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This is the 88th edition of The Web3 + AI Daily - your definitive guide to the intersection of blockchain and AI. As we welcome the month of September, I’m sharing a roundup of the investments that shaped the crypto × AI ecosystem in August.
Thank you for being here! Let’s dive in.
Web3 + AI Money Rounds
NeoSoul Raises $11M to Strengthen Agentic Trading
NeoSoul, the company building the foundation for agent economy where agents learn from reality, earn credibility, and create real value, raised $11M in a pre-A funding. The round was supported by MH Ventures, Amber Group, ArkStream Capital, 0G Foundation, Kirin Capital, and others.
One of NeoSoul main products is NeoTrade, a consumer agentic trading product built around user custody and verifiable execution records. This is where the funding will be used - to strengthen trading infrastructure and scale AI agents’ participation in economic activity.
Vangrid Attracts $9M to Power Physical AI
Vangrid, the spatial data layer for autonomous physical agents, attracted $9M from HashKey Capital, Borderless Capital, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate, and Mapleblock Capital.
LLMs hit the text data wall. The next frontier is Physical AI and autonomous systems are starving for real-world spatial ground truth.
Satellites can’t see sidewalks. Corporate fleets can’t scale.
Vangrid turns 3 billion civilian smartphones into a decentralized perception grid.
ORO Collects $3M to Turn DeFi into Conversation
AI-powered DeFi execution platform ORO closed a $3M strategic funding round led by MH Ventures and Mapleblock Capital, and supported by M2M Capital, X21 Digital, Zerone Ventures, Beenco Labs, Velion Ventures, Disrupt.com, ZIGChain, and more.
ORO’s mission is to seemlessly turn one natural language instruction into complex multi-step onchain operations.
Botanika Backed with $1.5M to Build Secure Storage for Private AI
Solana-based decentralized data storage provider Botanika closed a $1.5M round supported by CRIT Ventures, Inc., Baboon.vc, MARBLEX, Daedalus Angels, and angel investors.
Botanika started from a simple question. “If AI-era infrastructure ends up concentrated in five companies, is there a way to distribute ownership of that infrastructure?”
To answer that question, we chose to stand at the point where DePIN, RWA, and AI meet.
→ DePIN supplies the hardware
→ RWA shapes the ownership structure
→ AI creates the real demand
Each is a narrative on its own. Together, they become an industry.
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Disclaimer: The content of this newsletter is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing contained herein should be construed as financial advice or as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any of the companies or assets mentioned.
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