Highlights of This Issue
Last week, the AI industry's investment and financing market continued to show the characteristic of large funds concentrating on infrastructure.
AI infrastructure company Firmus completed a $2 billion financing round, with its valuation rising to over $10.5 billion; optical network company Lumilens and AI cloud infrastructure company Volta Infra secured over $700 million and $300 million in financing respectively, with funds continuing to flow into underlying segments such as AI data centers, GPU interconnection, computing power, and cloud services.
On the application layer, AI security company Zenity, enterprise intelligent customer service platform Omilia, and AI Agent infrastructure Sapiom also secured new rounds of financing, with enterprise-level Agents becoming another major investment theme.
Financing in the robotics sector was relatively limited, with Avatar Robotics and Exclaim Robotics focusing on warehouse remote operation and data center maintenance, respectively.
Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital plans to invest $2.5 billion in Anthropic, Index Ventures raised $2 billion, and Yann LeCun joined a newly established $100 million AI fund, indicating that top institutions continue to increase their bets on the AI track.
Investment and financing in the crypto industry has warmed up significantly, with funds mainly flowing to infrastructure, stablecoins, RWA, and centralized finance, while projects in DePIN, GameFi, loyalty, and reward platforms also completed financing.
According to incomplete statistics from PANews, last week (Aug 3-9), there were 12 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector, with total funds exceeding $94.9 million. The overview is as follows:
- Infrastructure & Tools track announced 4 investment and financing events, among which stablecoin infrastructure company Yellow Card completed a $40 million strategic financing round, with participation from Standard Chartered, Sony, and others;
- In the Web3+AI field, 2 investment and financing events were announced, among which decentralized AI and on-chain intelligent infrastructure developer MAGNE.AI completed a $2.64 million strategic financing round, with participation from AEA Ventures and others;
- In Centralized Finance, 2 investment and financing events were announced, among which digital investment service platform InvestiFi announced the completion of a $20 million financing round, led by Vibe Credit Union;
- In the RWA track, 1 investment and financing event was announced: RWA e-commerce financing platform Dow Protocol completed a $10.5 million seed round, with participation from MH Ventures and others.
- In terms of corporate mergers and acquisitions, Mastercard announced the completion of its acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK to enhance its global stablecoin service capabilities. Previously, Mastercard planned to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.
Crypto Financing
Infrastructure & Tools
Yellow Card Completes $40 Million Strategic Financing, with Participation from Standard Chartered, Sony, and Others
Stablecoin infrastructure company Yellow Card announced the completion of a $40 million strategic financing round. Investors in this round include SC Ventures (the venture capital arm of Standard Chartered Bank), Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, and other institutions. The funds will be used to expand Yellow Card's Global USD Accounts service and scale its stablecoin payment infrastructure connecting global markets. The company's cumulative equity financing has exceeded $120 million.
Yellow Card CEO and co-founder Chris Maurice stated that the company is building infrastructure that allows global enterprises to transfer funds without relying on traditional correspondent banking systems. The bigger opportunity ahead lies in enabling banks to access stablecoin payment networks, providing more convenient dollar liquidity for enterprises that previously had difficulty accessing dollar services.
Ethereum Infrastructure Company Blockspace Officially Launches and Completes a Financing Round, Led by BlueYard
Ethereum infrastructure company Blockspace announced its official launch, positioning itself as a for-profit company focused on building out-of-protocol infrastructure for Ethereum to improve the economics, performance, robustness, and related services of transaction pipelines. The company announced the completion of a financing round led by BlueYard, with participation from etherfi Ventures, Sharplink, Breed VC, Luganodes, Stakely, and other institutions. The amount was not disclosed. Blockspace stated that its business model relies entirely on the Ethereum ecosystem, earning ETH returns through operating staking and infrastructure, and reinvesting those returns into staking.
Nomura's Laser Digital Makes Strategic Investment in Layer1 Blockchain Project ZIGChain
Laser Digital, the digital asset division of Japanese financial group Nomura, announced a strategic investment in UAE-based Layer1 blockchain project ZIGChain. The two parties will collaborate to promote the on-chain development of the private credit market in the Middle East and Gulf region, including Sharia-compliant asset products. Neither party disclosed the specific investment amount, but market sources indicate the investment is in the high single-digit millions of dollars. ZIGChain has already partnered with Standard Chartered and crypto-friendly fund services provider Apex Group, focusing on on-chain asset management and private credit infrastructure.
Ripple Makes Strategic Investments in Zilo and Licuido to Promote Tokenized Assets on XRPL
Blockchain fintech company Ripple announced strategic investments in UK-based asset transfer agency service provider Zilo and FCA-regulated tokenization solution provider Licuido, aiming to promote the use of tokenized financial assets on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Ripple stated that the investment is intended to integrate regulated asset transfer agency, asset issuance, and collateral liquidity capabilities into the XRPL infrastructure, addressing the issue of idle collateral assets in traditional financial markets and enabling tokenized funds to be used as collateral from the outset.
Zilo provides global transfer agency and asset solutions for wealth management institutions, with cumulative funding of approximately $58.7 million; Licuido focuses on institutional-grade asset tokenization services. Neither party disclosed the specific investment amounts. This move comes after Aviva Investors launched tokenized dollar liquidity fund shares on XRPL. Previously, Ripple launched the Ripple Mint platform to assist institutions in issuing, redeeming, and managing its dollar stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD).
Web3+AI
MAGNE.AI Completes $2.64 Million Strategic Financing, Cumulative Funding Reaches $12.64 Million
Decentralized AI and on-chain intelligent infrastructure developer MAGNE.AI officially announced the completion of a new strategic financing round of $2.64 million, with participating investors including GAEA Ventures, Titans Ventures, and Go2Mars Labs. Combined with the previously announced $10 million financing, MAGNE.AI's publicly disclosed total funding has now reached $12.64 million.
According to official sources, the funds from this round will be mainly used to accelerate the engineering validation and commercial delivery of the core hardware/software product MAGNE AI BOX, advance its technical integration with the MAGNE L1 and MHash L2 networks, and focus on developing MAGNE Agent Pay and an AI Agent payment protocol compatible with the x402 standard. MAGNE AI BOX features local model inference, private RAG, multimodal processing, and private AI Agent execution capabilities, aiming to build an integrated technology stack covering edge AI, Agent payments, and on-chain intelligence for individual and enterprise users.
AI-Driven Prediction Derivatives Protocol Fortune Protocol Completes Pre-A Round with Strategic Support from Multiple Institutions
Fortune Protocol announced the completion of its Pre-A financing round, which received strategic support from several well-known institutions including MH Ventures, Mapleblock Capital, NewTribe Capital, Basics Capital, and Everwood Capital. The funds will be mainly used to accelerate the technical upgrade of Fortune Agent, expand prediction market liquidity, and build ecosystem infrastructure, further promoting the deep integration of AI and prediction markets.
The completion of this Pre-A financing round marks Fortune's entry into a new phase of ecosystem expansion. In the future, Fortune will continue to advance AI Agent capability building, integrate more prediction markets, and develop the global community ecosystem, preparing for the upcoming TGE. It is reported that Fortune Protocol is an AI-driven prediction derivatives protocol that aggregates prediction market liquidity to provide users with a unified trading entry for prediction assets, and combines AI Agents to achieve market analysis, trading opportunity discovery, and intelligent strategy execution.
Centralized Finance
Digital investment service platform InvestiFi completes $20 million financing, led by Vibe Credit Union
Digital investment service platform InvestiFi announced the completion of a $20 million financing round, led by Vibe Credit Union, with participation from BankTech Ventures, ICCU (Idaho Central Credit Union), United Financial Credit Union, Coastal Credit Union, and other U.S. credit unions. InvestiFi enables traditional financial institutions to offer cryptocurrency trading, as well as investment services in stablecoins, stocks, ETFs, etc., directly within their existing online banking systems, allowing users to invest directly from their checking or savings accounts without transferring funds between bank accounts and external brokers or crypto platforms. The new funds will be used to scale the platform.
Japanese stablecoin company JPYC completes $38 million Series B financing in total
The issuer of the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC has completed an additional Series B financing, bringing the total Series B funding to approximately $38 million. The new investor in this round is Japanese logistics giant AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, which injected approximately $6.3 million. The funds will be used to expand the financial and Web3 ecosystem and promote the practical application of the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC.
RWA
RWA e-commerce financing platform Dow Protocol completes $10.5 million seed round, with MH Ventures and others participating
RWA e-commerce financing platform Dow Protocol announced the completion of a $10.5 million seed round, with participation from MH Ventures, Mapleblock, Animoca Brands, Arcane Group, HSKChain, Essentia Partners, and Quartet Group.
According to reports, Dow Protocol builds a PayFi RWA structure for e-commerce working capital, specifically addressing the working capital needs of e-commerce merchants. Dow Protocol provides early lending through asset servicers based on merchants' receivables and credit risk data, allowing merchants to obtain funds within seconds. The repayment and risk system is natively integrated into the e-commerce platform, with funds automatically deducted from the merchant's platform balance.
GameFi
Yooldo receives $1 million strategic investment from FZF Ventures
GameFi project Yooldo announced that it has received a $1 million strategic investment from FZF Ventures to strengthen its game and ecosystem development and support the project's long-term growth. Yooldo also stated that it is in discussions with relevant parties regarding subsequent additional investments, with the specific amount and timing not yet disclosed.
DePIN
DePIN project Vangrid completes $9 million seed round, with HashKey and others participating
DePIN project Vangrid has completed a $9 million seed round, with participation from HashKey, Borderless, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs, and Mapleblock Capital. The project focuses on collecting spatial data; users collect geolocation data via smartphones and receive compensation. The data is then 3D modeled and verified on-chain before being sold to Physical AI developers, including developers of robots, autonomous agents, and digital models. Vangrid stated that its network is built on Base, uses Ethereum's attestation service to verify data batches, and its public explorer shows nearly 100,000 verified collections and over 1,300 batch attestations. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam with a team of 14.
Consumer Applications
Blockchain rewards platform Bundle completes $5.5 million Pre-Seed round, with Anchorage Digital and others participating
Blockchain rewards platform Bundle announced the completion of a $5.5 million Pre-Seed round, co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Further Ventures (under Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin), with participation from Nascent, GSR, Scenius Capital, Anchorage Digital, and Nuwa Capital.
Acquisitions
Mastercard completes acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK
Mastercard announced that it has completed the acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK to enhance its global stablecoin service capabilities. Mastercard's Chief Product Officer stated that in a multi-currency world where fiat, stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and other forms of value coexist, the next generation of payment models will be determined by the efficiency of connections across various rails. BVNK's on-chain infrastructure and stablecoin-native technology will help financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises expand stablecoin use cases such as cross-border B2B payments, remittances, settlements, and fund flows.
Earlier in March, Mastercard planned to acquire BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.
AI & Robotics Financing Highlights
AI
AI infrastructure company Firmus completes $2 billion financing, post-money valuation exceeds $10.5 billion
AI infrastructure company Firmus has completed a $2 billion equity financing round, with a post-money valuation exceeding $10.5 billion, nearly doubling from the $5.5 billion valuation in the previous round in April. Nvidia and Coatue Management continued to follow on, with Blackstone funds and Jane Street also participating in this round. The funds will be used to accelerate the construction of AI factories in Australia and expand to other Asian markets. Firmus builds its infrastructure based on Nvidia's DSX AI factory reference architecture; the two parties reached an agreement at the end of June for Firmus to purchase Nvidia infrastructure and sell Nvidia-powered cloud services.
AI optical networking company Lumilens completes over $700 million Series C, valuation rises to $5.51 billion
AI optical networking startup Lumilens announced the completion of a Series C round of over $700 million, with a post-money valuation of $5.51 billion. The round was co-led by Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Meritech, Seligman Ventures, and Spark Capital. To date, its cumulative total funding has exceeded $900 million.
Lumilens focuses on providing high-speed, low-power optical networking products for AI data centers. It has already supplied products to a hyperscale cloud service provider under a multi-billion-dollar agreement, but the specific customer name was not disclosed. The company stated that the new funds will be used to expand engineering R&D and manufacturing capabilities, and further recruit talent in photonics and large-scale networking to meet the growing demand for GPU interconnect and high-speed optical networks in AI data centers.
AI cloud infrastructure company Volta Infra completes $300 million financing, with Nvidia and others participating
AI cloud infrastructure startup Volta Infra announced the completion of a $300 million financing round, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Altimeter Capital, with participation from Nvidia and Michael Dell (founder of Dell), at a valuation of $2.4 billion. It is reported that the company also secured a $5 billion customer financing pool to help small and medium-sized AI enterprises purchase high-end Nvidia chips. Additionally, Volta has signed a $10 billion, six-year cloud service contract with a leading AI developer, which will be delivered through Bit Mining's 133-megawatt data center in Norway. The company was founded by former Brookfield executives, has secured 1 gigawatt of power resources, plans to expand in Texas and Wyoming, and aims to deploy multi-gigawatt computing power by 2030.
Singapore AI infrastructure company Acrab completes $130 million Series B funding round, with Vertex Growth among participants
Singapore-based AI infrastructure startup Acrab announced the completion of a $130 million Series B funding round, with Vertex Growth among the participants. To date, the company has raised over $480 million in total funding. Acrab builds a full-stack AI computing platform that includes proprietary chips, edge AI models, and software orchestration to support real-time operation and task execution of AI agents. The new funds will be used to expand product capacity, grow the technology ecosystem, and accelerate the development of the next-generation AI computing platform.
South Korean AI chip company DeepX completes first tranche of 4.2 billion KRW Series D funding, with BNW Investment participating
South Korean AI chip design company DeepX has completed the first tranche of its 4.2 billion KRW Series D funding round, with existing investors BNW Investment and DS Asset Management participating. The latest valuation in this round is approximately 3.14 trillion KRW (about $2.2 billion), representing a roughly 4-fold increase from the valuation in the previous round.
AI security company Zenity completes $125 million Series C funding round, with SoftBank among participants
Israeli AI security startup Zenity has completed a $125 million Series C funding round, betting on the new security risks brought by enterprises deploying AI agents. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Hitachi Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures, among others.
Zenity's core product monitors AI agents' operations in enterprise environments in real time, determines whether their behavior deviates from preset goals, and blocks or adjusts actions that may endanger corporate data, customer assets, or system security.
Self-learning intelligent customer experience company Omilia completes €58.1 million Series B funding round, led by Expedition Growth Capital
Cyprus-based enterprise intelligent customer experience (Agentic CX) company Omilia has completed a €58.1 million ($67 million) Series B funding round, led by Expedition Growth Capital. The company said it will use the funds to accelerate expansion in North America and globally, and plans to open its first U.S. office in the second half of 2026. Founded in 2002, Omilia provides self-learning CX Agents and a voice-first AI platform for regulated industries such as banking, insurance, and healthcare, and has achieved compliance certifications including FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR. Currently, its system handles over 1 million calls daily at a top-tier U.S. bank and provides real-time agent assistance for 600,000 calls daily at a multinational U.S. insurance company. ARR has grown to over €52 million, and it has partnered with Taco Bell to deploy voice AI at over 1,000 drive-thru locations across the U.S. Notable customers include Capital One, Discover, Taco Bell, RBC, DWP, First Financial Bank, Purolator, and PSEG.
AI agent infrastructure company Sapiom completes $35 million Series A funding round, led by Dragonfly
AI agent infrastructure platform Sapiom has completed a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Accel, Gradient, Coinbase Ventures, Operator Collective, Formus Capital, and VanEck Ventures. Existing investors Okta Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Array Ventures also continued to participate. The company, founded only 11 months ago, previously raised a $15 million seed round, bringing total funding to $50 million. Sapiom aims to eliminate infrastructure barriers for AI agents moving from demo to production. Sapiom also launched three products simultaneously: Router, Agent Studio, and Runtime. Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi will join Sapiom's board of directors.
AI startup June completes $20 million Pre-Seed funding round, led by Time Ventures
AI startup June announced on Monday the completion of a $20 million Pre-Seed funding round, led by Time Ventures, with participation from tech industry figures including Michael Dell, Aaron Levie, and George Kurtz. June was founded by former Salesforce executive Efrat Rapoport and focuses on helping enterprises deploy and manage AI agents. The company stated that the biggest obstacle to enterprise AI adoption is not model capability, but how to adapt AI agents to complex legacy systems, fragmented data, and existing business processes.
AI personal assistant company Pally completes $5.2 million funding round, led by Cyber Fund and Y Combinator
AI personal assistant startup Pally announced the completion of a $5.2 million funding round, led by Cyber Fund and Y Combinator, with participation from Pioneer Fund, Founders Inc, 468 Capital, and angel investors. The company is valued at $30 million and primarily provides AI personal assistant services via a text message interface.
Pally was launched in 2025, with the latest version going live in June, and can sync with platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Granola, and Notion. After user authorization, Pally can book flights, manage inboxes, reply to messages, and reserve restaurants. Pally uses Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and open-source models such as Kimi K3 and GLM 5.2. Co-founder Haz Hubble stated that the company will not sell user data or use related data to train models.
Robotics
Robotics startup Avatar Robotics completes $6.5 million seed funding round, led by AlleyCorp and others
U.S. industrial robotics startup Avatar Robotics has completed a $6.5 million seed funding round, led by AlleyCorp and Defy.vc, with participation from Headline and Henry Ford III, among others. The company allows operators to remotely control robots using Meta Quest headsets and controllers to perform picking and packing tasks in warehouses, charging per use at a cost lower than directly hiring warehouse workers. Avatar does not sell hardware but sources robot bodies from China, providing labor services through remote operation while recording data on what robots see and operator responses to train AI models for more autonomous operations.
Swiss robotics startup Exclaim Robotics completes $4.95 million seed funding round, with participation from well-known European early-stage investment institutions
Zurich-based robotics startup Exclaim Robotics has officially announced the completion of a $4.95 million seed funding round. The funds will be used to develop robotic products for routine maintenance and repair operations in hyperscale data centers. The company is led by senior robotics expert Helen Oleynikova, and investors include well-known European early-stage investment institutions.
Investment Institutions
Sequoia Capital completes $10 billion new funding round, plans to invest $2.5 billion in Anthropic
Sequoia Capital has completed a new $10 billion funding round. This year, it has already returned $5 billion to investors other than SpaceX. Sequoia's new co-leaders, Alfred Lin and Pat Grady, plan to invest $2.5 billion in AI company Anthropic, which would become the largest investment in Sequoia's 54-year history. Previously, Sequoia had favored OpenAI, xAI, etc., and only made its first investment in Anthropic in January 2025. Now it has decided to significantly increase its stake, showing its aggressive bet on the AI field.
European venture capital firm Index Ventures completes $2 billion new fundraising round
European venture capital firm Index Ventures recently announced the completion of a $2 billion new fundraising round, bringing its total investable assets to $3.5 billion. The round consists of three parts: a $400 million seed fund, a $900 million early-stage venture fund, and an additional $700 million added to its existing growth fund. Index Ventures stated that the new funds will continue to support founders "from first round to IPO and beyond," covering Europe, Israel, and the U.S. market. In the context of this fundraising, AI is its core bet, and the firm has invested in Mistral, Cohere, and Ineffable Intelligence founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver. Previously, Index portfolio companies Wiz was acquired by Google for $32 billion, Figma completed its IPO, and Revolut completed a secondary share sale (valued at $115 billion), all providing strong endorsements for this fundraising round.
AIX Ventures co-founder launches $100 million AI fund 224 Ventures, with Turing Award winner Yann LeCun joining
AIX Ventures co-founder Shaun Johnson announced the launch of a $100 million artificial intelligence fund, 224 Ventures, currently managing approximately $100 million in assets, with plans to invest $1 million to $5 million in AI-native teams, covering AI applications, robotics, infrastructure, and core intelligence fields. The fund has 244 LPs, most of whom come from the AI industry, including researchers, product and engineering leaders, and enterprise AI and data executives. Former Meta Chief AI Scientist and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun and former Google DeepMind researcher Oriol Vinyals also announced they would join to co-lead the fund.
Yann LeCun currently also serves as Executive Chairman of AI startup AMI Labs, which focuses on "World Models" technology and has completed over $1 billion in seed financing.
