June 2023 was notable not only for the price rally of the main cryptocurrency but also for a significant increase in interest from institutional investors in blockchain projects. In this article, we will examine six key deals that can have a substantial impact on the future development of companies that have attracted investments.
Contents:
- Investment in Lens Protocol: $15 million
- Investments in Taiko Labs: $12 million
- Cryptostartup MeanWhile: $19 million
- Investments in Gensyn: $43 million
- Project Mistral AI: €105 million
- Mythical Games: $37 million
Investing in Lens Protocol: $15 million
Lens Protocol is a decentralized social graph that utilizes smart contracts on the Polygon blockchain. Lens users have the ability to:
- Create applications
- Communicate
- Subscribe to updates from other people
Each account represents a non-fungible token (NFT).
At the beginning of June, Lens closed a $15 million funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures. Among the investors were Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, OpenSea head Alex Atallah, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. The project team will use the funds to expand the Lens Protocol ecosystem.
Investment in Taiko Labs: $12 million
Taiko Labs, a startup focused on scaling the Ethereum blockchain, completed two funding rounds totaling $22 million. The first $10 million raise, led by Sequoia China, took place in the third quarter of 2022. The June round of $12 million was led by Generative Ventures.
Crypto startup MeanWhile: $19 million
Crypto startup MeanWhile is developing a comprehensive insurance system using blockchain and AI technologies. In June, the company announced the closure of two pre-sale rounds totaling $19 million. The first round was led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and the second was led by Gradient Ventures, a Google-owned fund.
The funding will enable the company to hire new employees and launch its first service, Bitcoin-backed life insurance.
Investments in Gensyn: $43 million
London-based startup Gensyn is developing a marketplace protocol that will allow owners of small data centers to earn by providing computational power for AI model training. Transactions between buyers and sellers will be recorded on the blockchain.
Gensyn managed to raise $43 million in a round led by investment giant a16z. The project team acknowledged that the success was driven by the AI technology boom and the surge in demand for computational resources triggered by interest in OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Mistral AI Project: €105 million
The AI project Mistral AI, founded by alumni of DeepMind and Meta, has raised €105 million, even without a ready product. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and notable investors included former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and billionaire Xavier Niel.
In early 2024, Mistral plans to launch a large language model (LLM) similar to the generative AI underlying ChatGPT.
Mythical Games: $37 million
Mythical Games, founded by alumni of the legendary gaming company Activision, raised $37 million from Scytale Digital, ARK Invest, Animoca Brands, MoonPay, and several other investors. The company gained recognition through the multiplayer NFT game Blankos Block Party and the football arcade NFL Rivals.
The funds raised will be used to scale the games and attract new audiences.
June 2023 marked a period of active investments in blockchain projects. Institutional investors have put significant amounts of money into various projects, ranging from social graphs and insurance systems to gaming companies and AI projects. This underscores the growing interest in blockchain technology and its potential in various industries.
