fund – RE3W.IO

Discord Introduced New AI Features Including: AI Chatbot Clyde, Automod AI, and More

admin — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 19:14:03 +0000

Discord introduces new AI experiments, including AI chatbot Clyde, AutoMod AI, and Conversation Summaries.

Discord has announced plans to give its users more AI-powered tools to use – which they will be testing on a limited number of servers with plans to release them to the wider public at a later date. Discord’s native chatbot Clyde will be using OpenAI technology. Users will be able to ask Clyde questions and have extended conversations with the bot.

According to recent research, more than 30 million people already use AI apps on Discord every month. Almost 3 million servers include an AI experience and the company estimates nearly 10% of new users are joining to access these AI tools.

Last year, Discord committed $5 million to fund strategic developers and early-stage start-ups to bring them to the platform. They are now launching an AI incubator as a part of that fund. Developers can earn grants and access to additional resources to build their AI projects for the platform.

Amazon’s Alexa Fund Leads $20 Million Investment In Entertainment Firm Superplastic

admin — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 00:08:01 +0000

Amazon’s Alexa Fund leads a $20 million investment in entertainment firm Superplastic. The Alexa Fund is Amazon’s venture capital arm that focuses on new media, smart consumer electronics, ambient intelligence, and other areas of digital technology.

Superplastic is a global entertainment brand that creates and manages a roster of world-famous synthetic artists and influencers. Often seen and experienced through social media and partnerships ranging from Gucci to Fortnite. Paul Budnitz is currently CEO.

Other investors included Craft Ventures, Google Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Kering, Sony Japan, Scribble Ventures, Kakao, Animoca Brands, Day One Ventures, and Betaworks. This latest round brings Superplastic’s total funding to $58 million to date.

Two Sigma Ventures Has Raised 400M for Two Funds To Invest In Web3 and Crypto Projects

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 19:26:28 +0000

Two Sigma Ventures recently announced plans to invest $400 million across two new venture capital funds. The early-stage focused Two Sigma Ventures IV fund and growth-stage Opportunity Fund will invest across a number of industries, including enterprise software, crypto and web3.

Two Sigma Ventures is the venture capital arm of New York-based quant hedge fund Two Sigma, which has about $60 billion in assets under management. The combination drives a focus on startups utilizing data science and software, making crypto a natural investment fit.

Approximately 85% of the capital for the new funds came from external investors, primarily institutional players such as college endowments, non-profit foundations and pension funds. The remainder came from Two Sigma partners and senior employees.

Two Sigma funds typically cut checks of about $8 million to $12 million for a Series A round.

CoinFund Has Announced $300 Million Venture Capital Fund

admin — Sat, 20 Aug 2022 04:38:16 +0000

CoinFund, a crypto-specific investment firm, announced a $300 million venture capital fund to back early-stage blockchain projects. This new purse comes a little over a year after the firm raised $83 million for its first venture capital vehicle.

The CoinFund Ventures I fund will apparently invest in companies showing commercial traction that also belong to a crypto sector with a large total addressable market. Specific areas of interest include layer 1 blockchains, web3 infrastructure, non-fungible tokens (NFT), gaming, and asset management.

Founded in 2015, CoinFund has previously focused on bitcoin and seed stage investments in decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Portfolio companies include NBA Top Shot creator Dapper Labs, blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon and data indexing protocol The Graph.

Check sizes for the new CoinFund Ventures I investments will range from $6 million to $10 million per company, meaning the fund will likely back 30 to 40 companies. The majority will go to companies CoinFund hasn’t backed before, but a small number of portfolio companies could receive follow-on investments.

$60 Million Has Been Raised By Lattice Capital For Their Second Seed Round

admin — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 20:32:57 +0000

Lattice Capital is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage investments in crypto projects and protocols. They just announced the raise of $60 million for their second fund, tripling the capital commitment from its first purse last August 2021. Lattice will apparently write $500,000 to $1.5 million checks out of the fund with plans to invest in 40 to 50 companies.

Capital has already been deployed to nine companies. However, the only deal that was publicly announced so far was for Optic, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to authenticate non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Moreover, Optic announced an $11 million funding round last month.

The existence of the Lattice Capital II fund was revealed in a February regulatory filing, but Lattice only recently confirmed the size and details of the fund.

Crypto Investment Firm Variant Has Raised $450 Million For Web3 Fund

admin — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 19:06:27 +0000

Variant, a crypto investment firm founded by Andreessen Horowitz veterans, has raised $450 million for a new umbrella fund split across a $150 million seed purse for web3 projects and a $300 million opportunities vehicle that will “double-down on projects with demonstrated traction in our portfolio”. The firm has previously invested in privacy-focused smart contract platform Aztec Network, Ethereum-based DeFi protocol Euler Finance, Polygon, and Uniswap.

Investment theses for Variant Fund III include financial empowerment through decentralized finance (DeFi), blockchain computing, web3 consumer applications, and new forms of decentralized ownership.

Jesse Walden is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Variant. Jesse led the firm’s investments in Uniswap, Phantom, Mirror, Flashbots, Foundation, and others. Previously, Jesse was an investment partner on the first crypto fund at Andreessen Horowitz and later led a16z Crypto Startup School.

Multicoin Capital Has Announced Its Newest $430 Million Web3 Fund

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 17:56:20 +0000

Multicoin Capital is a crypto investment firm known for its backing of web3 and DeFi projects. They have been investing in crypto for about 5 years now. Last year, Multicoin closed its second $100 million venture fund with a major focus on web3 projects building on the Solana blockchain.

Multicoin Capital has now just announced its newest $430 million fund – “Venture Fund III”. According to a press release: “Venture Fund III” is a $430 million fund that will invest $500 thousand to $25 million in early-stage opportunities – all the way up to $100 million-plus for later-stage projects when combined with their evergreen liquid fund.

Multicoin Capital said that they plan to use the fund for investments in projects that are “poised to reshape massive consumer-facing markets.” Apparently, this will include projects offering creator monetization through online platforms that use crypto for payments, DeFi apps, NFTs, and social tokens, as well as building crypto-native consumer products.

Planetarium Labs Recently Raised $32 Million In Series A Funding

admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 17:44:50 +0000

Planetarium Labs describes itself as an open-source, community-driven web3 game company. They are focused on delivering the “future of entertainment through decentralized content and technologies”. They believe that communities can create infinite possibilities through decentralized innovations and strive to empower massively multiplayer online games with creative freedom and player governance.

Planetarium Labs just announced they have raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands. Other investors in the round included Samsung Next, Krust Universe, Kakao, and WeMade. The co-founder and CEO, Kijun Seo, stated that the investment will be used to help Planetarium Labs build out its network with tools for gaming and player governance.

The Planetarium Labs gaming system is based on Libplanet, a software development kit that lets developers create blockchain applications entirely on the Unity game development platform. The company is also supporting the development of live-action collectible NFT RPG Stella Fantasy – which had a major gameplay trailer reveal this week and was covered in a previous write-up by Game Fund Partners and RE3W.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said in a press release:

“We strongly believe that the future is massive decentralized worlds in an open metaverse, which is why we are delighted to support Planetarium Labs’ vision of community-centric blockchain games that empower players with creative freedom and full digital rights.”

Digital Asset Venture Studio ScienceMagic.Studios Recently Raised $10 Million

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:04:50 +0000

ScienceMagic.Studios is a firm that advises brands and talent on implementing web3 technologies – described as “a digital asset venture studio”. They just announced the raise of $10 million in pre-seed funding. Investors in the round included Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Heni, Brevan Howard Digital, Liberty City Ventures, ThirdPrime, Cultur3, RealVision, and Heni, as well as angel investors Noam Gottesman, Frederic Court, Gil Weisblum, and the Khalili brothers.

Raoul Pal, the founder of Real Vision, has teamed up with Delphi Digital’s Kevin Kelly and the longtime entertainment & media exec David Pemsel to start the new token studio – ScienceMagic.Studios.

The company says it will primarily use the funds to scale up with the expectation of increased interest as brands continue to enter into the web3 space. They plan to advise brands on how to utilize web3 technologies such as NFTs and social tokens to increase interaction with fans and communities.

NGC Ventures Recently Raised $100 Million To Invest in Early-Stage Web3 Projects

admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 17:43:35 +0000

Crypto-focused venture capital fund NGC Ventures has raised $100 million for its latest blockchain fund. Investors in the web3-focused fund include Babel Finance, Huobi Ventures, and Nexo Ventures.

The Metaverse Ventures Fund will back early-stage projects in web3 infrastructure including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and GameFi (play-to-earn blockchain-based games that incorporate DeFi and NFTs). Through its previous funds, NGC Ventures have already made early investments in prominent blockchain projects such as Solana, Oasis, and Algorand.

Several funds focusing on the growth of gaming web3 infrastructure have emerged in recent months as it becomes an area of increasing interest in the crypto and blockchain industry. In March, Griffin Gaming Partners raised $750 million for a web3-focused fund. And crypto lender Nexo spun out a venture arm with $150 million for web3 projects and acquisitions in the same month.