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- RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖
Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, RBV Fund I Closing & More
Joshua Howard
October 20, 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 📻:
Join us as we explore the dynamic landscape of the sports card market, uncovering the strategies and innovations that have propelled this industry from hobby to lifestyle. In this exciting episode, we sit down with the incredible Andrew Medal to discuss how technology is revolutionizing the world of sports card collecting. 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 a syndicate, 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:
Bitcoin pumps on BlackRock ETF rumor
Ferrari takes BTC, ETH
NFT counterfeiting case progresses
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🪙 Crypto News:
Following a later-refuted claim of ETF approval, Bitcoin shot up in price, touching $30k
A now-deleted X account made the claim, which was picked up by many crypto news outlets
The news was spurred on by recent news on the iShares ETF appeals in court
As Ferrari expands their user base with the first four-door in their history, they are also expanding to crypto investors
They have partnered with Bitpay to handle the off-boarding into fiat
Similarly, in 2021, Tesla accepted Bitcoin before tanking the program
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🗃️ Portfolio News:
After just over a year live on mainnet, the all-time bet volume for on-chain bets surpassed $15M
First deployed on Gnosis Chain, then Polygon earlier this year, Azuro has been connecting counterparties in decentralized sports betting, using special sports results oracles
This is also the results of the MVP of the product, not enhanced by coming roadmap improvements
Shardeum has built a platform for token projects to raise funds from community investors
Their “Proof of Community” system allows projects to stake their raised funds and keep the token at the center of attention
The ShardStarter litepaper can be read HERE
Workers will now be able to receive payroll and benefits using Opolis
Unemployment, tax compliance, and disability insurance, previously very difficult for Freelance workers, are now available to over 500,000 members
US-based freelancers are expected to hit 90 Million by 2028
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💸 NFT Alpha:
From now until October 30, holders of eligible digital collectables can redeem limited edition made-to-order physical NIke Dunks
Holders will be able to purchase up to five pairs across three colorways
Each will cost $222 in ETH (plus gas)
In the lawsuit Yuga labs accuses concept artist Ryder Ripps of counterfeiting the BAYC collection
Ripps, a critic of Yuga Labs, claims that the sale of these NFTs was part of a larger artistic project
Earlier in the case, US District Judge John Walter ruled that the counterfeit sale was “no more artistic than the sale of a counterfeit handbag”
Yemel Jardis believes the sliding floor prices are partly to speculative trading
Industry shows signs of life; 24% of MLB attendees minted commemorative NFTs
Brands Adidas, Bud Lite, Gucci, Prada, and more also give positivity to market sentiment
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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’s 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
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
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
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!
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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