Santa Clara, CA, September 12, 2024, Chainwire
CARV is launching a $50 million accelerator to incubate projects capable of driving mass adoption of its eponymous data protocol.
Backed by leading blockchain venture capital funds including HashKey Capital and Consensys, the modular data layer for gaming and AI is committed to supporting innovators, particularly those actively building the future of decentralized data.
Powered by the CARV Protocol, the accelerator’s mission is to enable a decentralized and dynamic data infrastructure that allows users to control and monetize their data. It will provide comprehensive support to startups, including funding and investment backed by leading industry funds, support for commercialization and growth, expert advice on tokenomics, technology advice on infrastructure and tools, and access to the startup’s network and industry community.
“Our goal is to enable a decentralized data ecosystem for broader innovation,” said CARV co-founder Victor Yu. “Creating a sustainable data infrastructure depends on creating a dynamic data flywheel, which requires modular infrastructure and a critical mass of high-quality post-PMF applications. To power the next model, we want to further encourage creation by more actors.”
In addition to funding and direct investment, CARV Labs will provide marketing and growth support, as well as tokenomics advisory services, community development, and priority infrastructure and tooling support for CARV and its network partners.
Current industry investors set to play a role in the accelerator’s vertical-specific programs include MARBLEX, the web3 arm of South Korean mobile game developer Netmarble; Intella X, the web3 publishing arm of South Korean global game developer and publisher NEOWIZ; crowdfunding platform Alphastarter; Doublejump.tokyo, the developer behind the Oasys blockchain; several business angels; game publisher Xterio; networks NEAR and Ronin.
Additional partners such as Arweave, Litentry, Linea Ecosystem Investment Alliance (LEIA) and Alibaba (NYSE:) Cloud will also promote the accelerator. Linea, the secure zkEVM L2 platform that enables dapps to thrive, will later this year market a web3 gaming offering that will connect to the accelerator.
The first project incubated under CARV Labs, BANANA, an idle game built on the TON ecosystem, attracted over 8 million users in just 4 weeks, with over 1 million daily active users, 1.8 million connected social accounts, and 73 million social tasks completed. BANANA’s rapid success underscores CARV Labs’ effectiveness in fostering innovation and driving user engagement in decentralized applications. This milestone showcases the potential for future projects and positions CARV Labs as a leader in this space.
The surge in applications built on the protocol has allowed CARV to generate over $5 million in revenue to date, with more games and projects in the pipeline. Last month, it announced the launch of its Alphanet, run by the 40,000 validator nodes distributed to its community worth $35 million. The milestone was seen as important as CARV evolves into a truly decentralized and scalable protocol layer. The arrival of Alphanet followed April’s Series A funding round, led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures, which attracted $10 million.
Data infrastructure, AI, and gaming projects interested in learning more about the new accelerator are encouraged to reach out via the official CARV Discord channel.
About CARV
CARV is building the largest modular Identity and Data Layer (IDL) for gaming, AI, and beyond, integrating 900+ game and AI companies, accounting for over 30% of all Web3 games, and serving over 9.5M registered players with over 1.3M daily active users and 2.8M unique on-chain CARV ID holders. Ranking in the top 3 globally with over 2.1M average unique daily active wallets across 40+ chains, CARV has raised $50M in total funding from top-tier investors including Tribe Capital, Temasek Vertex (NASDAQ:), HashKey Capital, Animoca Brands, and ConsenSys, along with leading gaming studios and ecosystems such as MARBLEX (Netmarble) and Sandbox. The team consists of industry veterans from Coinbase (NASDAQ:), Binance, Google (NASDAQ:), and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:), all dedicated to revolutionizing the use of data in gaming, AI, and more.
About HashKey Capital
HashKey Capital is a global digital asset and blockchain leader helping institutions, founders, and talent advance the blockchain industry. As one of the largest cryptocurrency fund managers and the first corporate investor in , HashKey Capital has managed over $1 billion in client assets since inception. Leveraging unparalleled expertise, HashKey Capital’s venture investment team oversees a diversified portfolio of over 600 pioneering projects across institutional services, infrastructure, data, AI, consumer services/technology, and more.
About Consensys
Consensys is the leading blockchain and web3 software company. Since 2014, Consensys has been at the forefront of innovation, pioneering technological developments within the web3 ecosystem. Through our suite of products, including the MetaMask platform, Infura, Linea, Diligence, and our NFT toolkit Phosphor, we have become the trusted partner for users, creators, and developers on their journey to building and belonging to the world they want to see. Whether it’s creating a decentralized application, an NFT collection, a wallet, or a better future, the instinct to build is universal. Consensys inspires and champions the instinct to build in everyone by making web3 universally easy to use and build on. To explore our products and solutions, visit
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ContactCOOVictor Y.[email protected]
This article was originally published on Chainwire
