Dove Dispatch #24 - Algorand

Algorand's Funding Activity Kicks Off

Oct 26, 2021

GM and welcome to Dove Dispatch #24!
As a reminder, we are making a small change to our distribution format and condensing our content into a single issue each week. We’ll publish fundraising updates every Tuesday as usual, and alternate our content between analyses and interviews with founders and investors.

We recently published our Q3 2021 Crypto Fundraising Report. Go check it out!

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Algorand was launched in 2017 by MIT professor and Turing Award winner Silvio Micali. Along with other alternative smart contract platforms, the network’s native token has rallied recently: its market capitalization has gone from $2.7B to $12.4B in the last three months.
Mainnet metrics seem to be growing as well: more than 1.5M addresses have interacted with the Algorand blockchain over the last 30 days and 3,700+ developers have used a public Algorand repository during the same period of time.

Algorand raised a $4M seed round back in February 2018 from Pillar and Union Square Ventures. A few months later, it received $62M in new funding, just after having launched a test network in July, and released the first open-source code on Github, in October. Along the way, various angel investors and VC firms have joined the board of investors, but more interestingly, some tier-1 firms have been active in the ecosystem: Union Square Ventures has been publishing quarterly statements on their Algorand holdings and activities.

The recent Tinyman’s fundraise can be perceived as a catalyst for the Algorand dApp ecosystem to finally kick off, with top investors participating.
Algorand projects raised $1.9M on average, compared to $6.1M for DeFi projects in 2021, and $20.6M for crypto-related companies. Unsurprisingly, DeFi companies represent more than 55% of the Algorand fundraises.

Like the Celo and Arweave capital markets, the protocol is heavily investing in ecosystem funding and building initiatives:

Algorand Europe Accelerator: a 12-week accelerator program led by the Algorand Foundation, that enables each participant to receive $15k in seed funding from Borderless Capital. As part of the program, successful initiatives are eligible for up to $500,000 in follow-up investment from both Borderless Capital and Eterna Capital.
Algorand Asia Accelerator: a similar program that offers $15k upfront seed funding for each selected project. These projects are also eligible for up to $250k in follow-on investment from Borderless Capital and LongHash Ventures.
Algorand Miami Accelerator: a 10-week accelerator program with workshops, advisory sessions, and personalized mentorship with high-profile experts. Again, Borderless Capital is a partner, along with Rokk3r.
ALGO Grants Program: a 250 million multi-year ALGO Grants Program across application development, tools & infrastructure, research, and education & community.
Algorand Scout Grant Fund: providing the funds to developers interested in building infrastructure improvements, unique applications, and community education initiatives. Borderless Capital, Pillar, and Union Square Ventures are contributors.
Encode x Algorand Accelerator Program: a 10-week program with 1-1 mentorship meetings, workshops, 5K ALGO, and a possibility to raise funds from Encode Invest and other investors.
Draper Blockchain Accelerator: an additional program that provides $35k in funding (a $20k grant from the Algorand Foundation, and an additional $15k from Borderless Capital).
DeFi Alliance Partnership Program: mentorship and other Algorand specific resources from Algorand top executives.

On the fund side, more than $445M has been specifically raised for the Algorand ecosystem in 2021, across Web3, DeFi, and NFTs.

With more than 800 projects building in the Algorand ecosystem, and some high-profile ones such as Venue One and Tinyman which are expected to launch by the end of Q4 2021, we should see additional influxes of capital flowing into the space.
Confirming this idea, Algorand recently released an upgrade that will enable Alogrand’s smart contracts to significantly increase their computing power, and make developers’ life easier to build on top of the blockchain, thanks to the Algorand Virtual Machine.

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Last week 32 projects announced fundraising rounds:

PlaceWar ($1.8M) | A decentralized strategic play-to-earn game universe deployed on a multi-chain with highly engaging artillery gameplay — with participation from AC Capital, AU21 Capital, ExNetwork Capital, IceTea Labs, Kyros Ventures, LD Capital, LucidBlue Ventures, Megala Ventures, Metrix Capital, X21 Digital, IoTeX, ReBlock Digital, Roseon Finance, ZBS Capital, TK Ventures, VBC Ventures, Dutch Crypto Investors, and BCA Investments.
Morpho Labs ($1.35M) | Optimizing DeFi lending — with participation from Nascent, Semantic Ventures, Angel DAO, Cherry Ventures, Stake Capital, Atka, and Faculty Capital.
XanPool ($27M) | An internationally compliant fiat-gateway software solution for exchanges, wallets, and other cryptocurrency businesses — with participation from Valar Ventures, CMT Digital, Taavet Hinrikus, gumi Cryptos, and Antler.
zkLink ($8.5M) | A trustless chain-to-chain DEX based on zero-knowledge technology— with participation from Arrington XRP Capital, DeFi Alliance, Huobi Capital, Ascensive Assets, Morningstar Ventures, GSR, Marshland Capital, Skynet Trading, ZBS Capital, and Republic.
Melos Studio | Multi-chain NFT marketplace — with participation from Binance Labs.
Colony ($1M) | Community-driven ecosystem accelerator powering Avalanche’s growth — with participation from GBV Capital, Foresight Ventures, Avalanche Foundation, Avalaunch, AVATAR, Yield Yak, NGC Ventures, Spark Digital Capital, MEXC Exchange, Synaps, and ZBS Capital.
MonkeyBall ($3M) | Play-to-Earn soccer game — with participation from Solana Capital, Republic, NFX, iAngels Technologies, LongHash Ventures, Shalom Meckenzie, Jump Capital, ZBS Capital, MarketAcross, CMS Holdings, and Morningstar Ventures.
Numbers Protocol ($6M) | Decentralized photo network for Web 3.0 — with participation from Protocol Labs, DAO Maker, Steve Chen, Kevin Lin, Phil Chen, and Binance Labs.
OliveX (BVI) ($1.7M) | Building a fitness Metaverse — with participation from Animoca Brands, GBV Capital, Double Peak, SkyVision Capital, Formless Capital, Darkpool Liquidity, Spartan Group, Bonfire Ventures, Chingona Ventures, Eden Holdings, MADworld, Onefootball, Blocore, Blockhype, PANONY, SMO Capital, Sébastien Borget, Gabby Dizon, and Tony Guoga.
MADworld ($6M) | A NFT platform for both real-world and digital collectibles — with participation from Animoca Brands, Master Ventures, SMO Capital, Libra Capital, Chiron Partners, Lotus Asset Management, AC Ventures, ZBS Capital, PANONY, and AVATAR.
FTX ($420.69M) | Crypto derivatives exchange for traders by traders — with participation from Tiger Global Management, Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sea Capital, Ribbit Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, ICONIQ Growth, BlackRock, and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
Mojito ($20M) | An NFT studio and tech platform company that designs, powers, and operates NFT marketplaces for industry-leading brands and IP holders — with participation from Sotheby’s, Future Perfect Ventures, Creative Artists Agency, Connect Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, CMT Digital, and NEA.
Synchrony ($4.2M) | An on-chain asset management protocol built on the Solana blockchain — with participation from Sanctor Capital, Wintermute, GBV Capital, AU21 Capital, Hashkey Capital, Magnus Capital, 0x Ventures, X21 Digital, PANONY, Titans Ventures, and Dutch Crypto Investors.
Candy Digital ($100M) | Next-gen digital collectibles — with participation from Com2uS, Connect Ventures, Insight Partners, NEA, Will Ventures, Chaos Ventures, SoftBank, Gaingels, and Peyton Manning.
Worldcoin ($25M) | A new global digital currency that will launch by giving a free share to every human on Earth — with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Sam Bankman-Fried, Reid Hoffman, 1confirmation, Apollo Capital, Blockchange Ventures, CoinFund, Day One Ventures, Fifty Years, Hashed, Hypersphere Ventures, Kenetic, Multicoin Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Variant, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Symbiosis Finance ($2M) | A multi-chain liquidity enabler — with participation from Blockchain.com, Wave Financial, BTC Inc, KuCoin Labs, Injective Protocol, DAO Maker, Primitive Ventures, Kairon Labs, Gate.io, and Richard Dai.
Parallel ($50M) | Sci-fi card game with NFTs — with participation from Paradigm.
Superplastic ($20M) | The home of synthetic superstars Janky & Guggimon, and the world's premier creator of designer toys & apparel — with participation from Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Craft Ventures, Galaxy Digital, The Chainsmokers, Kakao Investment, LINE Friends, Electric Feel Entertainment, Day One Ventures, Betaworks, Sean Qiao Ventures, Cyan Bannister, Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake, Scooter Braun, Scott Belsky, and GV.
Sommelier Finance ($23M) | The new coprocessor for the EthereumVM — with participation from Byzantine Partners, Tendermint Ventures, Secure Ventures, D1 Ventures, Ferngrove Ventures, Alameda Research, Polychain Capital, and Zola Global Investors.
Gaia EverWorld ($3.7M) | The immersive, multi-region fantasy world in which players build their kingdoms, explore the lands, collect, breed, and battle their Gaia Legionnaires — with participation from Polygon, AU21 Capital, BSCStation, Defiboost, Aussie Capital, OIG Investment Group, Brotherhood, Avstar Capital, Shima Capital, Basics Capital, Momentum 6, Crypto Thugs Capital, Fairum Ventures, Panda Capital, Onebit Ventures, GD10 Ventures, ExNetwork Capital, Chronos Ventures, and MEXC Exchange.
Polynomial Protocol ($1.1M) | Options liquidity aggregation protocol — with participation from Acrylic, Genblock Capital, Caballeros Capital, Paul Veradittakit, Siddharth Jain, Don Ho, Richard Ma, Lito Coen, and Sowmay Jain.
Unstoppable Finance ($4.47M) | Providing the bridge for mass-market consumers to the world of DeFi — with participation from Inflection, Backed, Cadenza Ventures, Discovery Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain, and Speedinvest.
Safle ($900k) | Next-Gen identity wallet and composite blockchain infra provider for the decentralized cryptoverse, governed by the community — with participation from Draper Dragon, Woodstock Fund, Sandeep Nailwal, Dunsten Teo, Scott Littlewood, Chirdeep Singh Chhabra, Aniket Jindal, Steven Enamakel, Ajeet Khurana, Ramani Ramachandran, Chandan Choudhary, Mithil Thakore, and Jaynti Kanani.
Animoca Brands ($65M) | A leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification — with participation from Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft, Sequoia Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, Kingsway Capital, 10T Fund, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Adit Ventures, Summer Capital, Sigitech Holdings, Black Anthem LTD, Justin Sun, and Octava Foundation.
Metawars ($2.3M) | A sci-fi strategy game set in the future with a multi-layered, key tactical battlefield that allows players to profit from the game’s war economy — with participation from Raptor Capital, CinchBlock, X21 Digital, CoinUnited Capital, Double Peak, Magnus Capital, Everse Capital, Infinity Gainz, IceTea Labs, and Mr. Beast.
Element Finance ($32M) | Bringing the attractive high fixed rate yields that DeFi users crave while maximizing capital efficiency, creating market liquidity, and reducing user costs — with participation from Polychain Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Placeholder, A.capital, Scalar Capital, Advanced Blockchain AG, Republic, Rarestone Capital, Yunt Capital, P2P Validator, Ethereal Ventures, Femboy Capital, Rune Christensen, Stani Kulechov, Fernando Martinelli, Kain Warwick, Hart Lambur, Julian Koh, Alex Svanevik, Santiago R. Santos, Mariano Conti, Cyrus Younessi, Tracheopteryx, Darren Lau, Daryl Lau, Anthony Sassano, David Hoffman, Ryan Adams, Zachary Cole, Patrick LaVecchia, Will Price, and Marc Bhargava.
PsyOptions ($3.5M) | Solana-based options products including derivative-based liquidity mining and non-fungible token (NFT) options — with participation from CMS Holdings, LedgerPrime, Mgnr, Wintermute, and Airspeed18.
Republic ($150M) | Platform to access highly-vetted investment opportunities in startups, real estate, video games, and crypto — with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Tribe Capital, Pillar VC, Galaxy Interactive, HOF Capital, CoinFund, Atreides Management, Brevan Howard Asset Management, and Motley Fool Ventures.
Manta Network ($5.5M) | An interoperable and private protocol for the DeFi stack, with a privacy-preserving decentralized exchange as the first use case — with participation from ParaFi Capital, CoinFund, LongHash Ventures, CMS Holdings, Divergence Ventures, Spartan Group, Global Coin Research, SkyVision Capital, Zee Prime Capital, SNZ Holding, 0xMaki, Kevin Hu, and Santiago R. Santos.
Sublime Finance ($2.5M) | A decentralized protocol enabling users to utilize their social capital to gain access to credit — with participation from Jill Carlson Gunter, Ryan Selkis, Galaxy Digital, Electric Capital, FinTech Collective, and Collab+Currency.
Concept Art House ($25M) | A leading international art service and digital entertainment company — with participation from Dapper Labs, Animoca Brands, Anthos Capital, Appworks, Blockchain Coinvestors, Fabric Ventures, Hashkey Capital, Liberty City Ventures, PKO Investments, Polymorphic Capital, Protocol Labs, Redbeard Ventures, Spartan Group, Jeff Zirlin, Gabby Dizon, Vinny Lingham, Kevin Lin, and Onefootball.
Chimeras ($2M) | A thrilling mobile free-to-play and play-to-earn game with the integrated DeFi farming and NFTs — with participation from Master Ventures, AU21 Capital, Poolz Ventures, BullPerks, X21 Digital, OIG Investment Group, Panda Capital, Shima Capital, LVT Capital, Otis Capital, and Lotus Capital.

We have also added the following investors: BullPerks, CoinUnited Capital, Yield Yak, and many angels.

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See you on Tuesday for the next issue,

The Dove Team

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Dove Dispatch

Dove Dispatch #24 - Algorand

Algorand's Funding Activity Kicks Off

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