SoftBank provides fixed-line, mobile telephony, internet, telecommunications, and digital television products. It is a multinational telecommunications and internet corporation focused on broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, the internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses. The company operates through four segments. The mobile communications segment provides mobile communications services, produces and distributes online games for smartphones and other devices, offers mobile broadband services, provides supply chain solutions, handset protection, and insurance, buy-back and trade-in services, omnichannel solutions, and financial services, and sells mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, and SoftBank smartphones. The Sprint segment offers mobile and fixed-line voice and data transmission services for individual consumers, businesses, government subscribers, and resellers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. and sells mobile devices and accessories. The fixed-line telecommunications segment offers telecom services such as fixed-line telephone and data communications services to corporate customers and broadband services to individual customers. The internet segment is engaged in the operation of the Yahoo! Japan portal, the sale of internet advertising, the operation of e-commerce sites, the provision of membership services, the sale and marketing of data centers, the provision of online automobile-related information, and the operation of the internet affiliate system. SoftBank also generates and sells electricity from renewable energy sources; provides payment processing, invoice collections, and computation services for businesses; distributes video, voice, and data content via media; operates the IT information site ITmedia; provides solutions and services for online businesses; and operates online games and software downloads. Additionally, it is involved in the ownership of professional baseball teams, the operation of baseball games, the management and maintenance of baseball stadiums and other sports facilities, and the procurement of funds by issuing preferred securities.

SoftBank

Open Opportunity Fund is a $100 million venture fund that supports Black, Latinx, and Native American founders. The firm is operated by SoftBank Group Corporation. It was established in 2020 and is based in Miami, FL, United States.

Open Opportunity Fund

Exceptional Capital is an investor in B2B enterprise software at pre-seed and seed stages.

Exceptional Capital

Seven Seven Six is a venture capital firm. The firm features The Seven Seven Six Operator in Residence Program as a full-time, paid, one-year appointment.

Seven Seven Six

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

Arrington XRP Capital is a digital asset management firm in blockchain-based capital markets. The company was founded in 2017.

Arrington XRP Capital

Tribe Capital is a top-quartile venture capital firm focused on capturing a perpetual edge in venture and crypto using data science. The team is made up of investors, engineers and scientists who use artificial intelligence (“AI”) and data science to model venture-backed private companies. Beyond investment capital, Tribe deploys these AI tools to separate signal from noise, helping our companies understand their businesses better.  Our data-informed strategy includes an underwriting infrastructure and a quantitative analysis tool called the “Magic 8-ball.” We leverage these tools to provide deep insight on factors driving growth and how to accelerate sustainable growth, honed through years of developing similar products at major tech and finance players like Lyft, Yahoo, Facebook, and Bridgewater Associates.   Our team uses these tools to measure quantitative product-market fit, so we can more effectively assess and accelerate what Tribe refers to as “N-of-1” companies - companies with the potential to be 10-100x growth opportunities, while minimizing loss ratio by a large degree.  Tribe Capital has $1.6 billion in assets under management and has made notable investments in Apollo.io, Carta, Docker, Kraken, Instabase, Relativity Space, and Shiprocket.

Tribe Capital

Crossbeam Venture Partners (Crossbeam) is a venture capital firm that invests in Pre-Seed to Series A startups building tomorrow's economy. Focused on the themes of Platform Economies, Emerging Forms of Media, FinTech, Novel Asset Classes, and more, Crossbeam is built to back companies of the next-generation economy utilizing unique structures, credit, or novel business models.

Crossbeam Venture Partners

Founded in 2001, Tiger Global Management, LLC (“Tiger Global”) is a New York-based investment firm pursuing a long-term approach to investing in leading, global public and private companies that leverage technological innovation. Tiger Global’s public equity business includes fundamentally oriented long/short, long-focused and crossover strategies, targeting investments in high-quality, public growth companies. The private equity business invests in early through late stage companies that pursue innovative approaches to new and existing industries, building on over 20 years of experience investing in hundreds of businesses in more than 30 countries with more than 90 portfolio company IPOs. With a strong track record investing across sectors and stages, Tiger Global aims to be a thought partner to companies and their management teams across their lifecycle in public and private markets. The Firm’s mission is to generate world-class returns for its investors and to do so in a way that makes its employees, partners and portfolio companies proud.

Tiger Global Management

Soma Capital is a fund built by founders for founders that focuses on software. It has invested seed in startups now worth over $60 billion combined including Cruise, Rappi, Ironclad, Human Interest, Razorpay, Rippling, and Lambda School among others (20 unicorns) It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Soma Capital

OldSlip is a New York-based growth equity firm focused on investing and operating privately held companies

Oldslip

Managers — Sriram Krishnan, Cindy Bi, Jens Lapinski, Anthony Pompliano, Kat Cole, Tim Chen, Julia Lipton, Tommy Leep

Angel Collective Opportunity Fund

The Garage Syndicate is a venture capital investment firm.

The Garage Syndicate

10T Holdings is a growth equity fund that invests in private companies operating in the digital asset ecosystem. It specializes in the fields of financial services, venture capital, and investment management. The firm was founded in 2019 and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

10T Holdings

QED Investors is an investment firm that supports high-growth companies and businesses. The firm typically provides a combination of both capital and capability. But common to all the firm's partnerships is a shared conviction that information plays a decisive role in the success of the company, a mutual desire for a high degree of direct engagement, and a shared enthusiasm for experimentation and learning.

QED Investors

Protocol Labs is a research, development, and deployment lab for network protocols. Protocol Labs creates software systems that tackle significant challenges, aiming to solve them with new technology breakthroughs, great user experience design, and an open-source approach to creation.

Protocol Labs

QuickNode

Unlock real-world experiences by connecting your digital assets to Apple and Google Wallet

QuickNode is a comprehensive blockchain development platform. Its fast, reliable APIs, time-saving tools, and customer support enable developers and businesses to execute their Web3 ideas and strategies. Founded in Miami in 2017.

QuickNode offers APIs, dedicated nodes, and analytics tools that allow users to build, launch, and scale decentralized applications and integrate with infrastructure across several blockchains. As of July 2022, the platform supported 19 blockchain networks including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, xDai, Polygon, Polygon zkEVM, and BNB Chain.

A decentralized version of the web powered by the blockchain

Web3 Ecosystem

We’re excited to share that Fire Station has been accepted into the start-up program by QuickNode

ethpass

QuickNode offers APIs, dedicated nodes, and analytics tools that allow users to build, launch, and scale decentralized applications and integrate with infrastructure across several blockchains. As of July 2022, the platform supported 19 blockchain networks including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, xDai, Polygon, Polygon zkEVM, and BNB Chain.The company is a Y Combinator graduate and has a global presence across four continents where the company’s low-latency infrastructure is located. Its customers include Web3-related companies such as OpenSea and Coinbase and even traditional organizations such as Adobe and PayPal. The company also reported that as of July 2022, over 50% of the projects within the Solana network were powered by its tools.QuickNode acquired NFT analytics platform and API provider icy.tools in May 2022. The company aimed to integrate the icy.tools API into its existing platform to offer its NFT customers analytics, pricing data, and node infrastructure in a multichain environment.Funding and financialsIn January 2023, QuickNode raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15880?industryIds=144">USD 60 million in a Series B </a>funding round at a valuation of USD 800 million. The round was led by 10T Holdings with participation from Tiger Global, Seven Seven Six, and Protocol Labs, among others. It aimed to utilize the funds to accelerate its global expansion and help developers transition from Web2 to Web3 by providing them with education and tools.The company reported that its revenue grew more than 300% over the past year (as of January 2023), while its user base also increased more than 400% to over 50,000 developers. It also claimed that the platform handled over 200 billion API requests monthly.

NEAR Protocol is an open-source layer-1 blockchain launched in October 2020. The blockchain uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions while incorporating sharding technology to improve scalability. Its native token is NEAR, which can be used to pay for transactions and storage on the blockchain, while also allowing token holders to participate in the platform’s governance process.NEAR allows users to sign up for a wallet (account) using unique human-readable names (e.g., johndoe.near, in comparison to cryptographic and randomly generated private keys, which is a characteristic of chains such as Ethereum), which in turn enables easy sign-ins for dApps for users and improves the overall usability of the blockchain. The platform also allows developers to prepay gas fees for first-time users, allowing the latter to interact with a dApp for free. NEAR also offers the Rainbow Bridge, which allows users to transfer ERC-20 and NEAR tokens or any other digital asset between the Ethereum and NEAR blockchain. In addition, the platform provides tools such as SDKs, CLIs, and APIs for developers to create dApps on its blockchain. In addition, NEAR allocates 30% of the transaction fees to developers to encourage them to build applications on its platform, with the remainder being burnt.As of July 2022, NEAR had 100 validators on its blockchain, which it expected to increase in proportion to the number of transactions. The platform uses an auction system to select and determine the seat price for its validators every epoch (time interval of 12 hours). The platform claims to be able to scale infinitely by adding more validators owing to its underlying architecture.Key customers and partnershipsIn June 2021, NEAR joined ICON’s Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP), which seeks to improve cross-chain communication. The partnership allowed data to be transferred between the NEAR blockchain and other BTP partners such as Polkadot and Harmon. Moreover, NEAR partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/23393">Nym Technologies </a>to integrate end-to-end encryption and privacy safeguards into the NEAR blockchain ecosystem.In addition, NEAR partnered with Ardana, a stablecoin and decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity pool built on the Cardano blockchain in November 2021, to build a bridge to support integrations and token transfers between the NEAR and Cardano blockchains. It had also planned to enable cross-chain smart contract functionality and allow the NEAR token to be used as collateral on Ardana to mint stablecoins in the future.Funding and financialsIn April 2022, NEAR raised USD 350 million in a private equity round led by Tiger Global. The funds were geared toward improving the adoption of the blockchain by increasing the number of its regional hubs in key communities such as Latin America, Turkey, and India.

NEAR

Ava Labs develops the open-source layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche. The Avalanche network architecture contains three separate blockchains in order to address the decentralization, security, and scalability limitations of blockchains. These include 1) the Exchange Chain (X-Chain), which is the default blockchain on which assets are created and exchanged and also includes Avalanche’s native token–AVAX; 2) the Contract Chain (C-Chain)—which is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)—allows for the creation and execution of smart contracts with cross-chain interoperability; and 3) the Platform Chain (P-Chain), which coordinates validators and enables the creation and management of subnets (a sovereign network that defines its own rules for membership and tokenomic). Avalanche uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and is able to execute 4,500 transactions per second. As of December 2022, ~1,000 projects were built on Avalanche, including DeFi projects like Tether, SushiSwap, Chainlink, and Circle. As of the same date, the network processed on average two million daily transactions and was secured by more than 1,200 validators.Ava Labs launched Core, a dedicated non-custodial crypto wallet for AVAX as a browser extension, through which users are able to browse dApps on the Avalanche blockchain. In April 2023, the company announced plans to launch “ <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17583">Evergreen Subnets </a>,” a suite of blockchain deployments, tooling, and customization services specifically designed for financial institutions to run their own private, permissioned chains with approved parties. In addition, financial institutions will be able to communicate and transfer data with other subnets through Avalanche’s native communication protocol Avalanche Warp Messaging (AWM) without relying on any third parties. It also launched <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18842">AvaCloud </a>in May 2023, a no-code Web3 launchpad that assists businesses in building fully managed blockchain ecosystems. AvaCloud consists of four main components: an automated blockchain builder, managed validators, comprehensive data tools, and chain interoperability within Avalanche subnets.Key customers and partnershipAvalanche has partnered with several cloud services providers to improve its network such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15079">Alibaba Cloud </a>(December 2022) to improve its infrastructure and support for its validators. Users of the Avalanche blockchain can launch new validator nodes using Alibaba Cloud’s plug-and-play infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), while dApp developers can use the latter’s storage and computing resources for the efficient running of their dApps. It also collaborated with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15640?industryIds=144">AWS </a>(January 2022) to scale and improve blockchain adoption and support its dApp ecosystem, while also enabling one-click node deployments through the AWS marketplace.Funding and financialsIn April 2022, Ava Labs raised USD 350 million in a funding round, valuing the company at USD 5.25 billion. The investors and the purpose of the funding were not disclosed. It had raised USD 230 million in a private sale of AVAX tokens in September 2021, co-led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, with the funds geared toward supporting the Avalanche ecosystem.

Ava Labs

<div>
 
 Based in Australia, Immutable is a developer of blockchain-based video games and a provider of a Web3 game development platform. The company develops and publishes its games through Immutable Game Studio, and released its first game, Gods Unchained, in March 2021. The game is a NFT strategy card game, and had ~80,000 active players as of January 2022. It also claimed that over USD 25 million of Gods Unchained digital assets have been traded as of the same date. In February 2024, the company launched the mobile version of Gods Unchained, available on Google Play and Apple App Store. Immutable launched its second game, 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29491">
 Guild of Guardians
 </a>
 , in May 2024 to over 1 million pre-registered users. It is a mobile role-playing game set in a fantasy world on the brink of destruction, where players must form teams to battle against evil Dreads.
 
 
 Its Web3 game development platform, Immutable X, provides a SDK that offers APIs and smart contracts to allow developers to leverage ready-made Web3 infrastructure to quickly build and deploy blockchain-based games. These include an onboarding solution (non-custodial wallet) called 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16041">
 Passport
 </a>
 , transaction infrastructure, and NFT minting tools. The platform also consists of a developer hub which allows developers to launch and manage their projects in one-place and obtain related performance analytics.
 
 
 In addition, Immutable X also acts as a layer-2 scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain. It uses 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/607497">
 StarkWare's
 </a>
 StarkEx roll-up technology and can process 9,000 transactions per second, with zero gas fees, while claiming to be carbon-neutral. Its native token IMX can be used to pay for transactions as well as stake and govern the network. Notable companies building on Immutable X include GameStop, TikTok, OpenSea, Ember Sword, Illuvium, GreenPark Sports, and Vee Friends (Gary Vee).
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Immutable partnered with Mineloader to develop Guild of Guardians, and it has also collaborated with several game developers, including Turner Sports and Kongregate, to build Web3 games on the Immutable X platform.
 
 
 The company collaborated with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/786111">
 Polygon
 </a>
 to launch its 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24881">
 zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine
 </a>
 (zkEVM) scaling solution to bypass the scaling limitations of the Ethereum blockchain and promote Web3 gaming. The network developers to completely abstract transaction fees that allow a frictionless player onboarding and improved user experience. Furthermore, Immutable partnered with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22566">
 Amazon Web Services (AWS)
 </a>
 to develop infrastructure solutions to assist companies in developing and scaling blockchain-based games, and 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24637">
 Amazon Prime Gaming
 </a>
 to list in-game content for Gods Unchained in the latter&rsquo;s platform. This partnership also aimed to introduce the game to a broader audience circle through Amazon's platform, which boasts over 200 million Prime Gaming members. It also collaborated with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/25892">
 Axelar
 </a>
 to integrate games built on Immutable's zkEVM into the Axelar network to enhance user onboarding across blockchain.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In March 2022, Immutable raised USD 200 million in a Series C funding round led by the Singapore state investment fund Temasek at a valuation of USD 2.5 billion. The company planned to use the funds for its gaming studio improvements, geographic expansion, and potential mergers and acquisitions. Immutable also planned to hire 200 new employees.
 
 
 
</div>

Immutable

Mythical Games is a video game studio building games based on blockchain technology, playable NFTs, and play-to-earn game economies. The company was developing two games—NFL Rivals and Blankos Block Party.Blankos Block Party is the company’s flagship game, launched in June 2022 as an early access edition for PCs only. The game is an open-world multiplayer game with a focus on custom art and design, building, and exploration. It is free to play, with the option for purchasable in-game cosmetics, accessories, and limited edition Blankos (NFT character).In May 2022, NFL and the NFL Players Association partnered with Mythical Games to develop an NFT-based video game NFL Rivals. The game was launched in 2023, with players taking part in arcade-style gameplay, assuming the role of NLF general manager. They can collect and trade players represented as NFTs on the secondary market via the iOS and Android apps, as well as Mythical’s web-based marketplace. In addition, a unique feature of the game is the “squad system,” which enables players to team up with fellow players to compete with others.Mythical Games also enables other game developers and publishers to build or integrate blockchain-based play-to-earn economies into their games through The Mythical Platform. The platform also includes built-in regulatory KYC/AML compliance and indemnity as well as a verified wallet for transacting both real and cryptocurrencies. Further, the company also offers a marketplace that enables users to sell and trade their digital assets.The Mythical Platform is built on an EVM-compatible sidechain Mythical Chain, which uses a proof-of-authority consensus mechanism to validate transactions. The chain also offers interoperability features, allowing players to transfer and trade NFTs across multiple blockchains. It also claims the minting of NFTs and integrating the marketplace over its platform does not require mining.It acquired <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15966">DMarket </a>–a digital gaming asset marketplace–in January 2023, and utilized its technology to launch an improved version of its own marketplace (Mythical Marketplace 2.0), with features such as a blended payment gateway and AML and fraud protection systems.Key customers and partnershipsAs of June 2023, the company reported to have achieved daily gross sales exceeding USD 1 million and gained more than 2.5 million new users over the past year. Moreover, it expects to reach over 20 million player accounts across its entire game portfolio by the end of 2023, primarily propelled by NFL Rivals and the upcoming release of Nitro Nation World Tour.The Mythical Platform’s first developer partners were announced by the company in November 2021, which includes 1) CCG Games to create Epic Spell Wars: Magic Fight, a trading card game; 2) Creative Mobile to create Nitro Nation – World Tour, a racing game; and 3) Abstraction Games to create a new action strategy title. These were slated to be released in 2023.Funding and financialsIn November 2021, Mythical Games raised USD 150 million in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a valuation of ~USD 1.3 billion. Additionally, it raised <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19719">USD 37 million in a Series C1 </a>funding round led by Scytale Digital in June 2023, at a similar valuation. This funding round is expected to close later in 2023 and reach USD 57 million-67 million. It had planned to utilize the fresh funds toward initiatives that will drive profitability within the next year and expand its games and infrastructure to reach a larger audience.

Mythical Games

Storj Labs developed the Storj Decentralized Cloud Storage (DCS) network that works by compressing, encrypting, and splitting files into more than 80 smaller pieces to distribute and store them across a global network of individual storage nodes, which are excess hardware space rented out by individuals in return for a fee. Storj audits its network through random file verification every hour, which ensures its files are consistently being hosted by its nodes; it automatically reconstitutes the data when it is required by the user. The company claims to have more than 10,000 active nodes with over 6 petabytes of available storage capacity spread across the world, as of August 2022. It uses its native token STORJ, which is used by customers to pay for providers of decentralized storage.Key customers and partnershipsStorj partnered with <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/792614">Matter Lab’s </a>zkSync Era ( <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18986">in May 2023 </a>) to integrate the latter's zero-knowledge roll-up technology into its cloud storage platform to optimize transaction speed, reduce gas fees, and improve the overall efficiency of the payment process. Additionally, the partnership enables EVM-compatible composability for decentralized storage payments, providing customers with increased flexibility and a wider range of customization possibilities. As part of the development, Storj also had plans to develop and maintain two open-source libraries, Crypto-Batch-Payment and Storjscan, which will focus on creating a seamless onboarding experience for its customers on the zkSync Era network.

Storj

Developers of video games that use elements of blockchain technology, allowing gamers to earn cryptocurrency by playing games. They can either convert it into real money or purchase in-game assets.

A decentralized alternative to traditional social networks that operate on independently run servers on the blockchain. These are community-owned and reward user participation.

An alternative storage system in which data is encrypted, segmented, and stored on multiple nodes across the blockchain rather than a single server.

Developers of dApps for use in industries such as travel, health, and fitness, which are yet to reach wider adoption.

Providers of wallets that allow users to purchase and store the cryptocurrencies/tokens required to interact with web3 apps, along with app browsers for users to browse and access dApps.

Also known as layer-1 networks, these include developers of the base blockchain network.

Also known as layer-2 solutions, this includes providers of scaling solutions, such as sidechains, state channels, and rollups, which improve the speed and throughput of transactions occurring in layer-1 blockchain networks.

Platforms that provide tools such as SDKs, blockchain node infrastructure, and bridges for developers to create, host, debug, and add extra functionality to dApps on one or many blockchains.

Includes companies that form the Web3 ecosystem

Web3 is based on blockchain tech, a key enabler of the industry

GenAI tools help develop smart contracts and query the blockchain for data

Providers of node-as-a-service and SDKs to build dApps operate under this model

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 QuickNode, a Web3 development platform, has teamed up with Matter Labs to integrate support for zkSync hyperchains. This collaboration offers improved data privacy, scalability, speed, and cross-chain functionality. It enables seamless asset transfers from zkSync and simplifies the development of blockchain solutions for various fields such as gaming, AI, SportsFi, etc.
</div>

QuickNode

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