Zone Raises $8.5M to scale Decentralized Payment Infrastructure

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Zone Raises $8.5M to scale Decentralized Payment Infrastructure

2) 'MadWorld' NFT Shooter Launches in Early Access, Raises $11M

3) Prediction Market Platform Kalshi to Launch Crypto Price Bets

4) Tifin Hires Ex-BlackRock MD Brooke Juniper as CEO of Sage

5) Codezero Secures $3.5M For Groundbreaking Multi-Cloud Security

Zone Raises $8.5M to scale Decentralized Payment Infrastructure:

• Appzone, now rebranded as Zone, is a Nigeria-based fintech software provider that has developed a blockchain-enabled payment infrastructure to connect banks and fintech companies in Africa, aiming to facilitate transactions without intermediaries and improve the reliability and speed of payments.

• Zone has already onboarded over 15 of Africa's largest banks and is processing domestic transactions through various channels, with plans to expand its network and launch additional functionalities, such as decentralized routing for improved reliability and instant settlement for quicker merchant payments.

• The company has raised $8.5 million in a seed round led by Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital, with the funding expected to support the rollout of new features and broaden its network coverage across different payment channels.

'MadWorld' NFT Shooter Launches in Early Access, Raises $11M:

• Carbonated Inc, a video game studio founded by industry veterans, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Com2uS for its post-apocalyptic shooter game MadWorld, which features NFT-based territory control elements and is set to launch in 2024.

• MadWorld combines competitive shooting action with strategy, allowing players to own, upgrade, and trade tokenized real-world locations on a hex grid, with in-game clans paying tribute to NFT landowners to access unique resources and benefits.

• CEO Travis Boatman, a mobile gaming veteran, believes mobile is the ideal platform for Web3 integration, emphasizing the importance of creating compelling game experiences to drive adoption of on-chain technologies and asserting that regulations are ultimately beneficial for consumers.

Prediction Market Platform Kalshi to Launch Crypto Price Bets:

• Kalshi, a U.S.-based prediction market platform, is launching five new event contracts that allow clients to bet on future price movements of bitcoin and ether, with bets placed in U.S. dollars instead of crypto.

• The new offerings include predicting the future value of bitcoin with price targets for this year at $75,000, $80,000, $90,000, $100,000, and $150,000 or above, as well as estimating the daily price of ether at 4 p.m.

• These prediction markets are being introduced as the cryptocurrency market experiences significant growth, with the GMCI 30 index rising around 115% since the second half of 2023, despite a recent price correction in bitcoin from over $73,000 to under $65,000.

Tifin Hires Ex-BlackRock MD Brooke Juniper as CEO of Sage:

• Tifin, a wealthtech based in New York, has appointed Brooke Juniper, former BlackRock managing director, as the new CEO of its AI-driven investment platform, Sage.

• Juniper's role will focus on accelerating the adoption of investment-related conversational AI capabilities within wealth enterprise firms.

• With a background in finance and technology, Juniper brings experience from her tenure at BlackRock, where she served as head of digital engagement and was a founding member of the US wealth portfolio solutions group. She has also worked for Mercer Global Investments in Australia and served on the board of the CFA Society of Melbourne.

Codezero Secures $3.5M For Groundbreaking Multi-Cloud Security:

• Codezero, a company specializing in secure enterprise microservices development, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Ballistic Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity.

• The funding will support Codezero's mission to revolutionize microservices development across multi-cloud environments, with its flagship offering, Codezero Teamspaces, providing an identity-aware overlay network for developers.

• The investment will be used to expand sales and marketing efforts, grow the partner network, and position Codezero as a leader in secure, multi-cloud application development, aligning with Ballistic Ventures' focus on 'Shift-Left' security and 'Zero Trust' provisioning of developer access.

NoRamp:

NoRamp is building Web2’s favorite Web3 apps on our lightning-fast payment infra. Join our discord, dive into our our docs, or check out our website to learn more.