Protagonist

Last week, Protagonist co-hosted a breakfast at Flow Traders NYC office. It was great to connect and network with over 250 attendees, including founders and industry leaders!

👋 Meet Kiva AI 📍 HQ: San Francisco, CA 👥 Leadership: Ahmed Rashad 🌐 Website: www.kivaai.com 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: Kiva AI is the comprehensive platform designed for high-quality, human-in-the-loop solutions for data collection, preprocessing, labeling, storage, and integration. By combining human expertise with the latest AI technologies, Kiva AI delivers scalable, reliable, and transparent data solutions that facilitate the development of the world's most ambitious and specialized AI applications. 💸 Round: Pre-Seed

Exowatt launches today! ☀️ The power requirements to scale AI are astronomical. Within a decade AI will require 650TWh of new power generation – more than the electricity demand of South Korea. In the U.S. alone, data centers will require the equivalent amount of electricity to power 40 million households by 2030. Exowatt P3s can generate electricity at scale at just a $0.04 LCOE and with entirely renewable tech. That’s lower than the cost of most fossil fuels and doesn’t account for subsidies. We have already amassed a 1.2 GW backlog, worth $Bs from the mega tech hyperscalers, energy and data center companies. The system works by capturing the sun’s energy in the form of heat, storing it in a heat battery and converting it to electricity via a heat engine even when the sun is no longer out. This changes the economics of solar by solving a problem called the “Duck Curve” where all conventional solar producers are forced to sell their power at the same time while at maximum output, driving the electricity cost sometimes to zero or negative intraday and leaving no supply at night. Data centers need to operate 24/7 and typically have 60% of their OPEX from energy costs, so an inexpensive and ever available alternative is very important to them. Data centers are straining to bring capacity online and without solutions like Exowatt, are being forced to turn to fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. We hope you’ll join us in pushing forward an abundant and non fossil fuel powered future!⚡️ https://lnkd.in/ewcUpW9t

👋 Meet IDA 📍HQ: Hong Kong 👥 Leadership: Lawrence Chu and Sean Lee 🌐 Website: idafi.xyz 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: IDA is the premier digital asset technology company spearheading the widespread adoption of blockchain finance. They empower businesses to seamlessly integrate Web2 and Web3 technologies. IDA's mission is to propel Hong Kong to the forefront of fintech and Web3 innovation by attracting new foreign investments and capital from jurisdictions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global South, enabling more effective and efficient cross-border trade. 💸 Round: Seed

🌟 Big milestone for IDA! We've secured USD 6 million in seed funding to bring our fiat-referenced stablecoin, #HKDA, to life soon! A huge thank you to our investors: CMCC Global, Hashed, Hack VC, Anagram, GSR, Protagonist, Brinc, Chorus One, Kenetic, SNZ Capital, Yolo Investments, and our notable angel investors for believing in our vision! We are also thrilled to have the support of leading blockchain foundations - Solana Foundation, Polygon Labs, Aptos Foundation and MANTRA - as our strategic blockchain partners to foster HKDA's interoperability, accessibility, resilience, and liquidity! Let's unleash the power of stablecoins together! 🔥 📖 Full release ➡ https://lnkd.in/gbARNiC8 #Web3 #Stablecoin #Innovation #Blockchain

👋 Meet Holonym Foundation 📍 HQ: Distributed 👥 Leadership: Shady El Damaty and Nanak Nihal Khalsa 🌐 Website: holonym.id 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: Holonym Foundation's mission is to proliferate Human Keys to enhance security and privacy in zero-trust environments. Holonym has developed infrastructure that enables anyone, anywhere, to create Human Keys with Mishti Network, easily use them with Silk, and privately prove facts about their identity with Zeronym.

👋 Meet Raad Labs 📍 HQ: Miami Beach, Florida 👥 Leadership: TJ (Teej) Ragsdale 🌐 Website: raad.com 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: Raad is deploying a distributed network of meteorological sensors and incentivizing individuals and businesses to purchase and host devices. This hyper-localized ground truth will empower governments, energy traders, utilities, and insurers to take action, protect infrastructure, and prevent human suffering. 💸 Round: Seed

Excited to share a recap of an incredible month for UNICORN. Thank you to the Unicorn community, customers, and our incredible team for establishing us as the leading platform for spirits & wine. Cheers to our June highlights: 📈 $3.8M Total Hammer Sales: Milestone month with record sales, customer growth, and newly vaulted bottles 🥃 15,000+ Bottles Sold:  Demand for premium spirits and wine remains robust, with more enthusiasts joining our platform every day from all over the world 🥇 World Record for Most Expensive Bourbon Sold: We made history with the sale of the 1982 6L OFC bourbon for an astonishing $122,900—setting a new bourbon world record https://rb.gy/0pwmu7 💰 Record Consignor Payouts: A product of our commitment to delivering exceptional value and speedy payouts of over $3.8m to consingors 📰 Press + Media: Noteworthy press about Unicorn in The Wall Street Journal & Robb Report Stop wasting time hunting for bottles and grab whatever you've been looking for in our 5,800+ bottle auction ending this Sunday (7/14). Or, reach out if you want to learn more about buying, selling, or vaulting with Unicorn!

👋 Meet Sentient 📍 HQ: San Francisco, CA 👥 Leadership: Sandeep Nailwal, Pramod Viswanath, Himanshu Tyagi, 0xSensys 🌐 Website: sentient.foundation 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: Sentient is an AI research organization fostering a new Open AGI Economy for AI Builders and Creators. Sentient is building platforms and protocols to enable open-source AI developers to (1) monetize their models, data, and other innovations, (2) collaborate with each other to collectively build powerful AIs, and (3) be significant stakeholders in a new Open AGI economy. 💸 Round: Seed

👋 Meet RedStone Oracles 📍HQ: BAAR, Switzerland 👥 Leadership: Jakub Wojciechowski, Marcin Kaźmierczak ⛓️ Alex Suvorov 🌐 Website: www.redstone.finance 🚀 Vision & Opportunity: RedStone is a modular oracle delivering diverse, high-frequency data feeds to EVM Layer 1, Layer 2, Rollup-as-a-Service networks, and beyond, such as Starknet, Fuel Network, or TON. By responding to market trends and developer needs, RedStone can support assets not available elsewhere. The modular design allows for data consumption models adjusted to specific use cases, such as capital-efficient LSTfi and early support of LRTs. RedStone is trusted by Pendle, Morpho, Venus, Ethena, ether.fi, and more. 💸 Round: Series A