Amsterdam-based Celebratix, a blockchain ticketing startup, announced on Tuesday that has secured €1.1M in investments from numerous Dutch serial entrepreneurs, the Swedish VC uBIT, and the UK business angel Justin Rees.

The Dutch company backed by Solana will use the funds to expand internationally, particularly in Sweden and the United Kingdom.

“We are beyond excited to set a new standard of blockchain-based ticketing”, says Frank Roskam, Founder, and CEO of Celebratix.

Celebratix: Blockchain ticketing startup

Founded by Hans Jochem Dijk, Frank Roskam, and Guy Rombaut in 2022, Celebratix is a blockchain ticketing startup. 

It uses the Solana blockchain to improve event revenue and manage customer data before, during, and after events.

“Celebratix was founded by event organisers, for event organisers”, says Roskam. “Having organised festivals for 40.000+ people ourselves in Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, we’ve first-hand experienced fraud issues when it comes to reselling tickets. Let alone all the data that is being lost for retargeting. We are perfectly positioned to challenge the incumbent ticketing companies like Ticketmaster.”

As a result, the company enables event organisers to take back control of their secondary market, while offering event attendees a 100 per cent safe, simple, and secure experience.

The company aims to onboard the next 1B+ users into Web3 through its innovative NFT Ticketing approach.

The Dutch startup offers a secure and easy ticketing system based on blockchain technology, so users don’t have to deal with cryptocurrency.

The company provides ticketing for major venues in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Berlin.

The Dutch startup has a core customer base of events in and around Amsterdam, such as the Chicago Social Club and Jimmy Woo.

Through a partnership with MixMag, Celebratix recently entered the German market providing services in both Berlin and Hamburg.

“With Celebratix, organisers have full control over the sale of their tickets, which means they do not have to pay fees to secondary marketplaces and can better engage their attendees,” says Taco Ketelaar, one of the Dutch business angels.”

“As a one-stop shop for events, I am convinced that Celebratix is setting the new standard for ticketing in Europe. With the backing of Solana it has the potential to scale worldwide,” adds Ketelaar. 

Amsterdam-based Kryha, a blockchain studio, announced on Wednesday that it has been declared bankrupt. 

According to Tobias Disse, CEO and Co-founder of Kryha, the announcement came after a challenging period for the company, which began with the loss of a big client about a year and a half ago.

“It started about a year and a half ago when we lost a big client and were heavily investing in our diversification. The diversification didn’t go as planned and we had to heavily cut our costs to stay afloat,” says Disse. 

In an attempt to diversify and sustain the business, the founders made the strategic decision to pivot towards building a platform called Obscura.

 However, this move didn’t go as expected, as the platform was ahead of its time in an immature ecosystem, leading to various challenges.

“We thought having a first mover advantage would help us fundraise, but this was an assumption and not a certainty,” adds Disse. 

Despite the setback, a smaller group from the team, including Thom Bergman, Haischel Dabian, and Wietze S. will continue to build services in the Aleo network, with the Disse transitioning to an advisory role.

Moving forward Disse announced plans to launch a new entrepreneurial venture in a different industry with a new co-founder. 

“After a long holiday in July and August, I decided my entrepreneurship story doesn’t end here. I will start a new business with a new co-founder in a completely different industry. More on this next week,” he concludes. 

Essential, a declarative blockchain platform, announced on Tuesday, August 13, that it has secured $11M (approximately €10M) in a Series A funding round led by Archetype.

The following investors participated in the round: IOSG, Spartan, Mirana, Amber Group, Maven 11, Bodhi Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Heartcore Capital, Selini, DCLM, and PropellerHeads.

Additionally, founders and angel investors from Celestia, Hashflow, Enso, Barter, LI.FI, Astaria, GlueX, Bebop, Sorella, and others were also involved.

The company will use the funds to accelerate the development of its first declarative blockchain.

What is Essential’s declarative model?

According to the company, the declarative approach involves reframing interactions in terms of outcomes, rather than instructions.

This is in contrast with the imperative approach:

• Imperative – Always follow the instructions, regardless of the outcome.
• Declarative – Always output a valid outcome, without the need for instructions.

Traditional blockchain design relies on transactions to update the state by executing specific instructions, causing issues like excessive computation and poor user experience.

Declarative blockchains use constraints to update the state without execution, allowing users to control the state directly.

Pint, a language for programmable intents, enables developers to directly control the state on the Essential blockchain, creating possibilities for advanced applications.

The release of pre-alpha devnet, with Pint as a core building block, provides a playground for early builders to deploy and test declarative applications permissionlessly.

The concept of an executionless blockchain design is now a practical reality that developers can begin working with today.

“By enabling consensus on state updates without requiring on-chain execution, Essential will empower developers to build much more sophisticated and scalable applications than what is currently possible on virtual machine-based chains with traditional gas metering. We are incredibly excited to work alongside Liesl, Simon, and the entire Essential team as they design a chain from first principles with intents as the core primitive and design pattern,” says Dmitriy Berenzon, Partner at Archetype.

The European Commission’s NGI TrustChain initiative has announced the awarding of an additional €1.8M in grant funding to 15 European startups. These funds aim to combat online misinformation and false identity using blockchain-based technologies. 

Each startup will receive up to €117K in grant funding to support their solutions. Selected from a competitive pool of 162 applicants, the 15 startups represent 10 different European countries. 

This is the third cohort of the NGI TrustChain Project, which has become increasingly critical due to the rising prevalence of political, social, and military conflicts impacting online spaces. Since its inception, NGI TrustChain has provided more than €4.6M in funding to 43 companies.

Driving innovation to safeguard democracy

Yuting Jiang, CEO of grant recipient ZKorum (one of the Trustchain startup grant recipients), says, “We’re working with TrustChain to depolarise the online social landscape so democracy has breathing room for inclusive discussion. Trustchain will help with the adoption of our polling and discussion tools, as well as our user and privacy-friendly identity verification platform.”

Dr. Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, Professor and Director of the Institute of Cyber Security at City, University of London, adds, “Misinformation, hate speech and online harm in democracy is a pressing issue – nearly half of the world’s population are voting in national elections this year.”

“Trustchain startups are working to use blockchain, identity, privacy and interoperable decentralised technologies so that the internet ecosystem can give the public confidence in online activities.”

Introducing the latest grant recipients

The TrustChain startup grant recipients include:

• ZKorum (France): Develops open-source solutions to rehumanise and depolarise the online social landscape.
• Metabio PC (Greece): Designs and implements IT solutions for the life sciences sector.
• Compellio (Luxembourg): Bridges the gap between Web2 and Web3 computing.
• Forkbomb BV (Netherlands): Provides cryptography, identity, and blockchain interoperability solutions.
• ENISMARO (Italy): Offers end-to-end food production tracking for transparency and consumer trust.
• Arsys Internet (Spain): Creates a data aggregation platform to incentivise data sharing.
• Acurraent UG (Germany): Supports SMEs in restructuring, digitising, and expanding.
• In Trade 4 You (Italy): Facilitates international trade access for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
• QX by Qpick (Poland): Enhances customer experiences with a blockchain-powered travel wallet and digital ID.
• Digital Democracy World (Sweden): Promotes effective democratic organization.
• Pavlos Efraimidis (Greece): Develops FLORA, an ovulation tracking app using Federated Learning.
• City and Me doo Nis (Serbia): Provides digital support for interactive and sustainable communities.
• Gheorghe Asachi Tech, University Iasi (Romania): Offers an open-source platform for developing ideas and projects.
• SecureOpinion (United Kingdom): Creates secure, privacy-preserving public opinion sharing solutions.
• Neuron AI (Greece): Develops AI solutions for the EU and global markets.

Empowering trusted online spaces

Founded in 2013, F6S is a growth network supporting over five million founders and businesses globally. It connects users with growth opportunities, including corporate partnerships, accelerator programmes, investors, grants, and new talent.

Reaching 3,800 markets, F6S serves businesses across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Africa. It also provides resources such as R&D and accounting services to alleviate the stress of running a startup.

Sean Kane, co-founder and Chair of the F6S startup network, says, “It’s not surprising that only 6 in 10 of us trust online information – fake and deceptive information is everywhere. These 15 latest grants will help top new European blockchain and identity startups empower trusted discussion in European digital public spaces.”

Trento, Italy-based Alps Blockchain, a company specialising in producing computing power for digital mining, announced on Monday, July 29, that it has secured €105M investment from Azimut.

This investment was made through Azimut Direct Investment Alps Blockchain II SCSp, a dedicated Luxembourg vehicle, which invested in a 5-year guaranteed bond with the option of early redemption by Alps Blockchain.

The company plans to use the funds to support its growth and international expansion. It will focus on strengthening its existing operations and consider entering new markets to further enhance its global position.

The funding comes as the Alps Blockchain’s positive trend is also reflected in its financial results.

The company’s revenues increased from €697,000 in 2020 to €17.3M in 2022.

In 2023, the company’s revenues reached €43.6M, an increase of around 140 per cent compared to the previous year. A positive EBITDA confirms the company’s solid development capacity.

Francesca Failoni, CFO of Alps Blockchain, adds, “The increase in resources will allow us to contribute even more substantially to the blockchain ecosystem, fostering the development of solid and sustainable projects over time. Thanks to this financial transaction, we will not only be able to increase and make our existing sites more efficient but also invest in the construction of new facilities, aiming to quadruple the production capacity of computing power in the service of this technology by the first quarter of 2025.”

Alps Blockchain: Computing power for digital mining

Founded in 2018, and led by Francesco Buffa, Alps Blockchain is a tech company, specialising in the production of computing power for digital mining.

In the last three years, the company claims to have quintupled the number of mining machines installed in its planned sites globally from 2,500 to over 15,000.

This has enabled the company to reach a total energy capacity of 50 MW and more than 2 EH/s (exahash per second) of computing power produced by June 2024.

Through the design and operation of state-of-the-art mining farms, it aims to combine the potential of blockchain and mining with the needs of the energy sector, creating shared value and fostering mutual evolution.

From Italy, the company has already established operations in countries such as Paraguay and Ecuador, where the completed mining farms use hydroelectric power.

Alps Blockchain actively supports the energy sector not only by focusing on hydropower but also by exploring new sources and projects to promote the energy transition.

Currently, the company has extended its reach from Europe to South America and the Middle East, focusing on projects that generate scalable growth and new opportunities through computational power generation.

Francesco Buffa, CEO of Alps Blockchain, states, ‘At Alps Blockchain we are committed to shaping projects that foster the synergy between new technologies and the world of energy, generating a positive impact in both sectors. This new investment is an extraordinary confirmation of our confidence in our work and an essential support for the near future. On the sixth anniversary of the company’s establishment, which was July 20th, we are enthusiastically inaugurating a new chapter in its history dedicated to the pursuit of ambitious growth targets.

The investor

Azimut is an independent group in asset management, wealth management, investment banking, and fintech.

The Group includes several companies active in the promotion, management, and distribution of financial and insurance products, mainly based in Italy, Australia, Brazil, Chile, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the USA.

Giorgio Medda, CEO and Global Head of Asset Management & Fintech of the Azimut Group, comments, “We are thrilled to strengthen our relationship with Alps Blockchain, whose objective is to make mining more sustainable, and to offer our customers the opportunity to participate in the growth of an all-Italian excellence that is rapidly establishing itself around the world. This new transaction is part of Azimut’s broader commitment to promoting a global and sustainable energy transition through innovative investment solutions in private markets. A commitment that from 2022 to date counts investments of over €350 million. Our vision is that asset management can increasingly play a crucial role in combining efficient capital allocation with building a more sustainable future.”

Rotterdam-based EventCHI, a payments, ticketing, and intelligence platform, has secured over €1.6M in a seed round of funding. This investment will drive the growth of the company’s AI and blockchain platform, which aims to transform event experiences globally.

EventCHI’s founders identified challenges in the event industry and set out to innovate solutions. They combined their skills, expertise, and experiences to establish EventCHI, a “next-generation approach” to events with blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.

The company’s technology bridges event visitors and organisers, facilitating engagement and maximising revenue opportunities for all stakeholders involved.

Nick van der Meij, CEO of EventCHI, says, “We operate on a global scale, focusing on user experiences to ensure seamless engagement at events. This funding round will allow us to further develop our blockchain-based platform for events and expand our AI workforce, transforming how events are managed and experienced.”

After its successful seed funding round, EventCHI plans to announce the Series A funding round in the upcoming months.

A contactless payments, access and intelligence platform

Founded in 2017 by Nick van der Meij and Paul Somers, EventCHI claims to transform event technology by integrating AI and blockchain. The company’s unified platform supports cashless payments, NFT ticketing, and intelligent solutions.

EventCHI offerings include the CHI App for visitors and staff, the CHI POS app for event payments and ticket sales optimisation, and the CHI Backstage App for comprehensive event management. These tools cater to diverse stakeholder roles.

The platform facilitates cashless payments using QR and NFC wristbands that are connected to users’ wallets within the mobile or web app. This integration ensures transactions are seamless and provides real-time insights into spending patterns, enhancing overall user experience and operational efficiency for events.

The company offers NFT ticketing on the blockchain, ensuring secure and fraud-proof tickets with a marketplace for instant transfers and resales.

EventCHI also has a self-service portal that simplifies event organisation and provides real-time financial analytics, detailing sales per bar or bartender. 

Additionally, the platform features include vendor revenue distribution, enabling organisers to set rules such as sales commissions or fixed fees for on-site vendors. Commissions are automatically and instantly distributed between vendor and organiser wallets.

Capital utilisation

EventCHI will use the seed funding to grow its AI team. Its goal is to innovate events using AI agents, each functioning with the precision and harmony of an ant colony.

Nick van der Meij, CEO of EventCHI, says, “Our mission is to bridge the technology gap between visitors and events. With this funding, we are ready to extend our platform, grow our team, supercharge sales, and develop more AI agents to join our AI workforce, driving significant market growth.”

Utrecht-based Klayr, a blockchain application platform, announced its acquisition of Lisk’s blockchain platform on Wednesday, May 29. Lisk’s platform enables users to construct their own blockchain or blockchain applications.

Based in Zug, Switzerland, Lisk provides a cost-efficient and scalable Layer 2 (L2) network secured by Ethereum. 

The platform’s core focus is to solve local problems in emerging markets by bringing solutions around real-world assets (RWA), off-chain assets (OCA), and DePin onchain.

This strategic acquisition is expected to enhance flexibility and accessibility for developers within the platform, which currently boasts more than 330 thousand accounts.

The transition of ownership to Klayr Labs is scheduled to commence on 21st May, says the company.

Last year, Lisk announced that it was focusing on an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain by joining the Optimism Superchain.

The technology and software built up over the last eight years will continue as Klayr after rebranding.

Klayr: Simplifying blockchain applications building

Founded by Lukas Bronsvoort, Jurre Machielsen, Raphael Cornelis, and Sander Mandemaker, Klayr‘s core objective is to simplify the process of building blockchain applications or specific tech components.

Alongside the capacity to construct sidechains, Klayr aims to empower creators and developers to generate tokens and NFTs on the mainchain, develop smart contracts, and deploy them directly.

Leveraging the acquired Layer 1 technology, Klayr is set to launch a new blockchain named Klayr on 25th June.

Continuing its dedication to development, the Onchain Foundation is committed to safeguarding the years of progress invested in Lisk Layer-1.

The Onchain Foundation has identified Klayr Labs as the ideal leadership team to carry forward Lisk’s technology within the community. Notably, the team has previously developed the pioneering marketplace for digital assets and NFTs on the Lisk blockchain, known as Colecti.

Copenhagen-based Januar, a payment gate for crypto companies, announced on Thursday that it has secured €1.5M funding in a Seed Extension round from CMT Digital, Third Prime, and Skyfall Ventures alongside Michael Grønager, Chainalysis Co-founder & CEO, and with follow-on from current investors.

“I am tremendously excited to share the news about our latest fundraise that will fuel our international expansion and drive profitability, further establishing Januar as a key player in the crypto space. It is a critical step in our journey, and we’re excited to use these resources to create an even better experience for our users. At Januar, we are committed to providing trusted and seamless fiat-to-crypto conversions, and our new crypto services are a testament to that commitment.” says Simon Ousager, co-CEO and Founder at Januar.

Besides funding, the Danish company also announced the launch of Januar Crypto – an institutional Wallet and Crypto Trading solution integrated alongside its fiat account and payment solutions. 

According to the company, the Januar Wallet and Januar Trade combination will allow businesses to easily convert fiat to crypto right on the platform.

With this move, the company simplifies operations by eliminating time-consuming and expensive transaction processes that currently cause difficulties for businesses and their customers.

After securing €6M in a Seed funding round, the company obtained a full Payment Institutions license with the Danish FSA, which has been fully passported to permit service across all 30 EEA markets. 

Januar: Financial infrastructure for crypto businesses

Januar provides financial infrastructure for crypto businesses, offering fiat business accounts and payment solutions integrated with crypto wallet and trade solutions in a one-stop platform for compliant fiat-to-crypto money flows. 

Its instant settlement payment network JIN (Januar Instant Network) operates 24/7 and makes transfers instant and free between trusted parties on the network.

What do the investors have to say? 

CMT Digital is a global blockchain and web3 proprietary trading and venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments that accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology.

“We are thrilled to be investing in Januar. The crypto ecosystem is notoriously underbanked, and Januar fills an important gap by servicing compliant crypto businesses with the critical financial services they need to operate. We believe a major hurdle to being successful in this space is a high degree of compliance and a regulatory focus, and we believe Januar is hyper-focused on these points. Moreover, Januar’s innovative one-stop platform integrates fiat and crypto operations, marking a significant step towards redefining banking and payments in the crypto sphere.” says Sam Hallene, Investor at CMT Digital.

Third Prime is a venture firm that leads early-stage rounds and supports exceptional entrepreneurs through exit. 

“Crypto businesses have been provided with minimal formal banking services, making it difficult to conduct their day-to-day financial operations. Januar fills a gap in the industry and continues to professionalise the ecosystem through its compliance and regulatory-first approach. Third Prime is excited to be backing Januar and is looking forward to partnering with the team as it provides crypto with much-needed financial services,” says Christian Kaczmarczyk, Principal at Third Prime.

Skyfall Ventures is an early-stage investment firm that invests only in Nordic early-stage companies built around a strong software component.

“We believe that Januar is uniquely positioned as a crypto-friendly financial partner, and is poised to enable a large and growing industry the freedom to operate by being experts in KYC/AML assessment of crypto companies and by tailoring product offerings to the industry,” says Espen Malmo, Co-founder & Managing at Skyfall Ventures.

Munich-based Silencio Network, a startup developing a network of decentralized sensors combating noise pollution, announced on Friday that it has secured $1M (approximately €928K) in a pre-seed round of funding led by Borderless Capital. 

Other investors, including Moonrock Capital, Master Ventures, and others, participated in the funding round. 

Silencio will use the capital to accelerate growth, enhance data integrity, foster partnerships, and further strategic initiatives. 

Thomas Messerer, CEO and co-founder of Silencio Network, says, “This investment goes beyond financial backing; it represents a shared belief in harnessing the power of blockchain for innovative data solutions. With Borderless Capital’s support, we are more equipped than ever to push the boundaries of data coverage in the decentralised era.” 

The funding comes as the German company aims to revolutionise data coverage, through the integration of peaq – a layer-1 blockchain designed for real-world applications – and DePINs.

Silencio Network: Providing accurate, hyper-local noise pollution data

Founded by Thomas Messerer, Eric Stotz, and Theo Messerer, Silencio Network is a decentralised network that provides local data to create a complete noise map and rewards users in the token, enabling users to participate in the combat against noise pollution.

The company leverages Peaq blockchain to offer secure and scalable data management services. 

The German company collects data over a total area equivalent to twice the size of Miami weekly. This scale of operation showcases the network’s robust data collection capabilities. 

Since its launch, Silencio Network has seen exponential growth, doubling its user base to 92,000 in just one month and growing by 12k users weekly (time of writing). 

Silencio has a 50 per cent monthly engagement rate, exceeding the industry standard rate of 2.5 per cent by 20-fold.

The investor

Borderless is an investment management firm focused on Web3 technology, dedicated to supporting the next generation of innovators who are driving the development of groundbreaking technologies that will enable the creation of value without borders. 

Since 2018, Borderless has made 200+ investments across infrastructure, business applications, and nascent cryptographic protocols.

Álvaro Gracia, Partner at Borderless Capital states, “Borderless is excited to support the growth of Silencio. Their unique approach to building a hardwareless DePIN, leveraging the different sensors in a modern smartphone, is unique and will prove to support a faster supply side growth.”

Ostium Labs, the London-based company behind the first decentralised, non-custodial perpetuals exchange for Real World Assets — Ostium Protocol, has raised €3.3M seed round.

Co-led by General Catalyst and LocalGlobe, the round saw participation from SIG, DeFi Alliance, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Vessel Capital, and others.

The team will use the fund to assist in the launching of the company’s flagship Protocol, an on-chain trading hub for RWAs. The trading hub will enable traders to gain price exposure to various asset classes previously unavailable on-chain.

The launch comes at a critical point in financial markets as alternative asset classes have gained rapid traction. Such traction is, in large part, an effect of the waning effectiveness of traditional diversification strategies after inflation- and interest rate-driven disruption to market dynamics.

Achieving future asset diversification

Ostium Labs aims to disrupt the market with a platform engineered from the ground up to support RWAs. It will offer exposure for traders and deliver a superior user experience for trading RWAs in a smooth and permissionless trading format similar to existing DeFi power users.

The initial seed funding will assist the company’s mainnet deployment of the Ostium Protocol through continued growth of the development team, meticulous economical design, and smart contract audits.

Currently, Ostium Labs plans to do a testnet launch in Q4, with a mainnet deployment at the start of the new year, post-audits.

Ostium’s history began when its founders, Kaledora Kiernan-Linn and Marco Antonio, met as new students at Harvard before working together at Bridgewater Associates. Both bonded over their shared experience in high-stakes environments that demanded peerless performance and excellence.

The pair became frustrated with the associated cost, friction, and attention split needed to manage both on- and off-chain trades across asset classes when they began their venture into trading. Kiernan-Linn and Antonio eventually aimed to facilitate seamless on-chain diversification so traders are unrestricted in trading their favoured assets.

Confidence in Ostium Labs

Both Ostium Labs and the investors included in the initial seed funding are adamant in their opinions about the former’s ability to facilitate alternative asset diversification strategies.

Marco Antonio, co-founder of Ostium, says, “We’re at a turning point in the broader market landscape. Traditional diversification strategies are no longer as effective as they used to be, and the appeal of alternative assets is growing. We see a pressing need for a purpose-built on-chain DEX to cater to the diversification needs of traders. Ostium aims to fill this void.”

Ash Arora, Partner at LocalGlobe, says, “Ostium’s brilliant team and their ambition to become the leading on-chain platform for democratising tangible asset investments resonates deeply with the foundational principles of Web3.”

“We’re thrilled about Ostium’s potential to cultivate access to a truly novel suite of on-chain assets and democratise consumer access to long-underserved asset classes,” adds Arora.