By Shikha Singh
Avalanche Raises $250 mn Ahead of Avalanche9000 Launch
Layer-1 blockchain On December 12, Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, and ParaFi Capital led a $250 million private locked-token sale, which Avalanche announced as closed.
More than 40 companies joined the token sale, including SkyBridge, SCB Limited, Hivemind, Big Brain Holdings, Hypersphere, Lvna Capital, Republic Capital, Morgan Creek Digital, FinTech Collective, and others.
The raise comes ahead of the launch of the “Avalanche9000” network upgrade, purported to be the most significant upgrade in Avalanche’s history.
AI Language Startup Speak Hits Unicorn Status After Raising $78 mn Series C
AI-powered language-learning startup Speak raised $78 million in Series C funding, reaching a $1 billion valuation—doubling its worth in less than six months.
Founded in 2016, Speak’s platform generates personalized audio conversations to help users improve fluency, with over 25 million lessons created this year.
The company also launched an enterprise offering for employers. Investors in the new round include Accel, OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Y Combinator.
x-Paradigm Investor Raises $75 mn for New Frontier-Tech Venture Firm
Casey Caruso, a former investment partner at Paradigm, raised $75 million to launch her new early-stage venture firm, Topology.
Notable investors in Topology include Cendana Capital, Accolade Partners, OpenAI founder, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Paris Hilton, and Bessemer’s Bob Goodman. Topology was in stealth mode for seven months before its December launch.
Crypto-AI Startup Exabits Reaches $150 mn Valuation With $15 mn Seed Round
Exabits, a crypto-AI startup focused on tokenizing GPUs, raised $15 million in a seed round, bringing its valuation to $150 million.
The company aims to decentralize computing by creating a liquid market for GPU assets. Exabits has seen impressive growth, with a 300% quarterly revenue increase, reaching $10 million in annual recurring revenue. The tokenization model will reward holders, with a token launch planned for the future.
SMARDEX Raised $12 mn in Public Seed Round
After two years of intense development and $12 million of investment, Swiss Web3 pioneer RA2 TECH funds SMARDEX, a decentralized finance platform, to announce the launch of USDN.
The platform’s public seed round has attracted an additional $4.5 million in TVL in the immediate days after launching.
You need to login in order to Like