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- RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, RBV Fund I Closing & More
Joshua Howard
May 03, 2023
Along with the warming weather, we are possibly seeing the beginning of the dreaded Crypto Winter beginning to thaw. Assets are steadily climbing in value, the Fear and Greed index is finally dipping its toes back into ‘greed’, and crypto’s biggest convention - Consensus - had a vibe of cheerful optimism. This is of course balanced with more dark clouds from DC, some high-profile ‘rugs’ from influencer projects, and some more crab-market movements. On that note, the general advice we’re getting from the Crypto OGs is this: we might only have a few months - maybe a year, tops - to snatch up all these great deals we’re seeing. Valuations will only stay low as long as macroeconomic conditions allow, and after that, the ‘sale’ is over and prices will go back up. So keep a keen eye on the deals we’re sending out; all of them are going to seem like absolute steals when the bull market returns and valuations start hitting 2021 levels.
Just a quick reminder that we have started our search for candidates for our Tokenomics Accelerator, Denarii Labs. This initiative, jointly powered by Red Beard Ventures and Horizen Labs Ventures (known for creating Yuga Labs’ ApeCoin and many other successful projects), aims to assist Web3 builders in designing, developing, and executing their tokenomics and token launch strategies with the help of top-notch advisors, strategic partners, and investors.
Through the accelerator, five fortunate projects will be selected and equipped with the necessary skills to achieve an exceptional token release within three months of the curriculum. Interested parties can register at www.denariilabs.xyz.
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🚨 TL;DR: This Week in Crypto
Crypto Miner tax proposed; 30%
Coinbase launches derivatives exchange
LimeWire public token sale hits $3M in 24hrs
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📣 As a reminder, Red Beard Ventures has both a syndicate and fund:
The Red Beard Ventures Syndicate is stage agnostic and invests in Frontier Technology with a focus on Web3, Space, FinTech, 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.
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🔔 Active Investment Opportunities:
Texas Ranchers, Major League Pickleball Team: The Fastest Growing Sport in the World
Ranchers global is acquiring the Texas Ranchers, one of the top pickleball teams in the league
The investment also comes with a stake in Major League Pickleball itself
The popularity of pickleball exploded in 2022, with now 36 million players worldwide
Storybook: #1 Parenting App in 90 Countries
We are cosyndicating with Umami Capital
$1.9 M in ARR, growing 20% monthly
Strong investor roster including Goodwater, Jason Calacanis, Magma Partners, Google Latino Founders Fund
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 from 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
Meratas: Expedia for Student Loans - Last check, Oversubscribed Round
This round is led by Jason Calacanis, legendary investor from The All In podcast
Multi-lender marketplace allows users to compare and loan offers to compete
110 schools are current paying customers, at $1300/mo
Projected revenue of $6M in 2023
Toka: Cybersecurity Tools for Modern International Protection
Second year of revenue doubled with multiple government PoCs
Gross margins more than 90%
$22M forecast in 2023
Backed by Andreesen Horowitz
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
Simply Eggless: The Future of Egg Alternatives
Simply Eggless is the second-largest producer and supplier of plant-based eggs globally, with a revenue of $2M in 2022
Their products are sold in over 2.8k stores in North America and the company is looking to expand to 1k more stores, serving their massive popularity among Gen Z and Millennials
The main ingredient used by Eggless is lupin bean, which offers high protein, excellent baking functionality, and is environmentally friendly
The competitors in vegan egg alternatives all fall behind Simply Eggless, which has a much more versatile and shelf-stable product
Blocklords: GoT Meets Axie - Revolutionizing Play-To-Earn Gaming
Blocklords already has 120k pre-registered for their play-to-earn game
The medieval-based game allows players to craft their narrative while simultaneously earning cryptocurrency for tasks they complete within the game (Play-to-earn model).
Blocklords is focusing on delivering value to the user first to build up the user base and ecosystem first - This approach seems to be working by their massive sign-up and connection numbers
Money earned can be used to progress in the game or traded on crypto exchanges.
Bitscraft, Delphi Digital, and Animoca Brands are all investing
SAFT, $100M FMV
The Sandbox: Global leader and largest metaverse platform
$SAND is a Top 50 Cryptocurrency >$2B
$250M+ current virtual real estate LAND value
>$700M digital asset portfolio
$4.3M highest LAND price paid
~3X more LAND sales than competitor Decentraland
250K+ creators and brands are using the no-code tools to mind new items and experiences each month!
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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!
We will be heading to VeeCon 2023 this month, so any of our LPs that will be in Indianapolis, Indiana please feel free to reach out! There is a rumor we will be hosting an event as well. Stay tuned for next weeks newsletter for more info!
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🎙️ New Podcast Episode:
In this week's episode of The Girls Table, Elana Dickman, also known as TradingFemale is joined by Jalak Jobanputra who is the Founder and Managing Partner of Future Perfect Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in decentralized technologies. She has invested in over 50 companies in the blockchain, crypto assets, AI, and Internet of Things spaces.
She is also the founder of Collective Future, an organization that fosters diversity and inclusion in the blockchain sector. Prior to Future/Perfect Ventures, Jalak was Director of Emerging Market Mobile Investments at Omidyar Network and Senior Vice President at the NYC Investment Fund.
Watch the Latest Episode Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHLlhAHXKYE
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🪙 Crypto News:
White House Council of Economic Advisers released the plan on Tuesday
The punitive tax was proposed to offset the “harms they impose on society”
The post also clarified that mining firms using green/renewable energy are not exempt
Consecutively, Bhutan announces $500M fund for crypto mining
Exchange targets institutional users outside the U.S., offering perpetual futures trading
Launch follows recent concerns over unclear crypto regulations in the U.S. and the U.K.
Gemini also introduced a derivatives platform for trading perpetual futures outside the U.S.
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🗃️ Portfolio News:
Arcade Mode enables stable owners to host races without participants needing a ZED RUN account or crypto wallet
Up to 11 friends can be invited for a user-friendly, real-time racing experience
Aims to attract new players and revitalize the platform ahead of the Kentucky Derby
Limewire began its first public sale of the LMWR token on Tuesday
Within 24 hours, LimeWire sold over $3 Million in LMWR
90% of the funding target has been raised so far
The token is now available on multiple DEXs and CEXs
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💸 NFT Alpha
Sotheby's Metaverse platform now supports peer-to-peer secondary NFT sales, featuring Ethereum and Polygon networks
Marketplace offers a rotating, curated selection of leading digital artists, handpicked by Sotheby's specialists
Honors secondary on-chain royalty fees, allowing artists to automatically receive a percentage of resale revenues
SI Tickets' "Box Office" enables event management and ticketing on the Polygon blockchain
"Super Ticket" offers pre- and post-event perks, collectibles, and loyalty benefits via NFTs
Platform boasts $2.5 billion in inventory and charges 3% commission plus $1.40 per ticket for organizers
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🤝 We are hiring!
We are looking for 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, Whit, Mitchell, and Lauren