CARV Launches CARV Labs, a $50M Accelerator Backed by HashKey Capital and Consensys
Date: 2024-09-13 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BLOCKCHAIN
CARV, a modular data layer for games and AI, has announced a $50 million accelerator to incubate projects that can mass-adopt its data protocol.
According to the press release, CARV is backed by major blockchain venture capital firms, including HashKey Capital and Consensys.
HashKey Capital is a global digital asset and blockchain firm and one of the largest crypto fund managers, having managed over $1 billion in client assets since its inception. It is also an early corporate investor in Ethereum.
Consensys is a leading Web3 blockchain company. Its product portfolio includes MetaMask, Infura, Linea, Diligence, and NFT toolkit Phosphor.
The new accelerator, backed by CARV Protocol, aims to build a “dynamic, decentralized data infrastructure that allows users to control and monetize their data,” according to the announcement.
According to the CARV team, the accelerator will provide support to startups, including funding and investments backed by leading industry funds.
The accelerator will also offer marketing support, growth assistance, expert tokenomics consulting, infrastructure and technology advice, and access to the company’s industry network and community.
CARV says it wants to support innovators, especially those actively involved in the development of decentralized data.
CARV co-founder Victor Yu added that their goal is to create a decentralized data ecosystem for broader innovation.
The first project incubated within CARV Labs is the game BANANA , built on the TON ecosystem.
The game has attracted over 8 million users in 4 weeks, has over 1 million daily active users, 1.8 million connected social accounts, and 73 million completed social tasks.
The success of BANANA highlights CARV Labs’ “effectiveness in driving innovation and user engagement in decentralized applications,” as well as potential for future projects, the announcement said.
Multiple Industry Partners and Support
In addition to direct funding and investment, CARV Labs will offer marketing and growth support, community building, and priority infrastructure and tooling assistance from both CARV and its partners.
Accelerator partners also include Arweave , Litentry , Linea Ecosystem Investment Alliance (LEIA), and Alibaba Cloud .
Later this year, Linea, zkEVM’s L2 solution, will launch a Web3 games offering tied to the accelerator.
CARV has already generated over $5 million in revenue this year. In April, the company raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures, bringing its total raised to $50 million.
In July, CARV announced the launch of its Alphanet , describing it as a major step toward becoming a “truly decentralized and scalable protocol layer.”
The company also said that more games and projects are planned for the future.
The CARV team noted that they are building “the largest modular identity and data layer (IDL) for gaming, AI, and other fields, integrating over 900 games and AI companies, representing over 30% of all Web3 games.”
The company has 9.5 million registered players, 1.3 million daily active users, 2.1 million unique daily active wallets across 40 blockchains, and 2.8 million unique CARV ID holders on the blockchain.
