Funding Weekly Report | 9 Public Funding Events, Stablecoin Payment Company Rain Completes $250 Million New Round of Financing, Post-Money Valuation Reaches $1.95 Billion

Highlights of the Current Period

According to incomplete statistics from PANews, last week (1.5-1.11), there were 9 blockchain investment and financing events globally, with a total funding amount exceeding $298 million. The overview is as follows:

• DeFi announced 2 investment and financing events, including the RWA project TBook which announced a total financing of over $10 million, with a new round led by SevenX Ventures;
• Web3+AI track announced 1 investment and financing event, NeuroMesh completed a $5 million strategic funding round, with participation from Alpha Capital and others;
• Infrastructure & Tools announced 3 investment and financing events, including the decentralized protocol Babylon which completed $15 million in funding, led by a16z Crypto;
• Centralized Finance announced 2 investment and financing events, including stablecoin payment company Rain which announced a new round of financing of $250 million;
• Other Web3 Applications announced 1 investment and financing event, Web3 value collaboration network Boings.ai completed seed funding at a valuation of $300 million.

DeFi

RWA Project TBook Announces Over $10 Million in Total Funding

Embedded RWA liquidity layer TBook announced the completion of a new funding round led by SevenX Ventures, with a valuation exceeding $100 million. This round also attracted participation from Mask Network, well-known family offices, and existing investors, bringing TBook’s total funding to over $10 million. After this latest round, TBook’s investors include SevenX Ventures, Sui Foundation, KuCoin Ventures, Mask Network, HT Capital, VistaLabs, Blofin, Bonfire Union, LYVC, GoPlus, and others.

The protocol plans to conduct a token generation event (TGE) in Q1 2026. TBook is building an embedded RWA liquidity layer that connects asset issuers and qualified users through on-chain reputation infrastructure. Its infrastructure is based on a proprietary three-layer architecture: identity layer (incentive passports and vSBT), smart layer (WISE credit scoring), and settlement layer (TBook vault).

River Receives Strategic Investment from Maelstrom Fund Founded by Arthur Hayes

According to River’s official announcement, it received strategic investment from Maelstrom Fund established by BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, promoting the development of its chain-abstract stablecoin system.

AI

NeuroMesh Completes $5 Million Strategic Funding Round, Participated by Alpha Capital and Others

NeuroMesh, focused on embodied intelligence, announced the completion of a $5 million strategic funding round, with the post-investment valuation reaching $50 million. The round was jointly invested by Alpha Capital and Coinvestor Ventures. Funds will be used to accelerate technology R&D, expand the team, and further develop applications in industrial automation, service robots, and other scenarios.

NeuroMesh aims to provide edge intelligence solutions for robots and smart devices. Through its device-side intelligent stack, robots can achieve real-time perception, planning, and execution without relying on the cloud. Meanwhile, experiences gained during machine learning are synchronized into a decentralized “collective brain,” enabling continuous evolution and shared learning through network effects. This mode makes the learning outcomes between intelligent agents verifiable and accumulative, driving the entire network to become smarter with use. NeuroMesh’s goal is to build a truly native, verifiable, and shared autonomous intelligent world, making decentralized machine intelligence the infrastructure for next-generation human-machine collaboration.

xAI Completes $20 Billion Series E Funding, Strategic Participation by NVIDIA and Cisco

According to official announcements, xAI’s Series E funding exceeded the initial target of $15 billion, ultimately raising $20 billion. Participants include Valor Equity, Stepstone, Fidelity, Qatar Sovereign Fund, Baron, and strategic investors NVIDIA and Cisco. The funds will accelerate the construction of the world’s largest GPU clusters and AI infrastructure. By 2025, xAI has made breakthroughs in Grok series models, voice assistants, image generation, and X platform integration, with 600 million monthly active users. The Grok 5 model is currently under training, and the company will continue to develop AI products for consumers and enterprises.

(This funding is not included in the weekly funding report statistics)

AI Data Platform Protege Completes $30 Million Series A Extension Led by a16z

AI data platform Protege announced the completion of a $30 million Series A extension led by a16z, bringing total funding to $65 million. Other investors include Footwork, CRV, Bloomberg Beta, Flex Capital, Shaper Capital, and others. Protege aggregates real-world data from healthcare, media, audio, and other fields through licensing, performing cleaning and formatting to support high-quality AI training data. Its partners include most of the “AI Big Seven.” Funds will be used to expand data fields, deepen institutional cooperation, and develop platform products.

(This funding is not included in the weekly funding report statistics)

Infrastructure & Tools

Decentralized Protocol Babylon Completes $15 Million Funding, Led by a16z Crypto

Stanford professor David Tse co-founded the decentralized protocol Babylon, which completed $15 million in funding, led by a16z Crypto under Andreessen Horowitz. The project’s valuation was not disclosed. Babylon developed the BTCVaults protocol, aiming to allow Bitcoin holders to directly use their Bitcoin as collateral without third parties (such as exchanges or stablecoin issuers), while retaining control of their assets. The protocol plans to integrate with lending protocol Aave in Q2 2026. Tse stated that their goal is to leverage cutting-edge technology to help users bypass intermediaries and generate yields directly from Bitcoin assets. Babylon was founded in 2021, with a team of over 40 people, and has not yet generated revenue.

Blockchain Network ZenChain Completes $8.5 Million Funding, Led by DWF Labs and Others

ZenChain announced the completion of $8.5 million in funding, led by Watermelon Capital, DWF Labs, and Genesis Capital. Additionally, angel investors have committed an extra $1.5 million before ZenChain’s upcoming token generation event (TGE).

The new funds will be used to accelerate core protocol development, expand validators and ecosystem participation, support marketing and ecosystem initiatives, and prepare for the upcoming TGE and mainnet launch milestones. ZenChain aims to build a secure interoperability layer connecting Bitcoin’s native capital with Ethereum-compatible (EVM) ecosystems, supporting cross-chain value transfer and decentralized applications. Its design emphasizes capital efficiency, validator-aligned security, and long-term sustainability.

Barclays Invests in Stablecoin Settlement Platform Ubyx

Barclays has made its first investment in a company related to stablecoins—Ubyx, a US-based stablecoin settlement platform—though the specific amount was not disclosed. Ryan Hayward, Barclays’ head of digital assets and strategic investments, stated: “As tokens, blockchain, and wallets continue to develop, specialized technology will play a key role in providing connectivity and infrastructure, enabling regulated financial institutions to interact seamlessly. This investment aligns with Barclays’ exploration of opportunities based on new digital currencies like stablecoins.”

Centralized Finance

Stablecoin Payment Company Rain Completes $250 Million New Funding Round, Valuation Reaches $1.95 Billion

Stablecoin payment company Rain announced the completion of a $250 million new funding round, with a post-money valuation of $1.95 billion. The round was led by ICONIQ, with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Dragonfly, Bessemer, Lightspeed, and Galaxy Ventures. This round brings Rain’s total funding to over $338 million.

Co-founder and CEO Farooq Malik said funds will be used to expand operations in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and to help the company adapt to rapidly changing global regulations. Rain currently issues stablecoin payment cards in over 150 countries through a partnership with Visa, allowing cardholders to spend at local merchants or withdraw cash at ATMs. The company also plans to connect with US ACH and European SEPA payment systems via partner financial institutions. Malik mentioned that the company may pursue strategic acquisitions in the future, having acquired rewards platform Uptop and currency conversion platform Fern in the past year.

Crypto Broker HabitTrade Completes Nearly $10 Million Series A Funding, Led by Chizi Town Technology

Crypto broker HabitTrade has completed nearly $10 million in Series A funding, led by Hong Kong-listed company Chizi Town Technology (Newborn Town), with participation from Bright Venture Capital, StableStock, and others. HabitTrade stated that the funds will be used to accelerate its global compliant broker infrastructure expansion and promote the integration of traditional capital markets with on-chain finance.

Others

Web3 Value Collaboration Network Boings.ai Completes Seed Funding at $300 Million Valuation

Web3 value collaboration network Boings.ai, targeting the AI era, announced the completion of seed funding at a valuation of $300 million. The round was led by Honey Capital, with participation from LandScape Capital, Hotcoin Labs, Starbase, and Go2Mars Labs. New funds will be used for global platform expansion, user ecosystem growth, DAO partner onboarding, and accelerating the development of its AI-driven matching engine. Boings.ai is a task startup platform empowering “super individuals” to instantly convert skills into on-chain value. The platform is built on BNB Chain and supported by the 402 Protocol.

Venture Capital Institutions

a16z Completes $15 Billion Fundraising, Focuses on AI and Crypto Investments

a16z announced the completion of over $15 billion in fundraising. The funds include: AmericanDynamism Fund ($1.176 billion), Apps Fund ($1.7 billion), Bio+Health Fund ($700 million), Infrastructure Fund ($1.7 billion), Growth Fund ($6.75 billion), and other VC strategies ($3 billion). The announcement states that its mission is to ensure the US wins the technological competition over the next 100 years, focusing on key areas like AI and crypto. It will also promote the application of related technologies in biotech, health, defense, public safety, education, and entertainment.

AppWorks Completes $165 Million Fourth Fundraising, Total Capital Reached $386 Million

According to AppWorks’ official announcement, it has completed the final fundraising for its fourth flagship fund (Fund IV), totaling $165 million, bringing the total capital raised to $386 million. The round attracted “Taiwan National Development Fund,” Malaysia’s Jelawang Capital, Korea’s KVIC, and other pan-Asian sovereign LPs, as well as Fubon Life, Taiwan Mobile, Wistron, Phison, and E Ink.

Since its founding in 2009, AppWorks has built an ecosystem of over 2,000 founders and 653 active startups. In recent years, it has focused on AI and Web3, with over 70% of its latest accelerator projects coming from outside Taiwan. The fund will focus on early-stage investments, supporting well-known companies like Lalamove, Animoca, and Flow. AppWorks stated that the fund will target high-potential startups from emerging Asian markets.

Acquisitions

Fireblocks Acquires Crypto Accounting Platform TRES Finance for $130 Million

Blockchain infrastructure company Fireblocks announced an agreement to acquire crypto accounting platform TRES Finance for $130 million in cash and equity. This is Fireblocks’ second acquisition in three months, following the acquisition of crypto wallet startup Dynamic last October for approximately $90 million. Fireblocks co-founder and CEO Michael Shaulov said that acquiring TRES will help the company provide more comprehensive fund management solutions for enterprise clients.

Founded in 2022, TRES Finance’s platform helps CFOs and accountants track crypto asset flows across multiple platforms and wallets. Its clients include venture capital firm CoinFund, analytics platform Nansen, and the team behind crypto wallet Phantom. TRES completed an $11 million funding round at the end of 2023, and its co-founder and CEO Tal Zackon stated that the acquisition price was above the company’s recent valuation.

(M&A events are not included in this week’s weekly report statistics)