Animoca Brands, Brinc launch US$30M Guild Accelerator Programme

Hong Kong-based games publisher and VC firm Animoca Brands has partnered with global venture accelerator Brinc to launch Guild Accelerator Programme.

The programme aims to enable millions of people worldwide to generate income by participating in play-to-earn (P2E) gaming via crypto gaming guilds, especially those committed to sustainability. This includes projects that support and give back to player/scholar communities, emphasise energy-efficient proof-of-stake protocols and side chains, and generate lower overall physical footprints.

The programme will fund up to US$500,000 per P2E guild, with a total investment capital of US$30 million over two years.

The new programme will operate as a dedicated track within NFT accelerator Launchpad Luna, launched in mid-2021 as a partnership between Brinc and Animoca Brands. 

In January, Brinc also received US$50 million from The Sandbox, a gaming metaverse unit owned by Animoca Brands, to run The Sandbox Metaverse Accelerator programme under Launchpad Luna.

Also read: How play-to-earn is fueling the next wave of blockchain adoption

 

Ex-Funding Societies CPO’s cyber security startup rakes in US$4.3M

Singapore-headquartered cyber insurtech provider Cyber Sierra has announced the completion of its US$4.3 million seed financing round led by Singapore-based Leo Capital.

AppWorks, Credit Saison, and some other angels also joined.

With this funding, Cyber Sierra plans to launch and grow its business offerings to include more products to serve businesses’ risk and compliance needs in line with apt regulatory frameworks.

A portion will be channelled to bring on new hires across all functions and expand its customer base across Southeast Asia, India, and other markets.

Cyber Sierra was founded in June 2021 by Subhajit Mandal and Pramodh Rai, who served as Chief Product Officer at SME alternative financing platform Funding Societies.

The startup offers cyber risk, compliance and insurance products backed by global brokers and insurers. Through Cyber Sierra’s platform, businesses will be able to access several cybersecurity tools, including threat alerts, intelligence feeds, anti-phishing, vulnerability scans and governance features with bundled insurance offerings.

The company provides up to US$5 million of cybersecurity and technology insurance coverage dedicated to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a presence on the cloud.

watchTowr raises US$2.25M to secure ‘attack surface for enterprises’

Singapore-based cybersecurity startup watchTowr has secured US$2.25 million in seed funding from Wavemaker Partners and Vulcan Capital.

watchTowr will utilise the fresh funds to scale its Continuous Attack Surface Testing (CAST) solution and bring on new experienced cybersecurity practitioners.

Established in 2021 by CEO Benjamin Harris, watchTowr directly addresses the challenges organisations face in managing and securing their external attack surface — the total number of all possible entry points for unauthorised access into any system.

Its founder said that its platform solves scope and time restrictions imposed by antiquated, traditional security assurance penetration testing approaches and bug bounty programmes.

“The watchTowr Platform provides organisations with the continuous visibility and scalable assurance they need, combined with regulatory compliance management, to keep up with the flood of emerging weaknesses and the rate of adversary evolution,” said Harris.

Also read: There is a concerning lack of cybersecurity talent. Here’s how to tackle it

 

Semaai scores US$1.25M to transform rural, agri development in Indonesia

Semaai, a ‘farmer-first’ company building full-stack agritech solutions for farmers and rural MSMEs in Indonesia, has announced a US$1.25 million in pre-seed funding led by Sequoia Surge, with participation from Beenext.

Angel investors, including Nipun Mehra (Founder and CEO at e-commerce startup Ula), Harshet Lunani (founder and CEO of Qoala), and Prashant Pawar (Technology Investment Banker at Houlihan Lokey), participated.

Semaai will utilise the fresh capital to expand its network of service delivery centres, starting with agri-retailers and eventually reaching the vast number of smallholders in rural Indonesia. It aims to deliver its services and impact up to 100,000 smallholders and rural micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) by next year.

Founded in 2021, Semaai offers rural agricultural communities a comprehensive suite of services, including customised consultancy, access to productivity tools such as soil testing technology, and fairly priced farming inputs such as seed and fertiliser products.

Within five months since launch, Semaai claimed to have seen the gross merchandise value (GMV) of products sold to agri-retailers and MSMEs increase by 10x.

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Image Credit: Animoca Brands, watchTowr

The post SEA Roundup: Animoca, Brinc launch US$30M P2E accelerator programme; Cyber Sierra, watchTowr raise capital appeared first on e27.