Web3

Columnist: Wen Xin - Mining and interpreting the most real Web3 world

Topic on Industry Trends｜ 2022.8.22-2022.8.28 Encryption Industry Financing Top 5 Project Briefs - Phase 7

01 Summary

2022.8.22-2022.8.28, a total of 24 financing events occurred in the Web3.0 industry, with a total capital scale of 310 million US dollars, involving metaverse, NFT, digital assets, DAPP development platforms and other fields. This article will analyze the top 5 financing events Brief analysis of the project, with project experience process and subjective evaluation, in order to grasp the industry development trend from the perspective of capital.

Top 10 financing list last week (Source: PANews)

02 Project Analysis

#1 Ready Player Me

Project positioning:

Metaverse & NFT track. Domestic media generally define it as a "metaverse identity platform", but this positioning does not directly reflect the characteristics of the project and what it wants to do. What it wants to do is to connect multiple games (applications) through an avatar (or avatar) to connect multiple games (applications) to the metaverse platform, namely: "Cross-game Avatar Platform for the Metaverse".

Financing status:

Completed $56 million in Series B financing, led by a16z, Roblox co-founder David Baszucki, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan and others participated.

solution:

For ordinary users, you can log in to the official website to create your own avatar and try it in the official sample game
For project parties and developers, you can integrate the Ready Player Me SDK into your application, and users can create avatars and use them in your games or other applications.

Experience process:

Create a virtual image on the official website - pinch face/take a photo/select a photo - generate a corresponding image - choose a game you like and import your own image (within 5 seconds) - use your own image to experience the corresponding game.

image i created

Some applications that can be experienced

evaluate:

Avatar Creation, Metaverse Connector. Strong technical strength, first-class virtual image generation effect, partners all over the major companies of Web2 and Web3, first-class contacts, intuitive and simple operation, it is recommended to participate in the trial.

#2 InWorld AI

Project positioning:

Metaverse & NFT track. Inworld AI is a developer platform for creating AI-powered avatars, founded by conversational AI pioneers Ilya Gelfenbeyn, Michael Ermolenko, and Kylan Gibbs. The project vision is to bring richer social interaction to the immersive world of games, virtual worlds, entertainment and brand experiences.

Financing status:

Completed US$50 million in Series A financing, led by Section 32 and Intel Capital.

solution:

Inworld uses advanced artificial intelligence to build generative characters whose personalities, thoughts, memories, and behaviors are designed to mimic the deeply social nature of human interaction. Inworld's AI platform eliminates the complexity of developing intelligent virtual characters, and everyone can simply "create" a unique AI character designed by themselves; developers can create human-like voice, facial gestures and body language based on this Artificial intelligence virtual characters (game NPC, virtual world aborigines, digital humans, virtual KOL, brand representatives) to achieve immersive experience, including metaverse, VR/AR, games and virtual worlds and other cross-generational products.

Experience process:

Create a new character (supports the creation of avatars) - set various parameters and characteristics, personality, background, knowledge, personality, etc. - select the voice, speech rate, etc. of the AI character - save the settings and start a dialogue with AI - adjust Parameters continue to test

Create an AI character

Fill in a series of AI basic parameters (description)

AI dialogue test

evaluate:

The team has been working in the AI field for many years and has mature technology and rich experience. If the "Ready Player Me" mentioned above created the body of the virtual character, then Inworld AI created its soul. In addition to games and virtual worlds, Inworld AI also has a broad application space in entertainment, sales, training and education. It is recommended to continue to pay attention and feel the development of cutting-edge technology.

#3 Hidden Road Partners

Project positioning:

Financial Services Circuit. Hidden Road Partners aims to advance Wall Street's entry into crypto trading by addressing counterparty risk and conflicts of interest. For banks or other institutions that cannot directly hold digital assets, the company allows them to deposit U.S. dollars as collateral in a three-party setup with a custodian and collect profits and losses in U.S. dollars. Clients can trade with the trading platform as well as liquidity providers, including Virtu Financial Inc., Optiver BV and Wintermute Trading Ltd.

Financing status:

Completed US$50 million Series A financing, led by Castle Island Ventures.

evaluate:

Encrypted market service providers and centralized institutions enter the market to promote the development of the decentralized financial industry. With the continuous development of the industry, such service organizations will gradually increase, which also means that traditional finance recognizes the encryption field.

#4 Animoca Brands Japan

Related products and ecology

Project positioning:

NFT track. Animoca Brands Japan (Animoca Brands KK) is the Japanese strategic subsidiary of global Web3 company Animoca Brands. It is designed to support the use of Web3 by Japanese intellectual property (IP) and content holders. Animoca Brands Japan enables prominent Japanese IP holders to participate in the Web3 ecosystem while contributing to the creation of an open Metaverse by leveraging Animoca Brands' network, reach and expertise.

Financing status:

Completed financing of US$45 million at a valuation of US$500 million, Japan's largest financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Animoca Brands each invested US$22.5 million.

solution:

Provides Web3 platform construction services using blockchain NFT. Seek licensing of popular intellectual property, facilitate partner adoption of Web3, increase the value and utility of their branded content, and create and protect Japan's NFT ecosystem.

evaluate:

Animoca Brands Japan's parent company, Animoca Brands, is a leader in the Web3 field. It owns many famous IPs such as Disney and WWE, and has created many games such as The Sandbox. With a very high development limit, the NFT project in Japan has recently been recognized by more and more people, and the quality is also steadily improving. Animoca Brands Japan has played an irreplaceable role in it. This point is very worth learning. Now the domestic Web3 is full of scythes and project parties can't find the most basic value promoters and facility builders. This kind of ecology is unhealthy.

#5 Thirdweb

products and services

Project positioning:

Infrastructure track. Thirdweb is a one-stop Web3 development platform. It provides prefabricated smart contracts and supports the creation of various products such as NFT issuance and markets. Developers can use its software development kit (SDK) to easily build products and provide functions such as tracking and managing contracts on the chain.

Financing status:

Completed $24 million in financing, led by Haun Ventures.

evaluate:

The Web3 infrastructure track aims to lower the barriers to Web3 development. There are still quite a few such platforms. Thirdweb’s advantage lies in its close contact with the market, timely integration of popular protocols, and top-notch user experience. In the field of Web3, a keen sense of smell and efficiency are the prerequisites for survival, so I am quite optimistic about Thirdweb. Currently, its services are available on Ethereum, Avalanche, and Fantom, supporting Solana at the end of September, and considering adding Cosmos, Near, and Flow later.

03 Summary

On the whole, the amount of financing in the industry has declined, and the capital is focused on Web3 basic service providers and ecological connectors. The era of barbaric growth of the NFT industry is over, and the next stage of the narrative is likely to take place in the infrastructure field.