🌍 Venturing in ReFi #23
Your 5-minute deep-dive into regenerative web3 startups
Happy Thursday!
Below are your global fundraises and curated articles on web3-climate applications. Today’s curated content covers:
🧑🏫 Uses of NFTs in schools
⛓️ Profiling a $600M “cryptomedia infrastructure startup”
🧑🔬 A novel “nonprofit startup” structure
This week’s articles focus on NFTs and non-climate applications.
Many of our dream crypto startups still require improved infrastructure to create effective products.
This crypto infrastructure is continuing to develop. Zora, a startup below, facilitates user-owned content (for direct payments to artists, for user-owned social media, and for novel NFT projects).
We — and our fellow ReFi investors — are excited to invest in this emerging ecosystem with you. Let’s dive in:
Global Ecosystem News 🌊
Fundraises
🟢 Bitgreen raised $5M in crowdfunding to launch its climate-focused blockchain platform on the Polkadot network.
💸 Toucan Protocol awarded its first ten grants, including to ReFi projects working on carbon infrastructure & regenerative NFTs.
💱 1GCX, a crypto carbon credits exchange, announced a $2B partnership with T3 Trading, securing $100 million dedicated to carbon credits.
Ecosystem News
🌐 World Economic Forum announced the launch of the Crypto Sustainability Coalition to investigate Web3 technologies that accelerate climate action.
📢 ReFi startups Carbon Title, Thallo, and CRED announced plans to launch on the Celo network, with funding and support from Celo’s Climate Collective.
🗺️ Open Forest Protocol released a plan to develop the on-chain biodiversity credit market.
🤝 Return, a startup that lets customers direct their yield on unspent crypto (like interest in a bank) towards climate action, announced a partnership with Toucan Protocol’s carbon credits.
🎮 The NFT marketplace Sorare is creating the world’s first net-zero gaming company by partnering with PlanA (a sustainability consultancy startup that raised $15M last year.
Newly Launched Projects 🚀
⚡️EAAS Global, a European startup, launched its SmartBox App to allow homeowners to sell excess green energy to electric vehicle owners.
🗝️ Sequestr, a Canadian carbon removal startup, launched its beta on-chain marketplace.
👋 Bye Bye Plastic, a foundation focused on eliminating the music industry’s single-use plastic, launched the BYEBYE token to reward users for reducing plastic waste.
🦸♀️ Empowerchain launched Plastic Cyber Heroes, a set of 100 NFTs that each represent 50kg of plastic waste removal credits.
♻️ IMPT, a platform that allows individuals to buy carbon credits and mint them into NFTs, began their pre-sale of the IMPT token.
Feel free to DM our editor your project @AlexFilotimo
Curated Readings 📚
1 - Schools plan to use, and teach about, NFTs
No matter the value of crypto, NFTs will become increasingly prevalent in the future. The technology behind NFTs (non-fungible tokens) enables much more than ‘ownership’ of pictures. Applications for NFTs include ticketing, academic records, and demonstrating IP ownership.*
This 5-minute read discusses how educators think about introducing NFTs. The goal is to familiarize students with the technology and save time on operations. Schools may utilize features including
Raising funding for the arts by selling digital artwork
NFT badges for assignments, attendance, and other academic goals
Selling digital textbooks as NFTs (a project already underway from a significant textbook manufacturer, Pearson)
*Investors in the Aera Force DAO use their NFTs to vote on funding opportunities.
2 - Zora (~$600M-valuation) and the Rise of Cryptomedia
Slight mind-bender, but fascinating for anyone interested in crypto’s implications for social media:
Hypertext and hypermedia are terms to describe content that has attached links/information. Cryptomedia allows for ownership of this “hypermedia.”
In this 10-minute breakdown, Rex Woodbury profiles a startup focused on cryptomedia infrastructure. The startup, Zora, accelerates a broader societal trend towards individuals capturing the value of their efforts. By creating NFT infrastructure, Zora unlocks the possibility for other entrepreneurs to create quality startups built upon NFTs (i.e., novel social media platforms).
3 - Unblock research bottlenecks with nonprofit startups
Focused Research Organizations (or “FROs”) offer a new organizational structure for driving scientific advancements (akin to bite-sized versions of the $5.4B Human Genome Project).
Inspired by the FRO “accelerator, Convergent Research, we could see hundreds of FROs launch in the coming years. These organizations may address complex problems unfit for VC or academic funding.
The attached paper profiles this novel organizational structure. While FROs do not require blockchain to implement, they could enable major climate advancements suited to DAOs.
Bonus: What are Gitcoin Grants and how do I donate guide? In the last newsletter, a reader notified us that this link was broken.
Fun extras
Want to learn how the EPA supports US climate tech? Nick Van Osdol turned extensive research into this well-written 7-minute article.
If you’d like a regular carbon market analysis, Toucan Protocol runs the excellent deCarbonized newsletter.
If you’re looking to build a startup in ReFi, the ReFi DAO supports our industry’s founders.
Feel free to reply with feedback, suggestions, or articles for crypto/climate investors. 📩
With love,
Alex, Yoshi, and the Aera Force DAO
Researching web3 venture investments for a flourishing future
P.S. If you want to contribute research into web3-climate investing, feel free to contact us or contribute to this open-source insights repository.
This newsletter is for educational purposes only. While we strive for accurate and unbiased information, none of it is verified or intended to help as investment advice.