The Web3 and AI Funding Bulletin | April I
Hello and welcome!
This is the Web3 and AI Funding Bulletin, covering the latest capital rounds and investments into companies converging blockchain and artificial intelligence. As you all know, I have been including such announcements in my regular Web3 + AI newsletter. However, venture capital firms' growing interest in the Crypto x AI space motivated me to spin them off into a separate publication, to go out twice a month. Today's first edition features all fundraising news of the first half of April. Enjoy!
Thank you for being here! Let's dive in!
IoTeX Raises $50M to Boost DePIN Ecosystem
The DePIN-focused modular blockchain IoTeX has raised $50M to be injected into long-term staked $IOTX and its DePIN Surf Accelerator. IoTeX is looking to support startups building across sectors like AI, energy, mobility, and beyond, to take advantage of its DePIN-friendly infrastructure.
The round was led by SNZ Capital, Foresight Ventures, FutureMoneyGroup, Borderless Capital, and Amber Group.
IoTeX
Polychain Invests in Ritual
Venture Capital firm Polychain Capital made a “multimillion dollar” investment into the AI-centric platform Ritual to accelerate AI decentralization. Back in November, I have covered Ritual's $25M round led by Archetype, when I also mentioned that the company was founded by former Polychain partners. In that sense, the following is not a surprise:
This announcement is not just any old investment announcement; it’s a reunion. Many members of the Ritual team have had the privilege of working alongside the brilliant minds at Polychain in the past. This long-dated history has created a strong friendship and mutual respect between our teams, making this partnership a natural progression of our relationship.
Jamie Crawley
Raiinmaker Attracts $7.5M to Decentralize AI
Raiinmaker, a modular blockchain providing AI tools and AI-powered smart contracts, closed a seed round of $7.5M. The funding comes just ahead of the network's mainnet and native token $Coiin launches.
Participants in the round included Jump Crypto, Cypher Capital, GDA Capital, MEXC Ventures, Launchpool, Coach K, Basics Capital, and Alpha Capital.
FHE-Powered Privasea Completes Strategic Funding
Privasea, a compute DePIN and data security startup employing fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), has completed a strategic private placement round by OKX Ventures, Nomura Group's Laser Digital, and SoftBank-backed incubator Tanelabs.
Privasea enables confidential machine learning inference by relying on Zama's groundbreaking innovation in FHE. The project was initially backed by Binance Labs and included in the Google Cloud Web3 Startup Program.
CoinDesk Staff
GPU.net Backed by $5.25M to Fuel Distributed Computation
In a Series A capital round, the computation DePIN GPU.net has amassed $5.25M. The investment was led by Momentum 6, Spicy Capital, Exnetwork Capital, and Black Dragon.
This is fuel to build worlds most transparent & fullproof ledger of Compute i.e. layer1 GANchain + open sourced Compute stack to meet the growing needs of the GPU compute for the next 50 years on this planet.
Sapien to Accelerate Data Labeling with $5M Funding
Sapien, a company empowering a gamified data labelling for AI training, has received a backing of $5M by VCs like Primitive Ventures, Animoca Brands, Artichoke Capital, and Yield Guild Games.
The funding will be used to accelerate Sapien's mission of providing scalable, high-quality annotation services for training AI models through its novel gamified data labeling platform.
Sapien
Lockchain Gets $4.6M to Manage Blockchain Risk
AI-powered blockchain risk management company Lockchain has secured $4.6M in a seed funding round led by Lerer Hippeau. Arrington Capital, Valhalla Ventures, ARCA, and RSE Ventures also joined.
The SaaS platform offering due diligence and risk monitoring for asset managers and traders will use the money to expand operations and development efforts.
FinSMEs
AI Protocol Bythen Collects $3M
The Web3 + AI protocol Bythen has collected $3M by investors like East Ventures, Beenext, Ed3n Ventures, GuildFi, Dingaling, and Grail.eth.
bythen is building an AI product protocol that enables the creation of AI-powered, 3D avatar agents with autonomous capabilities, allowing humans to achieve more with less effort.
Inference Labs Raises $2.3M to Build AI's Execution Layer
The Web3 + AI protocol Inference Labs has closed a $2.3M pre-seed round to further develop its Proof-of-Inference. The money round was performed by Mechanism Capital, DACM, and Delphi Ventures.
Rug.ai's Pre-Seed Amounts to $1.1M
AI-powered trading infrastructure provider Rug.ai fundraised $1.1M in a pre-seed led by No Limit Holdings. Mask Network, Prismatic Capital, Builder Capital, and Formless Capital also took part in the round.
AI + Web3 Gaming
AlienX Receives $17M to Boost NFT & Games Mass Adoption
AlienX, a blockchain focused on staking digital assets and validated by users running AI nodes, has received $17M by OKX Ventures, Csquared Ventures, Offchain Labs, Caldera, Arpa, and others.
By supporting users in running AI nodes and staking assets like BTC, ETH, SOL, ARB, and NFTs, ALIENX aims to enhance blockchain networks' security, performance, and intelligence while promoting the mass adoption of NFTs and games.
Avalon Attracts $10M to Launch MMO Universe
Avalon, an AI-enhanced multi-genre massively multiplayer online game, has attracted $10M by BITKRAFT Ventures, Hashed, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, Foresight Ventures, Spirit DAO, and others.
The investment will be used to develop their debut eponymous title, Avalon, a next-generation massively multiplayer online game with interoperability of assets and progression between worlds designed for Web2 and Web3 gamer appeal.
Today Raises $5M to Speed Up AI NPC Game Development
The Web3 Social Sim (social simulation) game Today has raised $5M in seed funding to continue building its generative AI-powered creator tools. The game featuring tradeable digital assets and non-player characters (NPCs) is set to launch in 2025.
The funding was provided by Sfermion, Big Brain, GSR, Collab+Currency, Metavest Capital, Dingaling, and Spirit DAO among others.
Cellula Closes $2M Pre-Seed Round
One more life simulation Web3 + AI game has attracted capital these past two weeks, namely Cellula. It closed a $2M pre-seed funding round led by SevenX Ventures, OKX Ventures, Mask Network, and Foresight Ventures. The project was initially incubated by Binance Labs.
Disclaimer: None of this should or could be considered financial advice. You should not take my words for granted, rather, do your own research (DYOR) and share your thoughts to create a fruitful discussion.
Member discussion