Calaxy, a Black-owned web3 social marketplace, has raised $26 million in strategic funding co-led by Animoca Brands and HBAR Foundation with support from Polygon. This raise follows a $7.5 million seed round in 2021 with investors like Animoca Brands, Red Beard Ventures, ArkStream Capital, NGC Ventures, and Genesis Block Ventures. The seed round also had support from NFL player Ezekiel Elliott, “The Bachelor” Matt James, and former PayPal head of Blockchain Strategy Jonathan Padilla, among others. Calaxy aims to build a new infrastructure that allows content creators, ranging from small influencers to big-time celebrities, to
Snoop Dogg and his son, Cordell Broadusm, have become partners in the world’s first NFT restaurant group. Snoop’s Dr. Bombay’s Sweet Exploration, an immersive retail dessert experience based on his Bored Ape NFT and Dr. Bombay character, will soon open in the Los Angeles area under the Food Fighters Universe (FFU) umbrella. FFU was founded in March by Orange County entrepreneurs Andy Nguyen, Kevin Seo, and Phillip Huynh—the team behind Bored & Hungry, the world’s first NFT-themed restaurant. FFU is a collection of 10,000 unique food fighters on the eth blockchain. Each purchase will fund the world’s
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, this week announced the news that it is linking up with the Canadian performer, The Weeknd, for his After Hours Til Dawn Tour to provide “an enhanced fan experience.” The so-called ‘experience will reportedly manifest in a number of ways, including via a collaboration with The Weeknd’s creative incubator HXOUSE to produce an exclusive NFT collection and co-branded branded merch. “Binance is all about the community, about people, about inclusion. I was impressed by their focus on users and innovative edge,” said The Weeknd. “It made perfect
Web3 platform, HEIR, co-founded by Michael Jordan and his son Jeffrey Jordan, is set to introduce its first athlete membership NFTs. On the Magic Eden NFT marketplace, NBA player Lonzo Ball will be featured in an NFT collection dubbed “Zo.” HEIR launched its first NFTs in March — a collection called “6 Rings” that paid homage to MJ’s six titles. They sold out the initial 5,005 allotments for 2.3 SOL each, worth roughly $221. How does it work? Rather than simply acquiring digital collectibles of their favorite athletes, HEIR enables fans to gain membership to
At VeeCon 2022 — the first-ever NFT-ticketed conference — music mogul Pharrell Williams shared with attendees his belief that Web3 could hold the power to create real global change. During an onstage interview with entrepreneur and event creator Gary Vaynerchuk, he said: “You come here talking to the people about the blockchain and Web3. What you should know is, this is a moment in time where everything is changing right now. “You all are looking at these old systems—you know that they’re antiquated, you know that they don’t work. And you
Grammy award-winning artist, Miguel, has just been announced as the newest Global Creative Director for T3MP0, a digital studio that creates web3 communities for A-List talent and brands. He is reportedly the first musical artist of “his stature” to be involved in creating a web3 studio from the ground up, according to the company’s press release. As T3MP0’s creative director, Miguel will extend his extensive collaboration history into partnering with the world’s biggest talent and brands in the web3 space. “We are very excited to support Miguel’s creative vision for the
In 2017, Iris Nevins decided to leave her job as a teacher in Florida to attend a bootcamp in the Bay Area – but it was not without its struggles. On a Go-fund Me page – where she asked for support – she said: “I began learning how to code through online tutorials, and 7 months later, I quit my job as an 8th-grade history teacher, left my organization, and moved to the Bay Area to attend a coding BootCamp. “Making such a transition is very costly as I had
In February, Prestige magazine published a list of the top-selling pieces of crypto-art to date, with all entries sharing some common traits – they were all men and all white. And when you look into the news reports of those who’re supposedly ‘killing it’ in the NFT or crypto space most of them look the same. But here at POCIT – we’re all about shining a light on the communities that are sometimes cast to the side and forgotten even when they’re making a considerable impact. Before we begin – for
This Black Blockchain Engineer Just Raised $3.3M Seed Round For Mueshi, Her Fine Art NFT Marketplace
Ariana Waller — known as Ariana The Techie — is a Miami-based blockchain engineer and the owner and founder of Mueshi, Inc. The company launched to be a marketplace where users will be able to buy, sell, and fractionally invest in fine art NFTs. The 26-year-old has just raised a $3.3 million seed round for Mueshi led by Harlem Capital to establish its place in the industry. Presight VC, CapitalT VC, music luminary and investor, Ted Lucas, Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Black Venture Capital Consortium, and a cohort of additional strategic angel investors also participated. “I was
Entrepreneur Jordan Edelson has announced his next venture with the launch of TradeZing, a live-streaming, social engagement, Web3 platform designed for Millennial and Gen Z traders. The platform claims to “harnesses the power of community and content creation across stocks, cryptocurrency, NFTs and the Metaverse to educate, elevate and entertain.” TradeZing’s announcement comes on the heels of their sponsorship of Bitcoin 2022 in Miami, the world’s largest Bitcoin conference of the year. It aims to create a community and provide traders with fun, educational and entertaining content. Featuring livestreams on trending
