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- RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, RBV Fund I Closing & More
Joshua Howard
October 13, 2023
Welcome to the latest edition of the Red Beard Ventures newsletter, where we dive into exciting updates and insights from all over blockchain, frontier tech, and the angel investing landscape.
In this week's RBV Weekly Newsletter:
NEW EPISODE of Red Beard Radio
On this week’s episode, we dug into The Great NBA Topshot Debate. We were joined by Mike Levy, founder of Flowty, and Jason Metz to talk about the state of digital sports collectibles! Click here to watch this week’s full podcast!
Each Wednesday at 3pm, Join us for a weekly dose of investing knowledge and industry expertise. Subscribe now! → @red-beard-radio
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As a reminder, Red Beard Ventures has both a syndicate, a fund, and a tokenomics accelerator:
The Red Beard Ventures Syndicate is stage agnostic and invests in Frontier Technology with a focus on Web3, Space, FinTech, Sports, Robotics, Biotech, and Climate. We invest anywhere between $100k - $1.5M.
The Red Beard Ventures Fund I invests $100k - $1M in Pre-seed and Seed blockchain-based companies.
Denarii Labs is a tokenomics accelerator in partnership with Horizen Labs Ventures, where we invest $100k into companies interested in designing and launching a token, over a twelve-week hands-on program.
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TL;DR: This Week in Crypto
This Week:
SBF trial continues with Ellison testimony
Crypto firms raise for Israel
Emerge launches partnership with Sony
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Crypto News:
Crypto Aid Israel was established Monday, hosting a multi-sig wallet to collect donations
Fireblocks is managing the management, while seven members of the alliance hold keys
The funds are destined to provide food and shelter for families who have been displaced by the attacks
More information and donations can be found here: Crypto Aid Israel
Caroline Ellison, ex-CEO of Alameda Research, was called as a witness in the SBF trial
She testified that Alameda used $10 Billion of FTX customer funds to repay debts and invest without their knowledge
Ms Ellison, who had entered into a plea deal earlier, stated that SBF thought he had a 5% chance of being US President some day
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Portfolio News:
The Wave-1, an ultrasound-powered tabletop device to provide touch-feedback in VR, will launch in 2024
Customers using Sony smart TVs will be able to use Wave-1 and be able to feel sensations
This is part of a wider initiative by Sony to support multi-sensory content into media
This launch is an innovative and disruptive change in the gaming industry
Scheduled races will take place between 4,000 and 20,000 per day
Live analytics and blockchain betting integration will be part of this new venture
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NFT Alpha:
The English-language state-owned newspaper stated that digital collectibles will be sold on their platform
Publicity Department of the CCP will award $390k to a blockchain firm that can build the platform, on a blockchain that surpasses 10k tps
The collections or even art types planned to be offered have not been released
China has still ostensibly banned all forms of cryptocurrency transactions since 2021
AirSwap, and Ethereum DEX, have launched a decentralized way for NFTs to be exchanged
The DEX, launched in 2017, will have a novel Over-The-Counter exchange option, as well as voting and an open-source frontend
A portion of the exchange fees will go towards the AirSwap DAO
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Active Investment Opportunities:
Minima: the future of the “Internet of Things”
Minima is purpose-built for device-to-device or device-to-blockchain communication
This is the first solution that is economical, scales well, and is technologically advanced enough to handle mass data through extremely small hardware
The IoT landscape is projected to hit $5,000,000,000,000 (five trillion) by 2030
IoT infrastructure has been lacking innovation, hindering this growth
Canva: deeply discounted shares in a quadruple-deca-unicorn
We are bringing this amazing allocation to our LPs at a significant discount
Last round valuation was $40B; these shares are at a 36% discount
Canva has significantly higher revenue than their main competitors
Millions of users and growing, adding AI tools, and more
Anduril: the Lockheed-Martin of the 21st century
Anduril is a defense contractor specializing in anti-AI and counter-drone technologies
We received a very coveted allocation into this round, after Founders Fund, Valor, Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Lux Capital, and Elad Gil filled the previous round almost immediately
Anduril just received a $1 Billion contract from the DoD to bring cutting edge AI and frontier tech to the department
They are one of the top R&D firms for next-gen drone and anti-drone technologies
Brightvine: mortgage data on the blockchain as an industry standard
Brightvine is building a suite of next-generation products for the securities industry using AI document review and blockchain recordkeeping
Their goal is to embed themselves into the investment banking industry with their time-saving AI tool, then use those connections to become the one-stop-shop of securitization
Tactogen: Mental health medicine using MDMA therapy
Science is now learning of the therapeutic effects of MDMA, and Tactogen is developing non-psychedelic ‘enactogens’ that provide a more focused, gentle healing
Conservative estimates suggest up to 25% of adults could benefit significantly from MDMA therapy
First patent awarded in April, on the road to FDA approval
Investing alongside Lifeforce Capital, and co-syndicating with Gaingels
National Cycling League: an NFL-style fan-friendly facing format
NCL is a revolution (get it, like a bicycle) in a sport ripe for racing fans of all types
Expansion plan in place expected to generate $5.2M in revenue from 8 events
10 signed teams, 2 year broadcast deal with Warner Bros., and Discovery+ listing
Low CapEx model for a high participation sport is a recipe for success
FuzzyBot: a new gaming genre changing the medium
Series A follow-on round of our Portfolio company
Investing in this round is Bitkraft (most active gaming VC, lead), Krafton, and Spielberg Family Office
FuzzyBot is targeting mass-market success without AAA studio costs
The National Thoroughbred League (NTL): Pioneer of team-based horse racing
Invest alongside Red Beard Ventures as part of the 100% ownership of the New Jersey Horse Racing team.
Key figures include rappers Nelly and Rick Ross, NFL star Kayvan Thibodeux, the NBA's Danny Green, and retired basketball player Baron Davis.
Revenue streams from league-wide, mixed, and local sources.
Upcoming launch in Nashville with a $500,000 race and a concert by Anderson Paak.
NTL incorporates Web3 concepts for NFTs, digital games, virtual experiences, metaverse activations, and DAO participation.
Setscale: a Key Financing Tool for SMBs
Solves the cashflow gap that small/medium size businesses suffer: Post payment, pre sale
While large businesses have credit partners, SMBs generally have to float every shipment
Setscale solves this by covering the shipment payment in return for a small premium after the sale
Venus Aerospace: LA to Tokyo in ONE HOUR at Hypersonic Speed
A promise of the space age finally fulfilled, the craft designed by Venus Aerospace will be the fastest reusable hypersonic system in the world.
Their patented rotating detonation rocket engine (RDTE) will propel passengers at speeds up to Mach 9
The craft is designed to fly just outside of our atmosphere, where air friction poses no risk to the craft
Tafi: The Global Leader in 3D Assets and Text-to-3D genAI
Largest commercial library of 3D assets in the world; customers include Coca-Cola, HBO, Warner/DC, Coinbase, and others
Their product DAZ 3D (link to demo here) creates ultra-HD fully compatible and customizable characters
Exclusive partnership with NVIDIA to train even greater AI capabilities
Edison AI Systems: Zapier for AI, Link Multiple Models into One Workflow
Edison AI is building a web platform to build complex, interoperable AI systems
Developers can cut their time and costs by 60–90%, deploying in days, not months
The platform can operate as no-code or low-code, meaning even novices can link together StableDiffusion, GPT-4, a voice mimicking AI, and more!
Siegelman Stable: Streetwear with a Conscience - Gary Vaynerchuk Lead
Rapidly gaining mass appeal and A-list celebrity endorsements
Nearly one million dollars in gross revenue in 2022
Founded by the son of a top horse racing family, Max Siegelman, past collaborator with Kanye West, NBA teams, Puma, Hypebeast, Lexus, and more
One Earth Rising: Ownable Interoperability for Modern Gaming
Their standard has self-sovereignty and a format game engines can understand
This format seeks to become industry standard
All facets of the asset - items, moments, stats - are able to be minted
GET Protocol: The Premium NFT Ticketing Solution
GET has been building NFT ticketing since 2016
They have a full range of ticketing products for event holders, from self-service to full concierge, and also whitelabel solutions
Issued nearly 3.4 Million tickets (1.7M in 2022 alone), over 17k events
Investment includes a token grant AND discounted token purchase rights
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Upcoming Events:
In-person events are a great way to stay informed in our industry, so we are planning for a very full 2023. We would love to hear about any other conferences you will be attending this year, so please let us know as we are still planning our event calendar!
National Thoroughbred League New York Cup - Oct. 14 at Meadowlands Racetrack
Complimentary VIP tickets for RBV LPs - Register here
VIP tickets include private seating, early access to food stations, special tasting with Celebrity Chef Andrew Zimmerman, exclusive after-hours party with special performance by Ja Rule, and more!
To participate and invest alongside RBV Fund I in NTL + NJ Team: Link to Invest
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We are hiring!
We are looking for part-time syndicate vertical leads in the following categories - if you are interested please reach out and we can discuss the opportunity in greater detail:
Biotech
Space
Robotics & Automation
Climate
Fintech & SaaS
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Onwards
Drew, Elana, Mitchell, and Lauren