3D worlds has been expanded substantially by this funding round,” Anything World CEO Gordon Midwood said. “We’re thrilled to expand further the tools and opportunities we can provide to developers, creatives and the general public. Because of the interest and need from developers who want to create 3D worlds, populate those worlds with assets, and immerse users in incredible experiences, Anything World will continue to be the go-to platform.”
Lisbon-based web3 startup Exclusible has closed a 5 million euro “strategic round” led by Swiss soccer club FC Basel owner Holzmann and Tioga Capital with participation from White Star Capital, former Cartier CEO Stanislas de Quercize, former Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith, and Boston Consulting Group Managing Director & Partner Joel Hazan, among others. Exclusible – which was founded in October 2021 to provide luxury brands with tools to digitalize their products and launch NFT collections – will use the new funds to grow its team and build out its web3 customer relationship management product. In addition to announcing the new round, Exclusible confirmed that it has acquired metaverse creative solution provider Polycount in a cash and stock deal that will enable it to onboard more designers and “fullfil the demand” for metaverse projects. Exclusible CEO Thibault Launay says that in terms of metaverse projects, the company’s “order book is pretty much full until Q2 2023.”
Seamm, the digital fashion platform “where real-life fashion brands can create new digital collections and enrich their clothes with new digital experiences, like wearing them in metaverses and video games,” has raised $1.7 million in a new round, which the company says will enable it to “scale go-to-market activities, attract and hire top talent, and accelerate the development of its platform.” In the business of “authenticating and digitalizing” fashion goods so that consumers can use them in virtual worlds, Seamm officially launches this month after operating in stealth mode since August. The company’s founder and CEO Marina Martianova said in a statement, “We are going to bring apparel and accessories from the real world into digital form, which can then be transferred to the majority of metaverses and video games. Devoted to supporting independent fashion designers and cult niche products, we’re starting our journey with hand-picked brands from Portugal, the UK, Spain and the Middle East.”
Swiss jewelry and watch manufacturer Bucherer has acquired Adresta AG, a Swiss tech startup that develops blockchain-based digital certificates for luxury goods. As part of the deal, which closed on September 30, Adresta’s services will be fully integrated into the Bucherer Group, ultimately, enabling Bucherer customers to gain “digital access to an exclusive shopping experience with additional services” that are expected to complement the “certified pre-owned” service that Bucherer launched in 2019, and bolster the company’s e-commerce capabilities.
With the integration of Adresta AG, “We are taking a few big steps forward in implementing our digital strategy,” Bucherer Group CEO Guido Zumbühl said. “We want to offer our customers a comprehensive shopping experience, which increasingly also includes digital services. We look forward to integrating this innovative company into the Bucherer Group.” Adresta CEO Mathew Chittazhathu, who will be employed at Bucherer to “drive development work and the further expansion of the software into a digital ecosystem,” says that “in Bucherer, we have found the ideal partner for us to develop our solution further and establish it optimally on the market for the benefit of customers.” The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Doodles announced that it has raised $54 million in equity funding, backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, along with Acrew Capital, FTX Ventures and 10T Holdings. Founded in 2021, the web3 NFT, media, and entertainment brand says it will use the funding “to rapidly acquire a world-class team of engineers, creatives, marketers and business executives, as well as to fund product development, acquisitions, proprietary technology, media, and collector experiences.” Doodles is looking to grow its team from 11 people to 30. On the heels of announcing the appointment of Pharrell Williams as chief brand officer in June, Doodles revealed that it recently hired a head of brand partnerships. “We want to create products for our core collector base, but at the same time utilize these great forms of marketing like music, to introduce new people to Web3 and onboard them into the Doodles ecosystem,” Vancouver-based Doodles CEO Julian Hoguin says.
Tencent Holdings Ltd is raising its stake in Ubisoft Entertainment SA in a deal that values the games developer at about $10 billion, per Reuters. In addition to falling in line with the enduring trend of “deep-pocketed Chinese tech majors continuing their overseas search for growth,” the Tencent, Ubisoft deal is notable in that it comes as Montreuil, France-headquartered Ubisoft – and other traditional gaming companies – increasingly eye the metaverse to generate revenue from their existing IP. Early this year, for instance, Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based blockchain company behind The Sandbox, announced that it had formed a strategic partnership with Ubisoft, in which Ubisoft would receive its own land on the Sandbox’s metaverse platform and develop game experiences with NFTs in the virtual world.
Nreal announced a $15 million investment from luxury eyewear brand Gentle Monster’s parent company, IICOMBINED, in furtherance of its focus on the consumer augmented reality (“AR”) market. The parties say that they are “exploring new collaboration opportunities to push the boundaries of fashion and technology,” with the investment coming as San Francisco-based “Nreal makes strides in expanding the appeal of AR [eyewear] to a broader audience base [and] delivering on the promise of AR for consumers everywhere.” “This investment is an exciting try for the combination and exploration for the boundary of fashion and tech. In the future, we will leverage both parties’ strength and make joint efforts to create more possibilities,” said Hankook Kim, co-founder of Gentle Monster and CEO of IICOMBINED.
Mona has raised a $14.6 million in a Series A round co-led by Protocol Labs, Archetype and Collab+Currency. The San Francisco-based company touts itself as providing “the first and only platform and network for creators to build, mint, and sell interactive metaverse worlds as NFTs.” In a statement, Mona CEO and co-founder Justin Melillo said, “With the closing of this round, we will continue to grow our global, vibrant community of builders as we onboard thousands of new creators to the open metaverse and web3. The metaverse doesn’t have to belong to big tech companies – it can, and will, be a place for everyone.”
Gucci has entered into a partnership with NFT marketplace SuperRare, acquiring $25,000 in $RARE tokens to join the SuperRareDAO, and launch its the Vault Art Space. “The vault is Gucci’s digital space,” SuperRare co-founder and chief product officer Jonathan Perkins said this week. “And they are going to be working with artists and selling art through their space, which will be powered by SuperRare technology. The brand’s acquisition of RARE tokens gives it rights in the decentralized autonomous organization that governs the SuperRare platform. According to SuperRare, “Members of the community who hold governance tokens” – i.e., $RARE, the new SuperRare curation token – “can use them to vote on issues and decisions that affect the organization.”
LincTex Digital raised $100 million in a round led by Hillhouse Capital and CDH Investments, with the Hangzhou-based company, which does business as Style3D, saying that it will use the funds for international expansion and to make further inroads into the digital fashion realm. “From developing virtual try-on technologies and 3D body scanning in the beginning,” Reuters reported that Style3D has now “broadened its offering to include digital services for fashion designers and manufacturers so they can use big data to design and produce fashion collections.”
eBay has acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin for an undisclosed sum, the parties confirmed in a release. Facilitating nearly $8 million in NFT trading since its founding in 2018, Manchester, UK-based KnownOrigin states that its “technology and platform provides artists with a place to create unique, authentic, digital collectibles, in the form of NFTs.” The deal is “an important step in eBay’s tech-led reimagination,” the parties revealed, “ushering in a new era of digital collecting to the world’s top destination for collectibles.” “eBay is the first stop for people across the globe who are searching for that perfect, hard-to-find, or unique addition to their collection and, with this acquisition, we will remain a leading site as our community is increasingly adding digital collectibles,” said Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay. “KnownOrigin has built up an impressive, passionate and loyal group of artists and collectors making them a perfect addition to our community of sellers and buyers. We look forward to welcoming these innovators as they join the eBay community.”
Combining NFTs with proprietary technology to definitively link physical products to digital assets, Endstate announced a $5.5 million seed round with investors including Archetype Ventures, Accomplice Ventures, Road Capital, and CMS Holdings, among others. Founded in 2020 by Bennett Collen and Stephanie Howard, Massachusetts-based Endstate says that it will use the funding to “help us reach the Endstate sooner — accelerating our product development and innovation roadmaps, and allowing us to continue to hire world-class talent.”
BUD has raised $37 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Chinese billionaire William Lei Ding’s company NetEase, Chinese VC firms ClearVue Partners, and Northern Light Venture Capital, along with existing investors GGV Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Source Code Capital. The Singapore-based metaverse startup will use the funds to “launch Web3 products, the next generation of the internet that runs on blockchains,” and will also introduce NFT projects to allow users to “own and trade virtual assets derived from the metaverse,” per Forbes. The round follows from BUD’s Series A round, which was completed in February.
Arianee, the leading end to end web3 solution for brands, has raised a €20 million ($21.09 million) in a Series A led round by Tiger Global. Existing investors Bpifrance, ISAI, Noia Capital and Cygni Labs, joined the round, along with Commerce Ventures, Motier Ventures and Pierre Denis, former CEO of Jimmy Choo. In a release on Tuesday, Paris-based Arianne stated that “web3 is a unique opportunity for companies and individuals to regain control over their digital presence, especially their data, [and] it’s the time for businesses to free themselves from the dependency on big platforms and lead new usage and innovation.” An end-to-end web3 solution built to create, distribute and interact with NFTs, including by enabling brands to tokenize, distribute and leverage value through NFTs, Arianee says it will use the new funds to accelerate its international presence by growing its New York office, recruiting new talent and continuing the development of its products and services. The 4-year old company says its staff has tripled since its last funding round in March 2021, and it currently boasts more than 50 clients and partners (including IBM and the metaverse The Sandbox) in Europe and North America.
Mark Cuban, singer Pitbull, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, DJ Steve Aoki, and Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media are among the investors in a seed round for animation app immi, a round that an immi spokesman says values the company at $50 million. Immi characterizes itself as “the only real-time animation platform making full-body 3D cinema-quality characters and facial tracking technology accessible to anyone, anywhere.”
Yuga Labs. the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of NFTs, raised approximately $285 million worth of cryptocurrency by selling tokens that represent land in a virtual world game it says it is building. In an online sale on April 30, Yuga Labs sold NFTs called “Otherdeeds,” which can exchanged as plots of virtual land in a Bored Ape-themed online environment called “Otherside” that is expected to launch in the near future, per Reuters. The 55,000 Otherdeeds that were offered up were purchasable using the Yuga-created ApeCoin cryptocurrency
Fortnite creator Epic Games raised $2 billion from Sony Group and Kirkbi, the family owned holding company behind the Lego Group, in a deal that values the company at $31.5 billion. Epic will use the new cash to help fund the kid-focused metaverse endeavor that it announced last month in partnership with Lego. “As we reimagine the future of entertainment and play we need partners who share our vision. We have found this in our partnership with Sony and Kirkbi,” said Tim Sweeney, the CEO and founder Epic Games, in a statement. “This investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences and creators can build a community and thrive.” All three companies “highly value both creators and players, and aim to create new social entertainment exploring the connection between digital and physical worlds,” the companies said in a statement.
Digital fashion brand The Fabricant raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Greenfield One, and with participation from Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and Red DAO, and among others. The Netherlands-based company says that the funding will be used to support and expand its co-creation and NFT platform, The Fabricant Studio, which enables “everyday users to become creators [and] craft high-end digital fashion NFTs in collaboration with their favorite brands,” according to Maaria Bajwa, Investor at Sound Ventures. Jascha Samadi, Partner of Greenfield One said in a statement, “Within virtual environments we are likely going to have multiple digital reflections of our physical self. The Fabricant Studio allows any creator to become their own fashion designer in the metaverse — paired with Web3 technology, digital fashion becomes unique, tradeable and accessible for the masses. The team behind The Fabricant identified this paradigm of user-generated fashion very early on, long before NFTs caught mainstream attention.”
French luxury goods group Kering is among the investors in former Andreessen Horowitz general partner Katie Haun’s new crypto fund, Haun Venture. Haun Ventures will invest in “both start-up equity, and in some cases the cryptocurrencies issued by those start-ups, also known as tokens,” per CNBC, which reported that Haun’s fund will be divided into two segments: $500 million for early-stage companies and protocols, and $1 billion for later-stage projects.
Yuga Labs announced that is now at valued at $4 billion, following a $450 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto fund, a16z crypto. According to Reuters, “Metaverse gaming company Animoca and its subsidiary, The Sandbox, and crypto exchange FTX are also among the investors that participated in the latest round.”
Universal Music Group has acquired Bored Ape #5537, a female character NFT now known as Manager Noët All, from its former owner for $360,817. The digital asset will join the digital musical group, Kingship, that Universal’s next-gen label 10:22PM created in November 2021. The group initially consisted of four “rare Golden Fur and Bluebeam Apes” from Yuga Labs’ collection of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs. According to Reuters, “Kingship, which exists solely in digital form, will have its own website and presence on messaging platform Discord, and will eventually produce new music and give virtual performances in the metaverse.”
Yuga Labs, the titan behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, announced that it has “acquired the IP of the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs,” another giant in the digital assets space, which means that Yuga now “owns the brands, copyright in the art, and other IP rights for both collections, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits.” The company says that its first move will be to grant CryptoPunks and Meebits holders “the same commercial rights that BAYC and MAYC owners enjoy” in a move that “further align[s] CryptoPunks and Meebits with the web3 ethos.”
UNXD announced that it has raised a $4 million funding round led by Animoca Brands, Polygon Studios, and Red DAO. In addition to partnering with brands, such as Dolce & Gabbana, to create NFTs, the B2B metaverse-focused company also hosts a Polygon-based (Ethereum-compatible) digital luxury fashion marketplace, which is says is the home of “the best of digital luxury and culture.” Founded in 2021 by Nick Gonzalez and Shashi Menon, UNXD states that it will use the new cash to further scale its “team, ecosystem, and roster of partner brands.”
Metaverse fashion brand Space Runners has raised $10 million in a funding round co-led by Polychain and Pantera Capital, and including Accel, Jump Crypto, Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu, and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan. “We are designing and launching fashion items as NFT collections, which is ongoing,” Space Runners CEO Deniz Özgür stated. “But we are also launching the first phase of our fashion metaverse. Rather than just an urban cyber style, we are giving more weight to beauty and aesthetics, and we’ve been collaborating with some of the most popular fashion agencies in New York.”
Immutable raised $200 million from investors led by Singapore’s Temasek, valuing the Australian NFT startup at $2.5 billion, the company announced. Investors include Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Declaration Partners, and Tencent Holdings, among others.
Nifty League, a leading NFT gaming platform, today announced the close of a $5 million seed investment round led by New York-based private investment firm RSE Ventures, along with Spartan Group, Lerer Hippeau, VaynerFund, Private Ventures Group, DraftKings Co-founder Matthew Kalish, and Gallery Media Group CEO Ryan Harwood, among others. Launched in September 2021, Nifty League is bringing “competitive gaming to Web3 – moving away from play-to-earn into a new era of play-and-earn by offering a fun and engaging gaming ecosystem.”
CollectID closed a $3.5 million seed funding round led by SeventySix Capital and Hellen’s Rock. The Swiss-based startup combines NFT technology, backed by an immutably secure blockchain, through a tamper-proof NFC tag to provide a secure and unique identity for each product that can be applied to the majority of physical objects including clothes, accessories, shoes, watches.
Metamall, a metaverse start-up that allows buyers to own, build and develop virtual real estate has closed its Initial Dex Offering – or “IDO” – to raise $400k with the supply of 80 million tokens. With this round and previous funding (Metamall previously raised $4.6 million in its seed, strategic and private rounds and more than $2 million through NFT sales), Metamall announced that it is the first retail commerce-themed metaverse platform in the world to raise funding more than $7 million from private and public investors.
Jambo raised $7.5 million in seed funding in furtherance of Africa’s most notable metaverse venture. The Congo-based startup is angling to build Africa’s web3 user acquisition portal through “learn, play, earn” and democratizing access to crypto-based income-generation opportunities. According to TechCrunch, “Experts say Africa is poised to be disrupted by web3 in a similar fashion that has seen Southeast Asia become one of the best markets for web3.”
BUD raised $15 million funding in a Series A+ round. Founded by former Snap engineers Shawn Lin and Risa Feng in 2019, BUD allows users to create customizable 3D experiences and interact with others by way of its app.
Brand New Vision Ltd, the company behind BNV.ME, the leading platform taking fashion into Web3.0 through 3D Product Creation, NFT sales, and Future Wearability, completed a $4 million Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands. In a statement, BNV.ME said that the funding will enable it to further expand its capabilities for creating elevated NFT experiences across the metaverse offerings that already exist and those that are under development, as well as growing its visibility and presence across the worlds of fashion, gaming, and crypto communities.
Next-generation visualization and e-commerce merchandising provider nfinite raised $15 million in Series A funding led by US Venture Partners. New York-based nfinite stated that the funding would be used to accelerate development of its SaaS 3D visualization platform and to scale the company’s operations in North America.
NIKE, Inc. announced that it would acquire RTFKT, “a leading brand that leverages cutting edge innovation to deliver next generation collectibles that merge culture and gaming.” Nike President and CEO John Donahoe said in a statement that the acquisition is “another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture,” and one that will help to “extend Nike’s digital footprint and capabilities.” Terms of the deal were not announced.
Niantic, the augmented reality platform behind Pokémon GO, raised $300 million from Coatue, valuing the company at $9 billion. The San Francisco-based startup announced that it will use the funding to build the “real-world metaverse.”
VNTANA, the industry leader in 3D Content Management Software, closed its latest round of funding, with investment from Mark Cuban, former Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, Flexport and Anorak Ventures, among others, bringing its total funding to $12.5 million in total. VNTANA says that its tech “makes it easy for brands across fashion, footwear, furniture, tools, sporting goods, and more” – including Ugg-owner Deckers Brands, Staud and Diesel – “to share and embed 3D and AR for sales and marketing use.”
Immersive music experience startup Stage11 raised a 5 million euro seed round led by Otium Capital, a European venture capital fund, backed up by founder and CEO, Jonathan Belolo. Stage11 stated that it is “setting out to redefine the interactive music experience by combining gaming, mixed reality, and digital collectibles,” including by building “a new creative canvas for artists, allowing them to invite fans to live, play, and create inside their performances and musical worlds.”
RTFKT raised $8 million in a round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and that includes Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill, Behance co-founder Scott Belsky, artist Fewocious, and former LVMH Chief Digital Officer Ian Rogers, among others, in furtherance of its quest to “empower the future of fashion.” The round valued the company – which was not even 2 years old at the time – at $33.3 million.
Leading virtual fashion firm The Fabricant announced the close of an undisclosed funding round in furtherance of its aim to “create tools and products that transform the fashion industry into a fully digital existence in both production and consumption, while democratizing fashion creation into a collaborative process utilizing 3D technology and the creativity of the consumer, accessible to everyone.” Participants in the round included 4impact, Borski Fund and Slingshot.