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- RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖Week of 4/5/23
RBV Weekly Newsletter🧔📖Week of 4/5/23
Team RBV Open Deals, Portfolio Updates, Crypto News, & More
Austin Ritter
April 12, 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.
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RBV Media
In this week we have Drew and Alex giving a recap about NFT NYC, Solana outages, $PEPECOIN, bull markets, and more!
Join us for a weekly dose of investing knowledge and industry expertise. Subscribe now! → @red-beard-radio @FewPod
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RBV Spotlight
DOUBLE TGE Tuesday: SAGA Mainnet and Truflation $TRUF Launch
Early Tuesday morning, within an hour of each other, two major Token Generation Events (TGE) took place for two of our most recent portfolio companies: Saga and Truflation. Saga is the VM-agnostic appchain deployment network that makes deploying an L3 significantly easier, cheaper, and faster. Truflation, the first company associated with the prestigious Chainlink BUILD program, provides robust and exotic pricing data for indexes, synthetic tokens, and inflation-pegged assets. Both Saga and Truflation are part of the Red Beard Ventures Fund I portfolio, with Truflation additionally having been offered successfully as a syndicate SPV to our LPs.
The SAGA token ($SAGA) is the native asset of the Saga Mainnet, where validator networks and blockchain deployment is managed. As a reminder, our cost basis for the token was $0.13; current market value of the token can be found on the $SAGA CoinMarketCap page, along with live statistics and exchange listing information. The Truflation token ($TRUF) rewards data providers in their network as well as serves as the method of payment between data providers and purchasers. The cost basis of $TRUF to the syndicate LPs was $0.04; current market value of the token can be found on the $TRUF CoinMarketCap page.
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Portfolio News
The pre-launch round raised $3M from investors
RBV participated in this and past rounds, with the most recent valued at $85M FMV
$AZUR token TGE is listed as “soon”
Samsung, the web3-friendly tech giant, has partnered with WW for their distribution efforts
Samsung games portals, and their upcoming web3 hub, will feature Wilder World assets and information
Wilder World will also be available through the Samsung Smart TVs
The Africa-based blockchain company has pivoted to a consumer-friendly experience
Jara wallet is available now, available on their website or on the Google Play store
The Jara token is coming as well, with tokenomics available on their website: GetJara.xyz
Multi-chain applications seamlessly integrate and operate across different blockchain ecosystems
They address fragmented liquidity, complex navigation, and poor user experiences in web3
These applications leverage features from various blockchains to provide a unified, user-friendly experience
Anduril served as the prime technology provider, integrating various platforms and data sources into its Lattice software
Lattice enabled simultaneous command and control of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles across air, sea, and sub-sea
Operators used Lattice to automate machine tasking, adjust asset positions, and coordinate autonomous behaviors
The token allocation for $BCUT sold out in under 24 minutes, raising $3.8M
38,000 pre-registrations ended up with 3,300 breaking through and buying the maximum amount
Pre-registrations came from 163 countries, a remarkable diversity
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đź”” Active Investment Opportunities:
3DOS: the Amazon Marketplace of 3D-printed items
They have already developed a software (3DPrinterOS) to network 3D printers, used by 290k designers globally
3DOS is building a blockchain-secured network of professional and hobbyist printers to replace the logistics of small printable item manufacturing and shipping
Backed by NGC Ventures, Escape Velocity, Modular Capital, and more
LayerZero Labs: highly sought-after secondary shares+token warrant
One of our most prized investments has given us the opportunity to syndicate a secondaries shares sale
We have a $400k allocation, at the same valuation as their last round ($3B FDV)
TGE is scheduled for June 2024, 1 year cliff, 2 year monthly vesting
Mintify: a Bloomberg Terminal for tokenized economies
They have built a highly modular system for complex traders and professionals working in the space
Mintify was built for cross-chain interoperability, API and SDK support, and scalable architecture
Backed by Alchemy Ventures, GSR, and Master Ventures
Rational Vaccines: developing solutions to globally debilitating problems
They are revolutionizing the vaccine industry and developing an HSV vaccine that can impact 4.5 BILLION people globally
RVx is using cutting edge technology to edit virus genes, making them harmless
Backed by Thiel Capital, Presight Capital, The Madden Family Funds, and more
Heights Labs: taking blockchain investigations from days to minutes
Their revolutionary AI-backed FLOWS technology digests billions of blockchain connections to find the endpoint of criminal activity
In pilot programs with many federal and local law enforcement agencies, totaling over $170M+ in the pipeline
Backed by Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Narcissus Ventures, and more
BioFire: the world’s first usable biometric smart gun system
BioFire uses facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics to ensure the gun cannot be removed or fired unless by an authorized person
Round led by Founders Fund, Valhalla Ventures, Draper Associates, and more
Shipping their flagship product in the next four weeks; this round will close before then!
Link to invest
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
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
BrandGuard: Safety rails for AI generated content
This brand governance platform is able to ensure an AI agent will never generate embarrassing or inaccurate content on behalf of the brand
In pilot programs with Amazon, Meta, ThermoFischer, Colgate, Little Caesar’s, and more
Backers include Bee partners, Frfly, Argon, Relay Ventures, and Baselayer Ventures
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
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
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
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🥳 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!
Stay tuned for updates on future events, and until then, keep spreading joy and positivity in our community!
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🤝 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
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Onwards 🚀
Drew, Elana, Mitchell, and Lauren