RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖Week of 2/23/23

Team RBV Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, & More

Author

Joshua Howard
February 23, 2024

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. 


đź“Ł 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 where we invest $100k into companies interested in designing and launching a token, over a twelve-week hands-on program.

-----------------------------------------------------------

RBV Media

Prepare for a deep dive into the epic ETHDenver 2024 with founder, John Paller. John shares how ETHDenver has grown to the premiere event it is today and how the festival fosters cutting-edge blockchain innovations, while also having a lively discussion with RBV's Drew Austin that you CANNOT miss! Plus, get a sneak peek at the star-studded speaker lineup, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.! Don't miss this inside look at the future of crypto and community building on the eve of one of the year's biggest events

Join us for a weekly dose of investing knowledge and industry expertise.  Subscribe now! →  @red-beard-radio 

Red Beard Radio is Sponsored by Alto. Alto makes it easy for individuals to invest in alternative assets with their retirement funds through a self-directed IRA. Access private deals on Alto Marketplace, their new platform for accredited investors.

—------------------------------------------------------------

RBV Spotlight

The AI-enhanced on-chain data network bitsCrunch held their token launch event for the much-anticipated $BCUT token.  The native utility token of the bitsCrunch network listed active trading pairs and liquidity on Crypto.com, KuCoin, ByBit, Gate.io, Coinlist Pro, UniSwap, and more on February 20th, 1 PM UTC.  This comes just a day after bitsCrunch also sold out of their “first come, first served” NFT mint.  The free-mint collection of 2,000 genesis NFTs sold out in 11 seconds, and has already seen over 200 ETH in volume on the secondary market.

The public sale for the token was similarly attended.  Back in December, they did a limited-amount community sale on CoinList, a popular token launch platform. On December 14th it was open for sale only to community members, where they sold .36% of the total supply (3.6M BCUT) for a price of $0.055 per token.  The tokens they bought, as part of the terms, only unlocked 20% of their buy at the token generation event (TGE), and would vest in equal remaining parts over 12 months.

 —------------------------------------------------------------

Portfolio News

  • The decentralized betting protocol has hit the milestone of over $40M USD transacted over their platform

  • Of this volume, the protocol has seen $1.9M in total revenue

  • All of this has come from only 20k unique users and less than 4k liquidity providers

  • Coming at the same time as their protocol’s milestone of 40k, Azuro has also launched their testnet for live in-game betting

  • This new product has already been integrated with two frontend platforms (Bookmaker.xyz and BoxBet)

  • The testnet is also incentivized, benefiting users that help stress test the network

  • Zero.tech released another product built into their worlds architecture, Posts and Token-Gated Chats

  • In the Zero Explorer, now users can post logs of messages onto their world, offering a truly decentralized social network to compete with Bluesky, Farcaster, Nostr and more

  • Users can also encrypt posts and messages so that only other users with certain holdings (ie., a membership NFT or subscription token) can view them

  • In the newest statistics for the first pre-mainnet launch of SAGA’s chain, we are seeing tremendous growth

  • The number of chainlets deployed has risen to 157, with 39M transactions and 3M unique wallets

  • Compared to the halfway point (week 8, December 19), this was at only 44 chainlets, 2.6M transactions, and 350k wallets

  • This represents a 3.5x, 15x, and 8.5x increase in activity respectively

—------------------------------------------------------------

đź”” Active Investment Opportunities:

Travelswap: Denarii Labs Alumni and the Only Crypto-Native Expedia Partner

  • Building the lowest-cost and -friction crypto travel platform, with future token plans developed by Denarii 

  • Backed by RBV and angels, the platform is already post-revenue

  • Link to invest

Atmos Labs: Web3 Gaming Developer Powerhouse

  • This is the seed extension, receiving both equity and tokens, is supporting the 2024 launch of their flagship game, ExoGP

  • Atomos is building a narrative and economic ecosystem around their game series IP

  • Led by Sora Ventures, Sfermion, GSR, Tectona, and more

  • Link to invest

FranShares: Fixing the Franchise Model

  • They are fixing the operator-to-franchisee model by applying an equity share and crowdfunding model

  • Live today, FranShares has already facilitated $18M in investments with a pipeline of $200M more

  • Backers include Chicago Ventures, VU Venture Partners, and Shawntae Spencer 

  • Link to invest

Deep6 AI: Clinical Trials at Turbo Speed using AI

  • The costliest and longest bottleneck of bringing new health treatments to market is being accelerated by their AI matching system

  • By speeding this delay, Deep6 is able to save billions in revenue, massive drug cost increases, and potentially hundreds or even thousands of lives

  • Backed by Point72, GSR Ventures, Samsung NEXT, 3M ventures, and more

  • Link to invest

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

  • 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

  • Bitscraft, Delphi Digital, and Animoca Brands are all investing

  • Token sale: SAFT, $100M FMV

  • Link to Invest

Carro: Embedded Marketplaces for Influencers, Streamers, and Creators

  • Carro's platform allows anyone to sell products from the world's best brands without spending capital upfront, making inventory commitments, or handling fulfillment.

  • Rev to date, $2M; 3.x2 GMV growth Sept to Nov; partnered with 20k brands

  • Investing alongside PayPal Ventures, Alpha Edison, 11:11 Media, and more

  • Link to invest

Versus Game: Gamified Ads Using Gen-AI

  • This B2B tech helps media, publishers, and brands use generative AI to make interactive content

  • Eric Schmidt, investor and board member, said “This is the most powerful real-world AI application” he’s seen

  • Almost 1000 digital media partners including Forbes, USA Today, ESPN, ABC, Microsoft, and more

  • Link to invest

—------------------------------------------------------------

🥳 Upcoming Events: 

Events are a great way to stay informed in our industry, so we are planning for a very full 2024. 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! 

This year we will be attending ETH Denver on February 29 through March 3! If you are interested in meeting, please let us know by emailing our chief of staff Lauren at [email protected].

If you will be in town for ETH Denver, we would like to extend an invitation to our LPs to join us for a trip to the immersive art space by Meow Wolf: Convergence Station Friday, March 1st.  Called a “cosmic-surrealist vision”, it’s a truly unforgettable experience!  RSVP here: RBV Meow Wolf

Also, if you are interested in attending our Los Angeles Founder & Investor Pickleball event, we will be holding one on March 19th. Please reach out if you are in the area and are interested in meeting fellow LPs and startup founders in the LA area.

—------------------------------------------------------------

🤝 We are hiring! 

Red Beard Ventures is seeking a Venture Capital Intern to join our team. The intern will focus on identifying and evaluating potential investment opportunities, writing deal memos, and helping with the operations of the syndicate and fund. This internship spans 6 to 12 months, requiring at least 20 hours per week of remote work. For those interested in this position, here is a link to our application.

We are also 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

—------------------------------------------------------------

Onwards 🚀 

Drew, Elana, Mitchell, and LaurenÂ