OKX Ventures wants to get in on ESG, bringing AI on-chain

Continuous solutions and zero-knowledge technology are among the key investment priorities for OKX Ventures in the coming months, said partner Jeff Wren.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Ren discussed the areas in which crypto exchange OKX plans to invest in 2024 and the trends that will drive investor decisions.

One of OKX's focus is developing sustainable solutions in the blockchain space, which includes projects including “tokenization of green assets, on-chain carbon offsets, and monitoring and verification of ESG information and intelligence.”

Another focus is the growing zero knowledge technology. On May 24, OKX Ventures led a $12 million investment in ZK hardware acceleration project CSIC. The venture company aims at the integration of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.

“These projects are disrupting traditional industries and paving the way for new growth areas such as AI-based decision-making, predictive analytics and personalized services,” said the OKX partner. Similar solutions in OKX's startup portfolio include Michell, a decentralized AI consumer layer, and Flock.io, a platform for AI models and decentralized applications.

“Projects should demonstrate the real use of blockchain technology, provide value to users and society, and support the innovation needs of the industry,” he advised.

This edition of Cointelegraph's VC Roundup features some of the startups that raised capital in the final weeks of May.

WeatherXM Decentralized Weather Network 7.7M

WeatherXM AG, a major contributor to the WeatherXM Network, has closed a $7.7 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Faction, with additional investment from Protocol Labs, Borderless Capital, Arca and others. According to the startup, the funds will be used to expand the team and network; They are also used to continue research and development on crypto-enabled weather hardware and decentralized infrastructure. The funding follows a $5 million seed round from investors including Placeholder VC and Consensys Mesh. WeatherXM is said to have deployed more than 5,000 weather stations in more than 80 countries to create a network that aggregates local environmental data. This data supports advanced local weather forecasts and Web3-native applications such as on-chain forecasting markets and related weather insurance products.

Switchboard Raises $7.5M Series A Round to Oracle Platform

Switchboard, a customizable virtual network, in a Series A round led by Tribe Capital and RockawayX with participation from Solana Foundation, Aptos Labs, Myston Labs, SubZero Ventures, Starkware, RK Capital, Seed VC, Ascensive Assets and others. The platform allows users to control the data they bring on-chain, supporting a variety of applications from DeFi to on-chain gaming and gambling. According to the startup, the design allows users to set up virtual networks and access pre-built oracles for shared tasks. The funding will help Switchboard expand, reaching more than $2 billion in total value and more than 100,000 users as of June 2021.

GaiaNet Raises $10M to Build Decentralized Network for Open Source LLM, AI Agent

GaiaNet, a new AI infrastructure project that aims to decentralize AI agent software, has raised $10 million in a Series A seed round with investments from Lex Sokolin of Generative Ventures, Republic Capital's Brian Johnson, 7RIDGE's Shawn Ng, Kishore Bhatia, EVM Capital, Mirana. Venture, Mantle EcoFund and Bytrade Labs. GaiaNet uses a distributed network of edge nodes controlled by individuals and businesses to host AI models based on their expertise, with each node acting as an AI twin for the operator. In addition to building the network infrastructure, the funding will help developers and personal data owners develop new AI training models and increase the number of network nodes.

OKX Ventures has invested $12M in zero-knowledge startup Cysic

OKX Ventures has announced a $12 million investment in Sysic, a company specializing in zero-knowledge hardware acceleration. The startup aims to speed up ZK-proof generation, a process currently slowed down by CPU processing speed. Cysic focuses on ASIC design and GPU engineering to provide enterprise-grade ZK compute-as-a-service. Proceeds from this investment will support Sysic's global expansion, staffing and hardware production.

DWF Labs $4M round to support Oracle startup API3

Oracles solution provider API3 has closed a $4 million funding round led by DWF Labs. Other participants include Spartan Group, as well as laser digital Nomura and Caladan – formerly Alfalab. It said in a statement that the funding will provide API3 with sufficient capital to execute its growth strategy. Since January, the startup's Total Guaranteed Value (TVS) has increased 4,900% from $20 million to $1 billion. API3 Decentralized Data Feeds provide a first-party solution for smart contracts and decentralized APIs providing direct access to real-world data. The DAO proposal to allocate 1,423,500 API3 tokens to participants has passed and is currently being executed. The tokens will have a structured lock-up period with a 12-month line opening and a 6-month cliff.

SCRYPT Raises $5M in Strategic Funding

Financial services startup SCRYPT has closed a $5 million funding round led by Brazilian currency bank Braza Bank, with participation from Funfair Ventures, Cabrit Capital and Atlantic Labs. According to the company, it has doubled its customer base and increased transaction volume 18 times year over year. Founded in 2020 by Norman Wooding and Sylvan Martin, SCRYPT offers trading, custody and stock services. The startup serves more than 200 institutional clients and recently received approval from the Swiss regulator to launch asset management solutions.