UAE based Illuminati Capital has raised $50 million to invest in early-stage blockchain startups including game companies. According to the news, the Dubai based firm and its partners have individually invested in blockchain startups worth over $1 billion. Illuminati Capital aims to offer more than just financial support. The venture capital firm is dedicated to building the global Web3 ecosystem and driving transformative shifts in decentralized technologies. The team behind Illuminati Capital has collectively deployed $30 million, resulting in exits worth $150 million. Vickaash Agrawal partner at Illiminati Capital stated in an article in Venture Beats, “We are witnessing a remarkable growth trajectory in Web3 venture investing.   With a track record of 120-plus successful blockchain investments in my investment portfolio, I will bring my expertise in data, infrastructure, regulation and mining.” Illuminati Capital’s investment focus spans multiple verticals, i...

  A Blockchain EVM layer 1 startup, Shardeum, whose very first investors in its $18.2 million seed round included UAE Ghaf Capital, has closed a new roud of $5.4 million from investors that include Amber Group, Galxe, J17 Capital, Jsquare, and TRGC, as well as Bware Labs, Tané Labs, Hyperithm Group, Luganodes, Blockchain Ventures Hub, CryptoViet Ventures, Blue7, and more.   Shardeum aims to leverage the additional funding to further support the growth of the ecosystem in the lead-up to the mainnet launch later this year. Founded in 2022, Shardeum is a highly-scalable EVM-based layer-1 blockchain deploying dynamic state sharding to keep gas fees low and transactions per second high as participation grows. As of today (July 7, 2023), more than 7.4 million transactions have taken place on the testnet, with 820K+ accounts and over 230K contracts deployed. Kelsey McGuire, chief growth officer at Shardeum states,“The completion of this strategic raise from key participants put...

      UAE Cypher Capital is one of the investors in Concordia, a multi-chain risk and collateral management protocol for digital assets. Concordia closed a successful $4 million seed round in June, attracting significant investments from Tribe Capital, Kraken Ventures and UAE based Cypher Capital among other investors including Saison Capital.  Concordia’s vision is to create an interconnected, permissionless, and optimized DeFi ecosystem that promotes accessibility, affordability, and developer-friendly environments, ultimately unlocking the true transformative potential of DeFi. Concordia’s ground-breaking solution attracted the attention of leading Dubai VC Cypher Capital, who are building their portfolio into one of the leading web3 centric portfolios globally. Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital said “Concordia represents a significant milestone in the evolution of decentralized finance. As Chairman of Cypher Capital, I am thrilled to be part of this...

  GCC ( Gulf Cooperation Council) and MENA based Investcorp, a global alternative investment firm has led a $15 million investment round for BitMe a Spanish crypto exchange. Included in the list of investors was Telefonica Ventures, Stratminds VC, Cardano, and YGG Fund. In April 2022 GCC headquartered Investcorp, launched eLydian Lion, the first dedicated institutional blockchain fund based in the GCC, with a global investment mandate (the “Fund”). The Blockchain ELydian Lion Fund, was led from Investcorp’s Abu Dhabi office UAE office, and was deployed globally with a focus on investments in companies leading the next digital evolution driven by blockchain technology. At the time Investcorp noted that the Fund would mainly invest in early-stage companies operating in areas within the blockchain ecosystem such as blockchain infrastructure, platforms and exchanges, DeFi, (decentralized finance), and data analytics. Fast forward, Investcorp has now invested in Bit2Me which will ...

    Saudi’s first NFT marketplace platform, Nuqtah has raised a seed round of millions of dollars from Blockchain platform Polygon and Animoca Brands. As per the release the new funding will scale Nuqtah’s business over the next 12 months. In 2022, Nuqtah had announced it was planning to raise $5 million in upcoming seed rounds. Licensed by the Saudi Ministry of Communication and Information technology and the Ministry of Investment, Nuqtah aims to to empower its creators, businesses, and users to unlock the new opportunities that the Web3 space offers to the region. Nuqtah allows individuals and businesses to easily build, deploy and monetize NFT collections without having to navigate complicated blockchain infrastructure. Yat Siu, the executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, commented: “Our investment into Nuqtah is another meaningful step in our commitment to build up the Web3 industry in MENA as well as develop our own capabilities in the region. Nuqtah ...

  UAE based nealthy, a Web3 startup for investing in NFTs and cryptocurrency, has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding. Nealthy will use these funds to grow a core team, hire talent, and boost sales & development. nealthy offers index tokens that enable investors to enter Web3 markets quickly and worry-free. Index tokens replicate the structure of classic exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by storing multiple virtual assets, diversifying the portfolio in case of unexpected market shifts. Moreover, index tokens like nealthy’s $NFTS retain real underlying value, with $NFTS being pegged 1:1 to blue-chip NFTs. Co-founders Ludwig Schrödl (CEO), Zied Said (CTO), and Tim Pascual (CMO) established nealthy after observing a gap in the market for diversified index tokens. With backgrounds that unite finance, data science, and a deep knowledge of virtual assets, the co-founders’ expertise will keep investors at the forefront of a rapidly expanding market. Although the founders’ origins...

  Crypto payment startup FLUUS ( which means money in Arabic) founded by MENA crypto enthusiasts has raised $600,000 ahead of its beta launch. FHS Capital, Base 64 and a number of angel investors participated in the raise. FLUUS is creating a fiat-crypto on- and off-ramp that will give consumers access to web3 services including token swapping and staking. Its payment solution is designed to eliminate friction and simplify the process of entering and exiting the crypto economy. Funds raised from the seed round will be used to further develop products and roll out FLUUS’ services, bringing crypto-fiat payments to a global audience. “We are excited to have the support of FHS Capital and Encryptus.io, two highly reputable investment firms,” said Tey El-Rjula, co-founder and CEO of FLUUS. “Their experience and resources will be invaluable as we continue to grow and scale our business to provide financial technology solutions to onboard the next billion into web3.” Dr. Fady and ...

    It is not surprising that a Blockchain Fintech startup such as Abu Dhabi based Pyypl would raise $20 million in its Series B round from new and existing investors. Since its inception UAE based Pyypl with offices out of Hub71, has not only advocated financial inclusion but has built its technology to ensure it. It was name the one of the top 37 crypto startups to watch in 2022 by Techround UK. About 22 per cent of the GCC's population is unbanked, compared with 60 per cent in North Africa, according to a report by consultancy Strategy&. Blockchain enabled Pyypl provides digital payments and financial services for all smartphone users to carry out online transactions, without the need for a bank account or credit card.   Pyypl uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for regulatory compliance, Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF). They are a full blockchain-native financial services backend-platform, ...

  UAE Dubai Future District Fund, e&Capital ( formerly known as etisalat group) as well as other well renowned VC funds have invested $20 million in Web3 metaverse social app content provider VUZ. The series B investment round included international investors such as Caruso Ventures, Vision Ventures VC Fund, SRMG , Panthera Capital, Faith Capital and Webit Investment network. In addition to the new investors, VUZ formerly known as 360VUZ is backed by investors such as Knollwood Investment Advisory, AlTouq Group, Impact46, UAE Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Media Visions, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, DAI, Al Falaj, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin, DTEC Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Al Rashid family and other strategic angel investors. With this round, VUZ is now backed by a mix of investors based in the US and EMEA that will play a major role in supporting VUZ in its international expansion. VUZ bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds to offer...

Artfi, a non-fungible token (NFT) focused startup, has raised $3.26 million from several investors including Sheikha Hend Al Qassemi, a member of the ruling family of Emirate of Sharjah, and Raza Beig, director of Landmark Group, UAE. The current funding was raised at a valuation of $100 million. Artfi is on a mission to democratize the fine art space by fractionizing high-value artworks into limited editions NFTs. The NFTs will be minted on the polygon network. The fine art fintech company is now gearing up for whitelisting for its first fine art NFT offering from August and is also working towards developing a museum in the metaverse where the art collection will be always accessible. Asif Kamal, Founder of Artfi stated that the company will use the investment funds to build its technology and a dedicated marketplace for fine art NFTs. A portion of the funds will also be deployed to strengthen its product and team. Kamal stated in an interview, “Artfi was launched with a vision to ma...