AI inference platform Groq lands 640M in funding
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 by Richard Harris
Groq, a leader in fast AI inference, has secured a $640M Series D round at a valuation of $2.8B. The round was led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners with participation from both existing and new investors including Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, and strategic investors including Cisco Investments, Global Brain’s KDDI Open Inn...
Generative AI platform Cohere lands 500M in funding
Friday, July 26, 2024 by Richard Harris
Cohere, a generative AI startup co-founded by former Google researchers, has successfully raised $500 million in a new funding round. The investment was backed by notable players including Cisco, AMD, and Fujitsu. According to Bloomberg, this round also saw participation from Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and Canada’s export credit agency EDC...
Token Trek user engagement platform launched by The Radix Ecosystem
Thursday, June 6, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
The Radix Ecosystem has launched a quest-focused user onboarding initiative called Token Trek, aimed at increasing community engagement and on-chain transactions. Built by Dmany, a social infrastructure startup empowering web3 enthusiasts to earn crypto rewards, Token Trek provides users with opportunities to explore the Radix ecosystem whilst being rewarded for doing s...
Odeeo hires Spotify executive James Cowan
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
Odeeo announced the expansion of its US footprint with the addition of a key industry veteran to the team. Following Odeeo’s 566% net revenue growth and yearly Daily Active User (DAU) growth of 260% in 2023, James Cowan joins as US Commercial Lead as the company expands in the US market this year.
Cowan comes to Odeeo from Spotify, where he spent seven years an...
TRON HTX DAO Hong Kong Meetup 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024 by Richard Harris
On April 9, the TRON x HTX DAO: Hong Kong Meetup 2024 event, hosted by TRON and co-organized by HTX DAO, took place in Hong Kong with great success. This bustling event brought together the brightest minds of the HTX DAO ecosystem: project leaders, committee members, and influential KOLs. Their energy was palpable as they delivered speeches delving into the future of HT...
Forge API launches for game developers
Thursday, March 21, 2024 by Richard Harris
Forge has launched Forge API. Designed to empower game developers by providing a seamless solution for creating and managing "battle pass" experiences, the Forge API allows them to reach new gamers, drive sustained engagement, and reward players for their commitment. The full toolkit is available today and interested developers can learn more and get...
Conversational AI platform Loora to break down language barriers
Monday, March 4, 2024 by Richard Harris
Loora announced that it raised $12M in a Series A financing round from lead investor QP Ventures, with participation from new investor Hearst Ventures and existing investors Emerge and Two Lanterns Venture Partners, among others. The new funding, which comes just eight months after Loora’s launch from stealth with a $9.25M seed funding round, will enable the compa...
Kubernetes optimizations land from PerfectScale
Wednesday, October 25, 2023 by Richard Harris
PerfectScale announced that they have successfully closed $7.1 million in seed funding, led by Blumberg Capital with participation from Upwest, Prelude Ventures, K2 Access Fund, Inner Loop Capital, Triangle Tweener Fund, and Firestreak Ventures. The latest investment brings the company’s total funding to nearly $10 million, since its founding in March, 2022.
Wi...
Forge beta launches to reward gamers for their achievments
Wednesday, October 25, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Forge, the video game platform that connects and rewards gamers for their gaming achievements and ongoing play has opened to players in beta. The platform announced a $11 million seed funding round, led by Makers Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, and Animoca Brands, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Polygon Ventures, Formless Capital, and Adaverse. Forge’s...
App Builder Design contest from Infragistics
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Infragistics, the provider of tools and solutions for app design and development, has announced a new App Builder Design Contest where developers, designers and non-designers alike can unleash their creativity and win prizes. The competition provides participants with free access to the App Builder drag & drop tool, which allows designers and developers to...
User engagement promotion from Honeygain and JumpTask
Tuesday, October 17, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Honeygain and JumpTask announced their most recent collaboration, "JumpTask Achievements." Aimed at promoting user engagement and participation through inventive gamified experiences, this new release is an exciting extension of their ongoing partnership.
"Our collaboration with JumpTask exemplifies our mission to make every interaction count. Jum...
Smart contract functionality from Zeitgeist
Thursday, June 22, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Zeitgeist announced the integration of smart contract functionality to its protocol leveraging Polkadot's recent XCM v3 release. This integration will allow builders and users of the Zeitgeist platform to leverage smart contracts for the automated creation of, participation in, and resolving of prediction markets, in addition to automated liquidity management.
Ze...
Automated service to service access emerges from Otterize
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 by Brittany Hainzinger
Otterize, an open-source solution that's re-inventing how to connect services securely, to each other and to their infrastructures, today announced $11.5M in seed funding and publicly unveiled its new Otterize Cloud product, which is now in GA. The round was led by Index Ventures, followed by Dig Ventures, and Vine Ventures, with participation by Jibe Ventures, Crew...
AI Personalization and Guidance Engine released by Starbox
Monday, April 10, 2023 by Richard Harris
Starbox Group Holdings Ltd. recently announced the release of its Starbox AI Personalized and Guidance Engine (the “Engine”), which is built upon the Starbox AI Calculation Engine introduced earlier in March 2023 and ChatGPT. This Engine is designed to improve merchants’ business operations and enhance retail merchants’ experiences by offeri...
Web3 map app to launch from Illust and partners
Thursday, March 16, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
Illust is proud to announce a partnership with BUIDL Week and the ETHDenver Web3 Festival (along with amazing artists, DAOs, local businesses, and musicians), to produce the very first official web3 city map of Denver. This revolutionary "application" will feature a channel for Denver designed to capture its history, culture, and inhabitants. Newcome...
If the web were multiuser in 3D
Thursday, February 2, 2023 by Richard Harris
What if the web were multiuser and 3D? Hint: It would be the Metaverse. The Metaverse will happen much faster than everyone thinks as it gains traction via 3D worlds in traditional websites.
2023 prediction: The web is the metaverse
Millions of virtual 3D spaces and worlds embedded in the web interoperable with existing sites will collectively form a significant p...
The beginning of a new age of innovation and creation
Monday, January 23, 2023 by Freeman Lightner
2023 will be the beginning of a new age of innovation and the creation of new products and services as never been seen since the founding of the Internet.
The end of the mobile app distribution monopoly, the convergence of different platforms, and the recovery of power by users and developers will unleash a perfect storm that will mark the next decade.
An earthqua...
KulaDAO cryptographic project on track for the 2023 ICO
Thursday, December 22, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
KulaDAO is an emerging cryptographic project that is on track for a 2023 ICO. It proposes to align the interests of different people groups to create shared value.
Misaligned interests between stakeholders cost the global economy billions of dollars annually in wasted opportunity, broken trust, and relational breakdown. Correcting these misalignments opens ...
Vacation rental software solution Lodgify lands $30M
Monday, November 28, 2022 by Freeman Lightner
Vacation rental software startup Lodgify has secured $30 million in Series B funding. The investment round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from Bonsai Partners, Aldea Ventures and ICF (Institut Català de Finances) as well as existing investors, Intermedia Vermögensverwaltung and Nauta Capital.
Lodgify will use the funds to acceler...
NFTs are irrelevant. Say what!
Wednesday, November 23, 2022 by Richard Harris
NFT's, NFT's, NFT's! The buzzword you can't escape these days. But what are they and WHY? According to Hussein Hallak, the Co-Founder of Momentable, the new NFT e-commerce platform that is democratizing access to and reimagining the way we view art and culture, "NFT's are irrele...
Casual gaming could get disrupted by social design
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 by Freeman Lightner
Turkish mobile games studio Magic Games has raised more than $5 million in seed funding led by Makers Fund, with participation by Firat Ileri, and Hummingbird Ventures. Founded by former Peak Games leaders Cagri Ozturk, Ruya Celikcan, and Mert Kasar, and joined by senior industry leaders Murat Ozcelik, Anil Sert, and Orhan Tuc, the team draws from deep experience creati...
$50M in funding raised by Theorycraft Games
Wednesday, October 19, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
Theorycraft Games has announced an additional $50 million raised in Series B funding, led by Makers Fund with participation from NEA and a16z. Theorycraft Games will use this raise to continue building out the most talent-dense team in games and to ensure they can keep making deep, 10,000-hour games that are just better when played with friends, like the company’s...
$3M in funding secured by W3 Storage Lab
Thursday, August 25, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
W3 Storage Lab has announced that it closed a pre-seed financing round of $3M. The round was co-led by Draper Dragon and OKX Blockdream Ventures with major participation from Lingfeng Capital and participation from other investors. Proceeds from the round will be used to grow its global team and fund operations.
W3 Storage Lab has co-developed a next-generation distr...
Metaverse avatar platform secures $56M in funding
Wednesday, August 24, 2022 by Freeman Lightner
Ready Player Me, a cross-game avatar platform that allows users to explore virtual worlds with one consistent identity, has closed a $56M Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from other notable investors including David Baszucki, co-founder of Roblox, Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, Sebastian Knutsson & Riccardo Zacconi, King Games ...
VR sports app Gym Class secures $8M in funding
Thursday, August 11, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
Gym Class has raised $8 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Y Combinator. Gym Class combines the fun, fitness, social, and entertainment aspects of real-world sports delivered in best-in-class VR basketball. Gym Class is set to launch on the Meta Quest Store in fall 2022.
VR sports app Gym Class raises $8M ahead of a fal...
Arable lands $40M to accelerate sustainable agriculture
Tuesday, August 2, 2022 by Richard Harris
Arable, the leader in field intelligence for agriculture, today announced it has raised $40 million in series C financing. The company will use the new funding to advance climate resilience in agriculture by accelerating product development, delivering new services for customers, and expanding its global footprint.
Arable received the very first investment from Tom S...
Building mentally fit workforces with Pulse
Tuesday, July 26, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
New Gallup findings from their latest annual global update determined, among other ominous results, that stress, sadness, and worry have all inched higher worldwide pushing Gallup's Negative Experience Index to yet another new high. Our career lives are certainly suffering in kind.
New ‘Pulse’ app helps build a more menta...
GDWC 2022 prize pool over $100K
Tuesday, July 12, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
The Game Development World Championship 2022 (GDWC), one of the biggest game development competitions in the world will be giving out prizes and giveaways worth over $100,000 this year. This is the largest prize pool in the Championship's history.
Over $100,000 prize pool at the Game Development World Championship 2022!
Prizes are spread across multiple catego...
Gala May Mayhem wrapped up
Thursday, June 9, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
Gala, and its gaming division, Gala Games, have wrapped up their second annual month-long reward event called May Mayhem. Started in 2021, the event was designed to grow Gala’s user base and to reward as many current players as possible with large prizes in GALA, the official crypto token of the Gala Games Ecosystem.
Even in the midst of the largest drop in the...
N3TWORK Studios Inc lands $46M in funding
Friday, May 20, 2022 by Brittany Hainzinger
N3TWORK Studios has closed $46 million in a Series A financing round led by Griffin Gaming Partners, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Galaxy Interactive, KIP, Floodgate, LLL Capital, and N3TWORK, Inc. As part of the financing, Griffin Gaming Partners' Peter Levin will join the Board of Directors. The funding will help further the development and launch ...
DeFi and NFT art gallery launches
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 by Freeman Lightner
Unifty is marrying DeFi and NFTs with the launch of The Gallery, an innovative exhibition space inspired by the platform’s desire to improve upon the traditional gallery-creator relationship. The Gallery’s unique approach to the NFT marketplace means that all participants, including creators, collectors, curators, and fans, are rewarded for engaging on the p...
SaaS company receives $27M in funding
Monday, November 15, 2021 by Christian Hargrave
Swimm announced a $27.6 million Series A funding round to enable engineering teams to create documentation that is always up to date. The round, which brings Swimm's total funding to $33.3 million, was led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, with participation from Dawn Capital, alongside existing seed investors Pitango...
NFT prizes for MegaFans mobile eSports games
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 by Freeman Lightner
MegaFans, a mobile gaming company headquartered in Southern California, announced that they distributed the world's first NFTs (non-fungible tokens), as prizes to players, from a mobile eSports platform. MegaFans announced in October that they would offer NFTs and Cryptocurrency as prizes in their mobile eSports games.
NFT prizes for MegaFans mobile eSports games...
HackOnLisk2 hackathon from Lisk
Monday, November 1, 2021 by Richard Harris
Lisk, an open-source platform that enables developers to build blockchain applications in JavaScript, has announced its high-profile judgment panel for its developer-focused hackathon, HackOnLisk2. The hackathon, which aims to bolster innovation in the blockchain space by providing funding and consultation to participating teams, will welcome judging representatives fro...
2021 Coding Week recap from industry experts
Monday, September 20, 2021 by Richard Harris
National Coding Week takes place during September 13 - September 19 and it is a great time to engage everyone into coding in a fun and easy way. According to an article from National Today, "92 percent of executives believe American workers are not as skilled as they need to be." National Coding Week is a perfect opportunity for improving your coding skills to...
