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Modus expands to sub-Saharan Africa with the launch of its AI and blockchain-focused $75M fund • ZebethMedia

New York-based venture platform Modus has launched Modus Africa, a venture capital fund for AI and blockchain startups across sub-Saharan Africa, ZebethMedia has learned. The fund is expected to reach a final close in the first quarter of next year. The spinoff continues Modus’s string of moves over the past 18 months, which has seen it add branches in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, and, most recently, Riyadh, supported by institutions like Mubadala’s Hub71. Modus says that its entry into Africa creates an “additional conduit of market access for Modus portfolio companies while also enabling African startups to scale into the MENA region.” As a “holistic venture platform,” Modus runs three business units focusing on entrepreneurs and startups in the MENA and GCC regions. They include the Venture Builder, which works with idea and early-stage MVP stage companies. Then there’s Corporate Innovation, a service platform that leverages the firm’s internal know-how to support corporations and government entities. And its Venture Capital arm provides investment to early and midstage-sized startups, such as staffing platform Ogram. On its website, Modus says its fund is backed by several investors ranging from UHNWI, family offices, private investors, and government-backed entities from the U.S., the EU, and MENA. Although Modus primarily invests in foreign-based companies that are “portable to the Middle East,” as well as startups in Egypt and the GCC, its expansion into sub-Saharan Africa isn’t surprising. Last year, African startups raised over $5 billion and minted five unicorns (per this report, the continent observed a 250% year-over-year growth in funding and surpassed capital deployed in MENA). And despite the current macroeconomic trends and conditions that have resulted in layoffs, down rounds and shutdowns, startups on the continent are set to top last year’s fundraising record numbers. Unlike other firms with marked funds interested in Africa, Modus’s interest in AI and blockchain technologies is intriguing. Though it has household names such as Tunisia’s InstaDeep, Kenya’s Sama, and South Africa’s DataProphet — and several web3 startups claiming to build on the blockchain — Africa’s AI and blockchain sectors are still relatively nascent. The thinking behind adopting this strategy can be traced to Vianney Mathonnet and Andre Jr. Ayotte, the general partners of Modus’s Africa-focused fund. Both partners, in an interview with ZebethMedia, described how several stints working in banking, finance and Dubai-based family offices pointed them to the emergence of blockchain technology and its outsized opportunity and application in Africa. “Not long after we launched this project after noticing how massive blockchain and AI could be in Africa, we were approached by Modus Capital because they wanted a Pan-African strategy themselves,” said Ayotte. “They were looking for people with the know-how, the network, experience to do that, so we started discussing how the partnership would work. Ultimately, what happened is that our project became the Modus Africa fund.” L-R: Andre Jr. Ayotte and Vianney Mathonnet (General Partners, Modus Africa) According to a statement, Modus says Africa has the potential of reaching 200 million+ new blockchain users in the next four years, fueled by necessity and a fast-growing tech-savvy population. Nevertheless, the six-year-old VC firm isn’t only taking a chance on purely AI and blockchain startups; instead, it is cutting checks in startups across broader sectors that are implementing those technologies into their products. The firm is currently closing three investments in startups using AI and blockchain across insurtech, fintech and health tech, said the general partners who control the fund’s thesis, direction and investment strategy while leveraging Modus’s 50+ team to carry out due diligence and portfolio management. Mathonnet said the “jurisdiction-agnostic” Modus Africa will invest in about 45 seed-stage startups and allocate 50% of the $75 million SDG-focused fund for follow-on investments, especially in Series A rounds. These checks will range from $350,000 to $1.2 million across both stages. “We as a fund will reinvest in our winners and our LPs are also looking to reinvest in them outside the fund, catalyzing even more money in the ecosystem in Africa,” said the partners. “In terms of countries, we know that tech talent and incubators are really strong in tech ecosystems like Kenya and Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa, and it’s inevitable that a good deal flow within all these regions. With that said, though, we are exploring new regions and searching for key partnerships to enter those markets and add some support and sustainability for deal flow.” Some of these markets include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Niger and others in Francophone Africa. Speaking on the formation of Modus Africa, Kareem Elsirafy, the managing partner of Modus, said in a statement: “Modus is proud to be launching an Africa-MENA investment corridor to continue supporting and investing in emerging innovation ecosystems. The Modus platform is uniquely positioned to deliver impact and value to African communities through operational, institutional, and financial capital. We’re excited to have Vianney and Andre leading the way on this journey.”

FTX and Avalanche co-led $5M round for Joepegs NFT marketplace • ZebethMedia

Although FTX collapsed last week, raises their ventures team contributed to are still being announced. Joepegs, an NFT marketplace on the Avalanche blockchain, raised $5 million in a seed round led by now-defunct FTX Ventures and the Avalanche Foundation, its co-founders who go by the pseudonyms Cryptofish and 0xMurloc, exclusively told ZebethMedia. “The funding from FTX Ventures was completed in June, and have since been transferred out of FTX prior to recent bankruptcy events,” the team said in a statement. The marketplace launched in May and has grown rapidly to the largest NFT marketplace on Avalanche with over $3.4 million in secondary NFT sales and 12,000 users. It also has an in-house production unit, Joe Studios, as well as an NFT Launchpad, which has on boarded over 50 projects to the Avalanche ecosystem, the company said. The co-founders also founded and remain involved in the operations of Trader Joe, a decentralized exchange on Avalanche (not to be confused with the American supermarket chain), which launched in early July 2021 and has a total trading volume over $88 billion. “As we started building this, we realized very quickly that in order to deliver a platform that really helps users discover great NFTs we have to invest in a lot more platform capabilities so that’s what the fundraise will go toward,” 0xMurloc said. “On top of that, we also create a lot of content on our end. We did this at the start to fill a need. Marketplaces are only as good as the content in the ecosystem.” Joepegs also invests in the operational side, beyond Avalanche, to partner with different traders, projects and artists “across the ecosystem,” 0xMurloc said. “That is something we do ferociously.” Earlier this year, Avalanche dove further into the NFT space after partnering with the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, which now operates on the blockchain alongside other platforms like Joepegs and Kalao. With about $408.2 million in total sales, Avalanche is the seventh-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume, CryptoSlam data shows. “People are focused on what is happening to the greater market,” 0xMurloc said. “Yes, there are less people playing with crypto and the NFT market as a whole right now, but, we do see that the interest from creators, brands and projects to dive deeper into web3 and NFTs – that appetite is not softening.” There are a lot of companies, creators and artists who are “eager to explore this form of commerce and community building,” 0xMurloc added. “We’re very bullish on the future of NFTs and what it could bring,” Cryptofish said. “The idea that you can have clothing backed by NFTs is very bullish. You see that with Azuki with their skateboards and Nike sneakers and we want to be on the forefront of NFT innovation with digital stuff and clothing.” As more alternative NFT products come out, NFT markets will have to adapt to accommodate, Cryptofish added. “Our vision on NFT marketplaces will have to be like Amazon over time. Initially it was a bookstore and now they’ve branched out to sell everything. That’s how I see things going.” In the short term, the team plans to continue driving in-house content and has new collections coming up in the near future, 0xMurloc said. “Longer term, we want to branch into different flavors of NFTs and explore what Fish mentioned, whether it’s fashion, physical merchandise or gaming. We’re excited about what’s to come.”

Some crypto VCs see decentralization as the future following FTX collapse • ZebethMedia

As the crypto market digests the past few days of chaos, venture capitalists see the moment as a warning, but also an opportunity for the growth of decentralization and maturation of the larger blockchain space. “As venture investors, we take a long-term view on the industry; despite the current market turmoil, we are actively assessing and investing in the right opportunities,” Marc Weinstein, founding partner of Mechanism Capital, said to ZebethMedia. “The premise of DeFi has, if anything, been strengthened by the collapse of centralized entities from opaque counterparty relationships.” Decentralized finance (DeFi) is often associated with trusting blockchain technology to execute services through smart contracts, while centralized finance (CeFi) usually refers to more traditional business models and involves having people manage funds and manually execute services. “Market sentiment is shaken, but committed VCs with experience from several crypto market cycles will continue to invest.” Marc Weinstein, founding partner of Mechanism Capital Historically, the venture market doesn’t get “too offended” by what transpires in secondary markets, David Gan, general partner at OP Crypto, said to ZebethMedia. Regardless, he said, the seeming death of FTX is saddening for everyone, “not just in the VC space, but across the board.” When there are massive crashes and burns, it speaks to what we’ve been seeing over the past decade: It’s the Wild West out there, Samantha Lewis, principal at Mercury, said to ZebethMedia. “When summarizing it all, I see it a continuation of the phase that started when winter hit and we saw Luna and all these crazy companies crash and burn like BlockFi, Celsius and now we have FTX,” Lewis said. “As an early-stage venture investor, it’s telling me the hype is now for sure gone. But that ushers in the maturation of the space that a lot of us have been craving for a really long time.”

Last day to save with early-bird passes to TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

We’re less than two weeks away from kicking off TC Sessions: Crypto in Magic City on November 17. Yep, that’s Miami’s official nickname. Who knew? But listen up, crypto fans, because the bit of magic we call our early-bird special is about to perform a disappearing act in less than 24 hours – 11:59pm PST on November 7 to be exact. Don’t watch $150 in savings vanish before your eyes. Buy your pass now and avoid the price hike. Then use that extra cash to deck yourself out Miami Vice style — no socks required — and join the blockchain, crypto, DeFi, NFT and web3 communities to conjure up your own brand of magic. Check out the power-packed event agenda. It’s grown to be an impressive day all around — with more than 15 early-stage startups exhibiting on-site, and interviews and panel discussion featuring the sector’s top leaders, creators and investors. Folks like Binance’s Changpeng (CZ) Zhao, FTX Ventures’ Amy Wu, OpenSea’s Devin Finzer, Sequoia Capital’s Michelle Bailhe Fradin, Yuga Labs’ Nicole Muniz and many more. Whether you want to connect and collaborate with founders or investors or hire students determined to build the future generations of the cryptoverse, the networking at this event will be world-class. Expand your network and drive your business forward. Beyond the interviews, panel discussions and exhibition floor, you’ll also find a live podcast recording of Chain Reaction. Join the ZebethMedia crypto team as they dive into lively discussions on the latest blockchain news, drama and trends. And, in true ZebethMedia tradition, we’ll have a pitch-off — crypto style. Don’t miss the industry’s brightest entrepreneurs as they take the stage in front of a live audience and a panel of experts — including Galaxy Ventures’ Will Nuelle, Gradient Ventures’ Wen-Wen Lam, and Lux Capital’s Grace Isford — to pitch their revolutionary technologies. Don’t miss your chance to make magic happen. Buy an early-bird ticket today — while you still can — and crank up the heat with us at TC Sessions: Crypto in Miami on November 17. Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Catch these rising startups exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

Even when a chill venture wind blows, you’ll find daring entrepreneurs forging ahead, and we’re here to highlight the outstanding early-stage startups in the world of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3. You’ll find them exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in Miami, and what better way to check them out than to buy a pass, get out from behind your screen and come talk to them in person? Check out the eight listed below. You can learn more about five more exhibitors here — and another five exhibitors here. Cityverse: Cityverse is a virtual overlay for a physical city. Powered by local news, a Cityverse connects the community through information, ideas and experiences. Lifo Inc: Tokenized CRM for web3. It aims to become the web3 equivalent of Salesforce. GreenCard: This startup offers digital payment options for cannabis purchases. Howlite: Aims to provide secure, transparent, inexpensive and easy-to-use payments using distributed ledger technology — where traditional payments meet web 3. String Blockchain: A layer-1 blockchain build designed for developers building dApps for everyday use. Poolit: Unlocks access to exclusive alternative investments for as little as $1. Ponds: A web3 copyright licensing platform designed for creators to license their digital content directly to end users. MARPs Club: Defines a new concept, “MARP” (Mass Arts Representative Piece), based on NFTs to accredit value to Mass Art’s artworks Don’t miss your chance to meet, connect and network with some of the most creative early-stage startups bent on redefining the future of finance, blockchain and the web at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. Buy your pass now and save $150 — before the early-bird pricing disappears. We’ll see you in Miami! Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Connect with Hedera, Wilson Sonsini and MetaJuice at TC Sessions: Crypto • ZebethMedia

ZebethMedia has a long history of partnering with great companies that are not only subject-matter experts, but committed to supporting early-stage startups, too. While this is our first official conference dedicated to the space, TC Sessions: Crypto — November 17 in Miami — is no exception to our great partners rule.  Whether it’s blockchain-, crypto-, DeFi-, NFT- or web3-based, building a startup in the cryptoverse is no easy task — not exactly a newsflash, we know. One of the things our partners do best is provide their expertise and educational resources. They present sessions on a range of topics that help founders gain the confidence and know-how they need to move their startup forward. Keep in mind that, even as our partners dispense valuable insight from our stages, they’re always looking to engage with interesting founders and startups to explore potential partnerships and new opportunities. Let the networking begin. Take a look at some of the speakers and topics that our partners will present in Miami at TC Sessions: Crypto — and be sure to explore the full agenda. Bringing DeFi to the Masses: How Do We Make DeFi a Seamless, Easy Reality for Millions of Users Who Aren’t Crypto Experts — Currently, 72% of the world’s population has, or will soon have, access to instant payments, according to the 2022 Worldpay from FIS Global Payments Report. Many markets are also replacing or renovating their established real-time services to cater to instant payments. What does it take to onboard these users to a web3-first, DeFi world? How simple must it be, and how quickly can we get there?  In this session, Zenobia Godschalk, SVP of Communications, Swirlds Labs, and Mina Khattak, Director, Crypto and Emerging Business at Worldpay from FIS, will address these questions and more from the perspective of one of the world’s largest payment firms. Sponsored by Hedera. Keeping It Legal — The legal issues associated with crypto and web3 are complex. Tech companies may need to consider balancing the ethos of the blockchain industry with protecting their revenue models and reducing regulatory risk. How are they structuring financings — with equity or tokens or both? How can they protect their IP in an open source world? What contracts do they need with customers and service partners? And what are the best ways to operate within regulatory uncertainty and an anticipated wave of enforcement actions?  Attorney Amy Caiazza, Partner and Practice Group Leader, Fintech and Financial Services at Wilson Sonsini; Jonathan Chan, Corporate Counsel, Wilson Sonsini; Neel Maitra, Partner, Fintech & Financial Services, Wilson Sonsini; and Scott McKinney, Partner, Technology Transactions, Wilson Sonsini, will address these and other questions, including questions from the audience. Sponsored by Wilson Sonsini. Creating a True, User-Led Metaverse — The metaverse provides a virtual space that connects people, worlds and communities. A place where users can exchange currency and goods between themselves, not the company behind the platform. As the internet evolves, we hold the responsibility to create platforms that encompass diversity and inclusion, ownership of data, security and sustainability. As leaders in this space, how do we create an environment that allows users and creators to explore their imaginations and earning potential without limits? Chris Jones, Head of Business and Development, MetaJuice; Natalia Mazzuchelli, Strategic Partner Success Manager, ImmutableX; and Alex Mogul, Director, Republic Crypto, will address these and other challenges to building an inclusive, secure and sustainable metaverse. Sponsored by MetaJuice Don’t miss your chance to hear, connect and network with some of the leading movers and shakers bent on redefining the future of finance, blockchain and the web at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. Buy your pass now to nab the early-bird price and save $150. We can’t wait to see you in Miami! Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Immutable onboarded more web3 games in Q3 than any other quarter, co-founder says • ZebethMedia

Earlier this year, Immutable, a web3 gaming firm with its own layer-2 chain, Immutable X, launched a whopping $500 million fund to boost gaming on its platform. Fast forward a few months and the company says things are going according to plan. “It has been super busy,” Robbie Ferguson, co-founder of Immutable, said to ZebethMedia. “In the last quarter, we’ve onboarded more games than the rest of the company’s lifetime combined. As far as we know, it’s been more than any other layer-1 or layer-2 [blockchains] in the world and nearly half of those games came from competitors in migrations.” In Q3, Immutable onboarded about 50 games and has over 1,000 games being built in a “testing environment,” Ferguson said. “These are ones we’ve actively gone after.” Some games, like Delysium and Ember Sword, were initially developed for the layer-2 blockchain Polygon but switched to Immutable X, the company’s NFT platform and layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. Other games, like Deviants’ Factions and Undead Blocks, migrated over from the defunct Terra ecosystem after it imploded in May. Today, Immutable X launched GameStop’s NFT marketplace out of beta, which will provide GameStop players and customers across the U.S. access to NFTs tied to games on its layer-2 chain. This announcement follows GameStop and Immutable X’s partnership and $100 million joint grant fund from February. “The attraction we’ve already seen and interest from this community has been insane,” Ferguson said. “We recently shared something on Reddit and had 100,000 people sign up for Guild of Guardians’ waitlist in under two days, just from a single post. So the strength of this community is enormous compared to existing user bases in crypto.”

Telegram announces username auctions on TON blockchain • ZebethMedia

Telegram announced today that will it hold an auction for usernames — for both individual accounts and channels — through a marketplace built on top of the TON blockchain. In August, Telegram founder Pavel Durov first mentioned the idea by noting the possibility of adding “a little bit of Web 3.0 to Telegram in the coming weeks.” At that time, he said he was impressed by the success of the TON Foundation’s auction of domain names. “I’m really impressed by the success of the auction TON recently conducted for their domain/wallet names. Wallet.ton was sold for 215,250 Toncoin (~$260000) while casino.ton was sold for ~$244000. If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction,” he said. Now the company is putting this plan into action. Telegram and TON Foundation are using a separate website Fragment.com as a hub for these auctions. Users will be able to log into the site using Telegram, the tonkeeper app, or their TON-based wallets. The website will also help users link their Telegram accounts to the handles that they have bought. At launch, the chat app is auctioning four and five-character handles that will be available for everyone. Telegram users can also put up their own existing handles for auction. Each handle put up for auction will end in a week with an extra hour for final bidding. The company is setting a minimum auction value for four character handles at 10,000 toncoins — which converts to roughly $18,400 at the time of writing. “As the partnership between TON and Telegram deepens, the synergy between the two projects will enable the continuedcreation of tangible use-cases of blockchain technology. For the first time, social media users will be able to transparently prove that they own their handles thanks to their tokenisation on the TON blockchain,” Andrew Rogozov, Founding Member of the TON Foundation said in a statement Telegram had big ambitions in the web3 world but it had to ditch those ambitions. In 2018, the company hatched up plans for Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain project and an initial coin offering (ICO). The project got backing from big-name investors including Benchmark and Lightspeed Capital, which put up $1.7 billion. However, after a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Telegram was forced to forsake the project. After Telegram stopped working on TON, various independent groups continued the development with Toncoin getting backing from Durov and winning the rights to ton.org website in 2021. But the Telegram founder has tried to distance himself from direct involvement with the project. Telegram has been trying various methods to earn money to keep the company sustainable. Last year it introduced ad spots on public channels. Earlier this year, the company introduced a paid plan that allows large file transfers, exclusive stickers and reactions, and the ability to convert voice messages into text. The new announcement of username auction on the blockchain is another step to get some more moolah in the bank.

Google Cloud gets into web3 act with managed blockchain node service • ZebethMedia

Five years ago the blockchain was blossoming in the enterprise, or so many companies had us believe. Back then, companies like SAP and IBM were trying to build blockchain practices, but while the technology sounded good to solve myriad problems in the enterprise, it never really took off. Fast forward to 2022 and the blockchain comes under a new guise with the name web3 as an umbrella term and lots of VC money behind it. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the cloud platform companies want to get into the act. To that end, Google Cloud announced today that it’s launching Blockchain Node Engine, which it’s billing as “a fully managed node-hosting for web3 development.” Earlier this year, the company announced that it was launching a new team dedicated to digital assets, and this tool is part of what has come out of that team’s work. In a blog post announcing the new service from Amit Zavery, GM and VP of engineering and platform and James Tromans, director of cloud web3, the two wrote that blockchain nodes have to work hard, constantly exchanging the most recent blockchain data, so that all nodes stay in sync. It’s a data- and resource-intensive process. Google Cloud hopes to make it easier by offering a managed service to handle node creation, while providing a secure development environment in a fully managed product. From Google’s perspective, it’s a heck of a lot easier to let them do the heavy lifting while you concentrate on building your web3 application. In the pair’s own words, “While self-managed nodes are often difficult to deploy and require constant management, Blockchain Node Engine is a fully managed node-hosting service that minimizes the need for node operations. web3 companies who require dedicated nodes can relay transactions, deploy smart contracts and read or write blockchain data with the reliability, performance and security they expect from Google Cloud compute and network infrastructure,” they wrote in the post. This is nuts and bolts stuff, helping companies to set up a node on supported blockchains and then managing it for the user, so they don’t have to worry about all the management overhead involved. For starters, the company will support Ethereum blockchain, so developers deploying nodes on Ethereum could do it themselves or pay Google to do much of that work for them. Presumably there will be other supported blockchains in the future. While it may feel like a pure crypto play, Tromans says the service is ultimately agnostic and developers can build anything they wish. “We are building foundational primitives to help developers innovate more quickly. Accordingly, Blockchain Node Engine is focused towards [multiple] developer use cases: smart contract development, reading from and writing to the blockchain, etc. How different developers use their fully managed, dedicated blockchain node engine infrastructure will be dependent on their individual use cases,” Tromans told ZebethMedia. The product is available starting today in private preview.

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