Blockchain research and development lab Polytope Labs aims to transform Africans from consumers to creators in the blockchain space. Founded by Nigerian engineers Seun Lanlege and David Salami, Polytope Labs’ first product is Hyperbridge, a cross-chain protocol designed to facilitate secure communication between blockchains. Africa’s Crypto Adoption and Consumption African countries have some of the highest rates of grassroots crypto adoption among everyday people. However, the continent has mostly been a consumer rather than a builder of blockchain technology. Lanlege drew on his experience of helping to build the Ethereum and Polkadot networks to establish Polytope Labs with David
Black-owned web3 social marketplace, Calaxy has launched its app, helping creators to monetize their content and connect with their fans. Helping Creators to Monetize Tech entrepreneur Solo Ceesay and NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie founded Calaxy in 2021 to build a new infrastructure allowing content creators ownership and equitable value exchange compared to the current social media landscape. It’s described as reimagining how people use social media, empowering more meaningful and fulfilling fan experiences. Despite the creator economy being one of the fastest-growing sectors of the internet, creators still need help to monetize with the rise of
Pryce Adade Yebesi is the 23-year-old co-founder and COO of Utopia Labs, a startup on a mission to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional payment systems, and ultimately, create a new internet economy. Recently, Utopia Labs raised an impressive $23 million, making Yebesi one of the youngest Black founders to achieve such a milestone. Driving the adoption of crypto payments Utopia Labs’ founders Pryce Adade Yebesi, Kaito Cunningham, Jason Chong, and Alexander Wu first met on Discord and Twitter. The quad was brought together by an interest in Decentralized
Former bankers Lyndsae’ Peele and Casey Ariel are turning to web3 to empower and uplift Black women entrepreneurs with Zubachee, their “metaverse ecosystem for Black women in business.” The pair plan to onboard one million Black women onto the metaverse by 2023. What is Zubachee? Zubachee aims to become the go-to space in the metaverse for Black women entrepreneurs to find the tools and support needed to scale their businesses. Zubachee is also developing a curriculum and planning events to educate Black women needed to run profitable business operations. While
Following Rihanna’s iconic Super Bowl LVII halftime performance, anotherblock‘s non-fungible token (NFT) collection of the track sold out in minutes. Now, the Stockholm-based web3 music startup has secured €4 million ($4.3 million) in funding to continue its work of redefining music ownership. Achieving triple platinum status upon its release, BBHMM gained new virality after Rihanna performed the track at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show. Jamil “Deputy” Pierre, a co-producer on Rihanna’s BBHMM, linked up with anotherblock to sell 0.99% of his streaming royalty rights to the song as 300 NFTs
EVEN, a creative platform that enables artists to sell their music directly to fans, has closed a $2.2 million seed round led by CSA Partners. Mag Rodriguez founded the platform last year to help Black and brown artists retain equity in their creative work. The blockchain-based direct-to-consumer platform allows artists to sell their music directly to their fans before uploading their music to streaming platforms. When fans purchase music, they can get access to it one to two weeks before they drop on streaming platforms, as well as exclusive content,
MNFTM has officially launched its premier Web3 NFT marketplace platform for Black and brown creators globally. The world’s first NFT marketplace for Black and ethnically diverse creators The NFT Marketplace will be the world’s first-ever platform created explicitly for Black and ethnically diverse creators. The initiative hopes to address the gap in the market by providing a ground-breaking space where equality and collecting can co-exist in the digital realm. Founded by CEO Ed Ukaonu, the marketplace will work to represent all voices in the evolving digital economy. The platform’s business model focuses
Black-owned startup, thirdweb, has raised $24 million in investment funding. The funding round led by Haun Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Shopify, and Polygon, also included Shrug VC, Joseph Lacob, and others. The ground-breaking tech startup founded by Steven Bartlett and Furqan Rydhan aims to provide developers with a Web3 development kit to help reduce the time and cost of building and launching applications. The developer tool assists programmers in building NFTs, marketplaces, DAOs, and more. “Web3 is the most important technological shift I’ve witnessed in my lifetime,” said Steven Bartlett, co-founder
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
