Financing Weekly Report | Mastercard Acquires Stablecoin Infrastructure Company BVNK; Yellow Card Completes $40 Million Strategic Financing with Participation from Standard Chartered and Sony

Highlights of This Issue

Last week, the AI industry financing market continued to show a trend of large amounts of capital concentrating on infrastructure.

AI infrastructure company Firmus completed a $2 billion financing, raising its valuation 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 continuously flowing into AI data centers, GPU interconnections, 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 received new rounds of financing, indicating that enterprise-level Agents are becoming another major investment focus.

In the robotics sector, financing scales are relatively limited, with Avatar Robotics and Exclaim Robotics focusing on remote operations in warehousing and data center operations, respectively.

Meanwhile, Sequoia Capital plans to invest $2.5 billion in Anthropic, Index Ventures is raising $2 billion, and Yang Likun has joined a newly established $100 million AI fund, showing that leading institutions are still increasing their investments in the AI sector.

The cryptocurrency industry has seen a noticeable increase in financing, with funds primarily flowing into infrastructure, stablecoins, RWA, and centralized finance sectors, while projects in DePIN, GameFi, loyalty, and rewards platforms have also completed financing.

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, there were 12 financing events in the global blockchain sector last week (August 3-9), with a total funding scale exceeding $94.9 million, summarized as follows:

• The infrastructure & tools sector announced 4 financing events, including stablecoin infrastructure company Yellow Card completing $40 million in strategic financing with participation from Standard Chartered, Sony, and others;
• The Web3 + AI sector announced 2 financing events, including decentralized AI and on-chain smart infrastructure developer MAGNE.AI completing $2.64 million in strategic financing with participation from AEA Ventures and others;
• The centralized finance sector announced 2 financing events, including digital investment service platform InvestiFi announcing $20 million in financing led by Vibe Credit Union;
• The RWA sector announced 1 financing event, with RWA e-commerce financing platform Dow Protocol completing $10.5 million in seed round financing with participation from MH Ventures and others.
• In corporate 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.

Cryptocurrency Financing

Infrastructure & Tools

Yellow Card Completes $40 Million Strategic Financing with Participation from Standard Chartered and Sony

Stablecoin infrastructure company Yellow Card announced the completion of $40 million in strategic financing, with investors including SC Ventures (the venture capital arm of Standard Chartered), Sony Innovation Fund, Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, and others. This financing will be used to expand Yellow Card's Global USD Accounts service and enhance the stablecoin payment infrastructure connecting global markets. The company's total 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 banking systems. The greater opportunity lies in enabling banks to access the stablecoin payment network, providing easier dollar liquidity to businesses that previously struggled to obtain dollar services.

Ethereum infrastructure company Blockspace Officially Established and Completes Financing Round, Led by BlueYard

Ethereum infrastructure company Blockspace announced its official establishment as a for-profit company focused on building out-of-protocol infrastructure for Ethereum to enhance the economic efficiency, performance, robustness, and related services of transaction pipelines. The company announced it has completed a financing round led by BlueYard, with participation from etherfi Ventures, Sharplink, Breed VC, Luganodes, Stakely, and others; the financing amount has not been disclosed. Blockspace stated that its business model relies entirely on the Ethereum ecosystem, generating ETH revenue through staking operations and infrastructure, with proceeds reinvested into staking.

Nomura Holdings' Laser Digital Makes Strategic Investment in Layer1 Blockchain Project ZIGChain

Japan's financial group Nomura Holdings' digital asset division Laser Digital announced a strategic investment in the UAE's Layer1 blockchain project ZIGChain, with both parties collaborating to promote the on-chain development of private credit markets in the Gulf region, including Sharia-compliant asset products. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed, but market sources indicate the investment scale reaches the high single-digit million-dollar range. ZIGChain has already partnered with Standard Chartered and crypto-friendly fund service provider Apex Group, focusing on on-chain asset management and private credit infrastructure development.

Ripple Makes Strategic Investments in Zilo and Licuido to Promote Tokenized Assets on XRPL

Blockchain fintech company Ripple announced strategic investments in UK asset transfer agency Zilo and FCA-regulated tokenization solution provider Licuido, aiming to promote the application of tokenized financial assets on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Ripple stated that this investment aims to integrate regulated asset transfer agency, asset issuance, and collateral liquidity into XRPL infrastructure to address the issue of idle collateral assets in traditional financial markets, allowing tokenized funds to be used as collateral from the moment of issuance.

Zilo provides global transfer agency and asset solutions for wealth management institutions, with total financing of approximately $58.7 million; Licuido focuses on institutional-level asset tokenization services. The specific investment amounts have not been disclosed. This move follows Aviva Investors' launch of tokenized dollar liquidity fund shares on XRPL. Previously, Ripple launched the Ripple Mint platform to assist institutions in issuing, redeeming, and managing their dollar stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD).

Web3 + AI

MAGNE.AI Completes $2.64 Million Strategic Financing, Total Financing Reaches $12.64 Million

Decentralized AI and on-chain smart infrastructure developer MAGNE.AI officially announced the completion of $2.64 million in a new round of strategic financing, with investors including GAEA Ventures, Titans Ventures, and Go2Mars Labs. Combined with the previously announced $10 million financing, MAGNE.AI's publicly disclosed total financing has reached $12.64 million.

According to official sources, this round of funding will primarily be used to accelerate the engineering validation and commercial delivery of the core hardware/software product MAGNE AI BOX, promote its technical integration with MAGNE L1 and MHash L2 networks, and focus on developing MAGNE Agent Pay and AI Agent payment protocols compatible with the x402 standard. MAGNE AI BOX features local model inference, privatized 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 Financing, Supported by Multiple Institutional Strategic Investments

Fortune Protocol announced the completion of Pre-A round financing, receiving strategic support from several well-known institutions, including MH Ventures, Mapleblock Capital, NewTribe Capital, Basics Capital, and Everwood Capital. The funds will primarily be used to accelerate the technical upgrade of Fortune Agent, expand liquidity in prediction markets, and build ecological infrastructure, further promoting the deep integration of AI and prediction markets.

The completion of this Pre-A financing marks a new phase of ecological expansion for Fortune. In the future, Fortune will continue to advance AI Agent capability building, integrate more prediction markets, and develop a 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 entry for trading prediction assets, combining AI Agents for 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 $20 million in financing, 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 supports traditional financial institutions in directly providing cryptocurrency trading, as well as investment services for stablecoins, stocks, ETFs, etc., within the existing online banking system, allowing users to invest directly through checking or savings accounts without transferring funds between bank accounts and external brokers or crypto platforms. The new funds will be used to expand the platform's scale.

Japanese Stablecoin Company JPYC Completes $38 Million in Series B Financing

The issuer of the Japanese yen stablecoin JPYC has completed additional financing in Series B, raising approximately $38 million in total. The new investor in this round is Japanese logistics giant AZ-COM Maruwa Holdings, contributing about $6.3 million. The financing 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 Financing, with Participation from MH Ventures and Others

RWA e-commerce financing platform Dow Protocol announced the completion of $10.5 million in seed round financing, 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 operating capital, specifically addressing the funding needs of e-commerce merchants. Dow Protocol allows merchants to receive funds within seconds through asset service providers based on the merchants' accounts receivable and credit risk data. Repayment and risk systems are natively integrated into the e-commerce platform, with funds automatically deducted from the merchant's platform balance.

GameFi

Yooldo Secures $1 Million Strategic Investment from FZF Ventures

GameFi project Yooldo announced that it has secured a $1 million strategic investment from FZF Ventures to strengthen its game and ecosystem development, supporting the project's long-term growth. Yooldo also stated that it is in discussions with relevant parties for subsequent additional investments, with specific amounts and timelines yet to be disclosed.

DePIN

DePIN Project Vangrid Completes $9 Million Seed Round Financing with Participation from HashKey

DePIN project Vangrid has completed a $9 million seed round financing, with participation from HashKey, Borderless, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs, and Mapleblock Capital. The project focuses on collecting spatial data, allowing users to collect geographic location data via smartphones and receive rewards. The data is sold to Physical AI developers, including robotics, autonomous agents, and digital model developers, after 3D modeling and on-chain verification. Vangrid stated that its network is built on Base, using Ethereum proof services to validate data batches, with a public browser showing nearly 100,000 verified collections and over 1,300 batches of proof. The company is headquartered in Amsterdam with a team of 14.

Consumer Applications

Blockchain Rewards Platform Bundle Completes $5.5 Million Pre-Seed Round Financing with Participation from Anchorage Digital

Blockchain rewards platform Bundle announced the completion of a $5.5 million Pre-Seed round financing, led by Ethereal Ventures and Further Ventures, backed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, with participation from Nascent, GSR, Scenius Capital, Anchorage Digital, and Nuwa Capital.

Acquisition

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 various values coexist, the next generation of payment models will be determined by the efficiency of connections across different tracks. BVNK's on-chain infrastructure and native stablecoin technology will help financial institutions, fintechs, and enterprises expand stablecoin applications in cross-border B2B payments, remittances, settlements, and fund flows.

In March, it was reported that 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, with a post-money valuation exceeding $10.5 billion, nearly doubling from the previous round's valuation of $5.5 billion in April. Nvidia and Coatue Management continued to invest, with participation from Blackstone and Jane Street. The funds will be used to accelerate the construction of AI factories in Australia and expand into other Asian markets. Firmus builds its infrastructure based on Nvidia's DSX AI factory reference architecture, with an agreement reached at the end of June for Firmus to purchase Nvidia infrastructure and sell Nvidia-supported cloud services.

AI Optical Network Company Lumilens Completes Over $700 Million Series C Financing, Valuation Rises to $5.51 Billion

AI optical network startup Lumilens announced the completion of over $700 million in Series C financing, with a post-money valuation reaching $5.51 billion. This round was co-led by Atreides Management, Bain Capital Ventures, Meritech, Seligman Ventures, and Spark Capital, bringing its total financing to over $900 million.

Lumilens focuses on providing high-speed, low-power optical network products for AI data centers and has supplied products to a hyperscale cloud service provider under a multi-billion dollar agreement, though it did not disclose the specific client name. 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 interconnects and high-speed optical networks in AI data centers.

AI Cloud Infrastructure Company Volta Infra Completes $300 Million Financing, with Participation from Nvidia

AI cloud infrastructure startup Volta Infra announced the completion of $300 million in financing, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Altimeter Capital, with participation from Nvidia and Dell founder Michael Dell, achieving a valuation of $2.4 billion. The company has also secured a $5 billion customer financing pool to assist small and medium AI enterprises in procuring Nvidia's high-end chips. Additionally, Volta has signed a $10 billion, six-year cloud service contract with a leading AI developer, relying on a 133 MW data center in Norway for delivery. Founded by former Brookfield executives, the company has secured 1 GW of power resources and plans to expand in Texas and Wyoming, aiming to deploy multi-gigawatt computing power by 2030.

Singapore AI Infrastructure Company Acrab Completes $130 Million Series B Financing, with Participation from Vertex Growth

Singapore-based AI infrastructure startup Acrab announced the completion of $130 million in Series B financing, with participation from Vertex Growth, bringing its total financing to over $480 million. The company is building a full-stack AI computing platform that includes self-developed 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, enhance the technology ecosystem, and accelerate the development of the next-generation AI computing platform.

Korean AI Chip Company DeepX Completes 4.2 Billion KRW First Financing in Series D, with Participation from BNW Investment

Korean AI chip design company DeepX has completed its first financing in Series D of 4.2 billion KRW, with existing investors BNW Investment and DS Asset Management participating. The latest valuation is approximately 31.4 trillion KRW (about $22 billion), growing about four times from the previous financing valuation.

AI Security Company Zenity Completes $125 Million Series C Financing, with Participation from SoftBank

Israeli AI security startup Zenity has completed $125 million in Series C financing, betting on the new security risks brought by enterprises deploying AI Agents. This round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Hitachi Ventures, and LG Technology Ventures.

Zenity's core product monitors the operations of AI Agents in enterprise environments in real-time, assessing whether their behavior deviates from preset goals and intervening or adjusting when potentially harmful actions to enterprise data, customer assets, or system security are detected.

Self-Learning Intelligent Customer Experience Company Omilia Completes €58.1 Million Series B Financing, Led by Expedition Growth Capital

Cyprus-based enterprise-level intelligent customer experience (Agentic CX) company Omilia has completed €58.1 million ($67 million) in Series B financing, led by Expedition Growth Capital. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate its expansion in North America and globally, with plans to open its first office in the U.S. in the second half of 2026. Founded in 2002, Omilia provides self-learning CX Agents and voice-first AI platforms for regulated industries such as banking, insurance, and healthcare, having achieved compliance certifications such as FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR. Currently, its system handles over 1 million calls daily for a major U.S. bank and provides real-time agent assistance for 600,000 calls daily for a multinational U.S. insurance company, with ARR growing to over €52 million, and has partnered with Taco Bell to deploy voice AI in over 1,000 drive-thru locations across the U.S. Notable clients include Capital One, Discover, Taco Bell, RBC, DWP, First Financial Bank, Purolator, and PSEG.

AI Agent Infrastructure Sapiom Completes $35 Million Series A Financing, Led by Dragonfly

AI agent infrastructure platform Sapiom has completed $35 million in Series A financing, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Accel, Gradient, Coinbase Ventures, Operator Collective, Formus Capital, and VanEck Ventures, while existing investors Okta Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Anthropic, and Array Ventures continued to invest. The company was founded just 11 months ago and previously completed a $15 million seed round, bringing its total financing to $50 million. Sapiom aims to eliminate infrastructure barriers for AI agents from demonstration to production environments. Sapiom has also launched three products: Router, Agent Studio, and Runtime. Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi will join Sapiom's board.

AI Startup June Completes $20 Million Pre-Seed Financing, Led by Time Ventures

AI startup June announced on Monday the completion of $20 million in Pre-Seed financing, 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, focusing on helping enterprises deploy and manage AI Agents. The company stated that the biggest obstacle to current enterprise AI applications 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 Financing, Led by Cyber Fund and Y Combinator

AI personal assistant startup Pally has 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 offers AI personal assistant services through SMS interfaces.

Pally was launched in 2025, with its latest version going live in June, allowing synchronization with platforms such as Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Granola, and Notion. With user authorization, Pally can book flights, manage inboxes, reply to messages, and make restaurant reservations. Pally utilizes models such as Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and open-source models like 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

Robot startup Avatar Robotics has completed a $6.5 million seed funding round, led by AlleyCorp.

The U.S. industrial robot 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. The company allows operators to remotely control robots using Meta Quest headsets and controllers to perform picking and packing tasks in warehouses, charging based on usage and at a lower cost 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 the robots see and operator responses to train AI models for more autonomous operations.

Swiss robotics startup Exclaim Robotics has completed a $4.95 million seed funding round, with participation from prominent early-stage investors in Europe.

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, 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 tasks in ultra-large data centers. The company is led by experienced robotics expert Helen Oleynikova, with investors including well-known early-stage investment firms in Europe.

Investment Institutions

Sequoia Capital Completes $10 Billion New Funding Round, Plans to Invest $2.5 Billion in Anthropic

Sequoia Capital has completed a new funding round of $10 billion. This year, it has already returned $5 billion to investors, excluding SpaceX. Sequoia's new co-leaders Alfred Lin and Pat Grady plan to invest $2.5 billion in AI company Anthropic, which will become the largest investment in Sequoia's 54-year history. Previously, Sequoia had favored investments in OpenAI and xAI, only investing in Anthropic for the first time in January 2025, and now decides to significantly increase its stake, indicating an aggressive bet on the AI sector.

European venture capital firm Index Ventures has completed a new funding round of $2 billion.

European venture capital firm Index Ventures recently announced the completion of a new funding round of $2 billion, bringing its total investable assets to $3.5 billion. This funding round consists of three parts: a $400 million seed fund, a $900 million early-stage venture fund, and an additional $700 million to an existing growth fund. Index Ventures stated that the new funds will continue to support founders "from the first round of financing to IPO and beyond," covering markets in Europe, Israel, and the United States. In this fundraising context, AI is its core betting direction, with investments in Mistral, Cohere, and Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver. Previously, Index's portfolio company Wiz was acquired by Google for $32 billion, Figma completed its IPO, and Revolut completed a secondary market share sale (valued at $115 billion), all providing strong backing for this funding round.

AIX Ventures Co-founder Launches $100 Million AI Fund 224 Ventures, Turing Award Winner Yann LeCun Joins

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, planning 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 leads, and corporate AI and data executives. Former Meta Chief AI Scientist and Turing Award winner Yann LeCun and former Google DeepMind researcher Oriol Vinyals have also announced their joint leadership of 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.

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