🦄 Startups & VCs (Web3, AI & SaaS)

🚀 August 2026 Seed Deals: Where Is Web3 VC Money Going? August is not over yet, and bringing some interesting signals for Web3 founders. Capital is flowing into startups connecting blockchain with real financial activity, infrastructure, data and established industries. Here are the seed-stage deals worth watching 👇 💰 Dow Protocol | $10.5M Seed Dow Protocol is building a PayFi and RWA platform that helps e-commerce merchants access working capital faster. The $10.5M round was led by MH Ventures, Mapleblock, Animoca Brands, Arcane Group, HSKChain, Essentia Partners and Quartet Group. 🌍 Vangrid | $9M Seed Amsterdam-based Vangrid is building a DePIN network that turns smartphone-captured locations into verified 3D spatial data for robotics, Physical AI, government and defense. The $9M round was structured as a SAFT, with HashKey, Borderless, Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, Gate Labs and Mapleblock Capital among the key investors. 📈 River Markets | $8.5M Seed River Markets is building institutional trading infrastructure for prediction markets, helping professional traders access and manage liquidity across venues such as Kalshi and Polymarket. The $8.5M seed round was led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, Qube Research Technologies and angel investors from Google, Nvidia, Novig, JPMorgan and Citadel. ✈️ Entravel Group | $7.5M Seed Entravel provides crypto-native travel infrastructure, embedding hotel booking into fintech apps and crypto exchanges serving around 300M users. The $7.5M round was co-led by Ethereal Ventures and Finality Capital, with GSR, Varrock, G1 Ventures, Seier Capital, Veris Ventures, Funfair Ventures and WTG Ventures also participating. 📱 Memebook | $1M Seed Memebook is a Solana-based social platform combining an Instagram-style experience with wallet-based identity and verification. The startup raised $1M from TOF Ventures. 💡 What can other founders learn from these deals? The strongest fundraising stories are increasingly built around a real problem, real customers and measurable demand. For Web3 founders, the key is to show why blockchain makes the solution better, where your distribution comes from and which investors can bring strategic value beyond capital. The bigger signal from these August deals? Web3 is increasingly becoming infrastructure for real economic activity. 🔥

🎯 How to Pitch Your Web3 Startup in a Conversation with an Investor Got a meeting with a VC? Great. Now forget the 30-slide pitch deck for a moment. A strong investor conversation is about one thing: making the investor quickly understand why your project matters and why you can build it. Here are the rules founders should keep in mind 👇 🔥 Start with the problem, not the technology. Skip the long explanation of your protocol, architecture or token mechanics. Tell the investor what painful problem exists, who has it, and why your solution can solve it better. 📊 Bring proof, not promises. “Massive market” and “huge potential” are easy to say. Real traction is harder to fake. Talk about revenue, users who actually use the product, retention, transaction activity, fees, pilots, partnerships or other signals that show people want what you are building. 💡 Make your story easy to follow. A good conversation should feel like a dialogue, not a technical lecture. Explain the business first. Then let the investor dig deeper into the technology, token model or infrastructure when they want to. 🎯 Know your fundraising story. Be ready to answer three simple questions: • How much are you raising? • What instrument are you using? • What specific milestone will this round unlock? If you need a token, explain why it is essential to the network. If the product can work perfectly well with stablecoins or traditional rails, be prepared to explain the strategic reason for a token. 👀 Expect difficult questions. A serious investor may ask about token utility, TVL quality, regulation, unit economics, competition, security or your long-term moat. Don't try to dodge these questions. A clear answer, including what you still need to figure out, can build much more trust than a perfect-looking story. 🚀 And remember: the goal of the first conversation is momentum. A great meeting ends with a clear next step: another call, a data request, an introduction, or a defined diligence process. “Sounds interesting, let's keep in touch” feels nice. A concrete next step is what you should look for. Stay sharp—every tough question is a chance to stand out and prove your vision 😉

🔐 Authentication: the infrastructure you’ll need sooner than you think When you’re building a startup, authentication can feel like a “we’ll deal with it later” task. Until enterprise customers start asking for SSO, MFA, secure access and user management. Suddenly, your login system becomes a serious product and security challenge. That’s where Auth0 comes in. It’s a flexible authentication and authorization platform that helps developers securely manage logins, users, SSO, MFA and access across their applications. Auth0 also operates at serious scale, handling 10+ billion authentications every month with 99.99% uptime. 🚀 And here’s the good news for early-stage founders: eligible startups can get 1 year of Auth0 B2B Professional for FREE through Auth0 for Startups. You get enterprise-ready authentication infrastructure while keeping your early startup budget focused on building and growing your product. 🔥 The offer includes: • Up to 100,000 monthly active users • Enterprise MFA + 5 enterprise connections • Unlimited organizations, subject to system limits • 3 third-party APIs, including Auth0 for AI Agents Token Vault • Inbound SCIM To qualify, your startup needs to be venture-backed, have less than $5M in funding, less than $1M ARR, and be less than 2 years old. If enterprise customers are on your roadmap, this is the kind of infrastructure worth getting right early. And with the first year covered, there’s even more reason to take a look. 👀 👉 Get the Auth0 perk through InnMind Build for scale from day one. ⚡️ And don’t forget to explore the InnMind Perks Club for more useful tools, services and startup offers that can help you save money and move faster. 🚀

📅 10 Must-Attend Web3 & AI Events Before the End of 2026 Looking for the right conference to meet investors, partners, clients, or fellow builders? 🌍 We've just added a fresh batch of Web3, AI, blockchain, and fintech events to the InnMind Events Calendar Make it a habit to check the calendar regularly. It's one of the easiest ways to discover valuable networking opportunities, stay on top of industry trends, and find the right events to help grow your startup. 🚀 Crypto Tax Forum 2026 📅 September 9, 2026 The world's first conference fully dedicated to crypto taxation returns with experts from regulators, law enforcement, legal firms, and leading Web3 companies discussing the future of crypto compliance and regulation. Attend virtually, earn 10 CPE points, receive a Certificate of Attendance and an NFT POAP. 🎁 Use our exclusive discount code to get 30% off your ticket: innmind30 European Blockchain Convention (EBC12) 📅 September 16-17, 2026 Europe's leading institutional blockchain event brings together 6,000+ attendees, including investors, banks, asset managers, regulators, and top Web3 companies. Expect two days of networking, market insights, tokenization, AI, stablecoins, and institutional adoption discussions. 🎁 Use code IM_15 to get 15% off your ticket. AI & Emerging Technology Forum 2026 📅 September 28-30, 2026 A global gathering for AI professionals, founders, researchers, and innovators exploring Generative AI, machine learning, robotics, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and digital transformation. The forum combines expert talks, hands-on workshops, networking, and career opportunities. Web3 x AI Fusion Singapore 📅 October 6, 2026 This builder-focused event explores how AI and Web3 are coming together through decentralized infrastructure, AI-powered dApps, automation, and tokenized ecosystems. Meet founders, developers, investors, and innovators building the next generation of decentralized products. EmpowHER in AI Singapore 📅 October 6, 2026 A community-driven event celebrating women founders, AI leaders, and innovators through inspiring discussions, networking, and collaboration. It's a great opportunity to connect with startups, investors, and professionals shaping a more inclusive AI ecosystem. DeAI Summit 2026 📅 October 28-30, 2026 Hosted in Malta, DeAI Summit brings together AI leaders, decentralized AI builders, policymakers, investors, and researchers to discuss governance, compliance, AI infrastructure, and the future of decentralized intelligence. The program also includes startup pitches, Oxford-style debates, and investment panels. Wiki Finance Expo Cyprus 2026 📅 November 6, 2026 One of Europe's largest FX, fintech, and crypto expos featuring 5,000+ attendees, industry leaders, technology providers, brokers, and regulators. Explore the latest trends in payments, AI for finance, DeFi, compliance, trading infrastructure, and institutional markets. Blockchain Life 2026 Forum 📅 December 1-2, 2026 One of the biggest global crypto events returns to Dubai with more than 15,000 attendees from over 130 countries. Meet founders, investors, exchanges, miners, and Web3 leaders while gaining market insights during one of the industry's largest networking events. 🎁 Use our exclusive discount code to get 10% off your ticket: INNMIND. AI Future Forum 2026 📅 December 1-2, 2026 Running alongside Blockchain Life, AI Future Forum connects AI founders, investors, developers, and startups exploring practical AI applications, emerging business models, and the growing convergence of AI and Web3. Global Trading Show 2026 📅 December 15-16, 2026 A major multi-asset trading event bringing together traders, brokers, fintech companies, exchanges, institutional investors, and regulators. Discover the latest innovations across crypto, forex, stocks, AI-powered trading, DeFi, and institutional finance. 🚀 See you at the next event, and don't forget to check the InnMind Events Calendar regularly for new networking and fundraising opportunities.

🚀 Before You Sign With Any Crypto Launchpad... Most founders compare launchpads by community size, marketing reach, or past sold-out rounds. Very few ask the questions that can determine whether their startup actually has enough capital to execute after TGE. After analyzing AlphaMind's latest research, we turned the findings into practical advice for Web3 founders. Here are questions every founder should ask before signing with a launchpad: 🔹 How much capital did projects actually retain after refunds across your last 10 sales? 🔹 When does the money reach the project's wallet? 🔹 What happens if 80% of participants request refunds? If a launchpad can't answer these questions clearly, your financial plan may depend on numbers that never reach your treasury. Our latest article also explains: ✅ Why a sold-out IDO can leave a project with almost no working capital ✅ Why headline raise numbers don't always reflect reality ✅ How to evaluate a launchpad beyond marketing claims. Read the full article here

💰 Your IDO Raise May Be Smaller Than You Think Most founders celebrate one number after an IDO: "We hit our hard cap!" 🎉 But here's a tougher question: How much of that capital actually stays with your project after the refund window closes? AlphaMind has published an eye-opening research report on crypto launchpad refunds. While the report was created for retail investors, it reveals several lessons every Web3 founder should understand before launching a token sale. Here are a few numbers that stood out: 📊 Insights shared by 20+ founders suggest that 60-95% of announced funds were refunded in many refundable IDOs, with ~80% being a common outcome. 📉 In 11 out of 16 verified IDOs, the token traded below its sale price while refunds were still available, creating a strong incentive for participants to exit. 🔍 Researchers also found that 6 out of 6 refunded or cancelled sales they checked were still displayed by public aggregators as successful raises, even though the projects never retained the announced capital. What does this mean for founders? ✅ Plan your budget around the capital you're likely to retain, not the headline raise. ✅ Understand refund mechanics before choosing a launchpad, including settlement timing, fee structure, and refund conditions. ✅ Treat liquidity, market making, and community quality as fundraising strategy, because they can directly impact how much capital your startup keeps after TGE. We summarized the key founder takeaways and practical recommendations in our latest article👇 🔗 Read here: https://blog.innmind.com/refundable-crypto-launchpad-risks-founders/

🚀 Free PDF: 19 Verified Web3 Accelerators for 2026 Finding the right accelerator shouldn't feel like a research project. That's why we prepared a free list of 19 active Web3 accelerators with verified application links and short founder-focused notes, so you can spend less time searching and more time applying. Inside you'll find: ✅ 19 active accelerator programs 🔗 Verified application links 💡 A short description of each accelerator and what makes it unique, helping you quickly understand where your startup is the best fit. No outdated programs. No broken links. No endless browsing through dozens of websites. Open the list, compare your options, and take the next step with confidence. ⚡️ 👇 Which accelerator are you planning to apply to first?

🚨 BitMEX & BitMart Are Shutting Down. Here's Why Web3 Founders Should Pay Attention Two crypto exchanges, BitMEX and BitMart, recently announced they are winding down operations. While the headlines may look alarming, the bigger story is what these closures reveal about where the crypto industry is heading. 👇 BitMEX had been losing relevance for years after regulatory issues, declining trading volumes, and a shrinking market share. BitMart followed with a transparent wind-down plan as competition across the exchange market became increasingly difficult to survive. The bigger picture? The rules of the game have changed. A few years ago, launching another exchange or crypto product could be enough to ride the market's growth. Today, founders need much more than that. Investors, users, and regulators expect businesses that can survive in any market cycle, not only during a bull run. Here are the biggest signals for Web3 startups: 🔹 Differentiation is becoming everything. Building "another exchange," wallet, or DEX is no longer enough. Founders need a clear reason why users should choose their product over dozens of existing alternatives. 🔹 Sustainable business models matter more than hype. Investors are paying close attention to revenue, retention, product economics, and long-term execution. Strong fundamentals are becoming a competitive advantage. 🔹 Compliance is now part of the product. AML, KYC, security, and transparent governance have become core business requirements. Trust has become one of the strongest assets a Web3 company can build. 🔹 Capital is shifting toward infrastructure. While smaller exchanges struggle, funding continues to flow into tokenization, stablecoins, institutional infrastructure, custody, payments, and blockchain infrastructure. These sectors are laying the foundation for the next growth cycle. The takeaway is clear. The crypto market is becoming more competitive, more professional, and more selective. For Web3 founders, this is actually good news. Teams solving real problems, building sustainable businesses, and earning user trust have a stronger opportunity to stand out than ever before. 🚀

🪙 MongoDB Credits to Help Your Startup Build Faster MongoDB is one of the world's leading database platforms, trusted by developers to build modern, scalable applications. Its technology powers millions of applications across industries, making it a go-to choice for startups and global enterprises alike. If you're building an early-stage startup, this perk gives you everything you need to strengthen your infrastructure while saving valuable budget. Here's what you get 👇 ✅ MongoDB Atlas credits based on your startup stage ✅ Voyage AI tokens for RAG and AI search ✅ Partner credits with selected tools ✅ 30 days of Developer Support ✅ One-on-one session with a MongoDB expert. The program is open to startups that are less than 7 years old, are at Series A or earlier, and meet the eligibility requirements. Both new and existing Atlas users can apply. This is a great opportunity to reduce infrastructure costs, access powerful AI tools, and receive direct guidance from the team behind one of the world's most widely used databases. 👉 Apply here And don't stop there. InnMind Perks Club gives you access to dozens of exclusive offers from leading infrastructure providers, AI tools, legal partners, marketing platforms, and many more to help your startup grow faster while spending less. Build smarter. Save more. Scale with confidence.

Crypto VC is changing faster than most founders realize. This week Haseeb (Dragonfly) dropped a pretty fancy blunt take: “Crypto VC will be gone by 2030.” The pure narrative, no-PMF, “raise $50-80M on vision alone” era is clearly ending. Deal volume is at multi-year lows. Capital is getting more selective and moving toward projects that can actually survive without constant fundraising. We’re seeing the same shift on the ground: • Investors ask harder questions earlier • Spray-and-pray outreach works worse than before • Real readiness (narrative + numbers + clear fit) matters more than ever This isn’t bearish.. It’s just the market growing up. The founders who adapt to this new reality will keep raising. The ones who keep playing the 2021 playbook will struggle more and more. Full interview on YT. We’re watching this closely.

💰 Smart Money Keeps Building Our big Perk Club update stole the spotlight last week, but there's one important story we wanted to come back to today 👇 Citadel Securities has invested $400M in Crypto.com at a $20B valuation, marking the exchange's first institutional fundraising round. While the crypto market remains volatile, one of the world's largest market makers is betting on where the industry is heading next. So, what should Web3 founders take away from this? The biggest trend isn't another funding round. It's where the money is flowing. Institutions are investing in the infrastructure behind digital finance: tokenization, trading, custody, settlement, and compliance. Crypto.com is expanding into tokenized securities and derivatives, while Coinbase has already grown beyond crypto by adding stock trading. The race is no longer about building another exchange. It's about building the financial infrastructure of tomorrow. For startups, this sends a clear message: 🚀 Build products that solve real problems, not short-term narratives. 🏦 Think beyond crypto-native users. Banks, asset managers, and enterprises are becoming your future customers. ⚖️ Treat compliance as an advantage. Startups that can work within evolving regulations will have a stronger position. 🧩 Focus on infrastructure and efficiency. That's where long-term demand is growing. Markets go up and down. Strong infrastructure keeps moving forward. Build what the next generation of finance will need 🔥

🚀 546 active Web3 investors. One spreadsheet. Zero guesswork. Still spending hours searching for investors who stopped writing checks months ago? Or sending cold messages that never get a reply? 😅 Our new Web3 VC & Investor Database 2026 helps you skip the research and start conversations with investors who are actively deploying capital today. Inside you'll find: 🎯 546 verified Web3 investors, including 204 priority outreach targets with the exact decision-maker, verified contact routes, recent deals, investment focus, and a ready-to-use "Why Write Now" angle. Every investor in the database has backed at least one confirmed deal in the last 12 months. Every priority contact is manually verified. LinkedIn, X, Telegram, public email, application forms... all checked and ready to use. Want to reach a16z Crypto? You'll know who to contact, why now is the right time, at what stage they invest, who they co-invest with, and which recent deals show they're active. 💡 Plus, the database includes: • 296 confirmed funding rounds with sources • 351 verified investor profiles • 28 "under the radar" funds without public websites • A built-in outreach CRM and a practical cold outreach playbook Fundraising gets much easier when you're talking to the right people with the right message. 👉 Explore the database and start building your investor pipeline today Good fundraising starts with better targeting 🔎

🚀 Claim Claude API Credits from Anthropic and Unlock More Startup Benefits A few days ago, we mentioned that we've added a bunch of new perks to the InnMind Perks Club. Today, we're giving you a closer look 🔎 We've partnered with some of the best startup programs to help founders save money, build faster, and scale smarter: 💎 Anthropic: Apply for Claude for Startups and get free API credits, priority rate limits, and access to exclusive founder events. 💎 MongoDB: Receive Atlas credits, Voyage AI tokens, partner credits, and expert support to build and scale your product. 💎 Auth0: Get the B2B Professional plan free for one year, including enterprise authentication, SSO, and MFA. 💎 Sleek: Save 15% on company incorporation and business services in Singapore. 💎 Miro: Claim up to $1,000 in credits for the AI-powered innovation workspace built for fast-moving startups. These offers can save your startup thousands of dollars while giving you access to tools trusted by leading tech companies. 👉 Explore all available startup perks and claim the ones that fit your business.

Hmmm… seems something is missing here 🤔

🚀 Building a Gen-AI startup? Here's a perk worth claiming. Rabata provides enterprise-grade S3-compatible cloud storage built for demanding AI workloads. Through the InnMind Perks Club, eligible startups can apply for a $100,000 Rabata Grant in the form of free storage credits. If you're building products powered by generative AI, large datasets, AI-generated video or audio, or training pipelines, this grant can significantly reduce your infrastructure costs and free up resources to focus on product development. Here's who can apply: • You're building a Generative AI product • Your startup has a registered legal entity • You're ready to complete a simple KYC verification • Your founders have public profiles The grant includes $100,000 in storage credits, valid for 2 years, with no hidden fees, giving your team access to secure enterprise-grade storage without upfront infrastructure costs. 👉 Want to learn how to apply and secure your grant? Start here More founder perks are waiting for you. We’ve recently added new offers to the InnMind Perks Club that we haven’t shared yet. Explore the club, choose what fits your startup, and start using the perks to grow faster. 🚀

A CEO just gave up his salary (indefinitely) to save a $2B raise. It worked. Meet MiniMax: the Chinese AI lab behind Hailuo (the video generator that keeps going viral on your feed) & one of the biggest AI IPOs in Hong Kong's history (stock doubled on debut day this January). 6 months after epic IPO, the same stock is down 80% from its peak. Most CEOs in this position hide behind "market conditions" and quietly reprice the story. Yan Junjie, 36, sent a memo to the entire company instead: "Effective today, and until the day we achieve AGI, I will no longer accept any salary from the company." He went even further: - 4% of his personal equity goes to long-term employees over the next 4 years • Another 1% will be allocated to fund the open-source AI community - All his "time, energy and resources" - committed to the mission.. Days later, MiniMax raised $2 billion through a share placement and convertible bonds. With the chart still deep red. The lesson travels down to any stage: Capital doesn't just follow momentum - it follows conviction with skin in the game. When your metrics dip, investors stop reading the chart & start reading YOU. What did the founder personally put on the table? Zero salary is a gesture. 5% of personal equity is a signal. Together they turned a crash story into an alignment story… and $2B followed. Would you give up your salary to close your startup’s round? Honestly 👇

Crypto's smart money is betting on something other than crypto⁉️ Paradigm, the fanciest VC fund in the space, just closed a new $1.2B fund on July 8. Not for crypto. For AI & robotics. Zoom out to see a big pic: ▪️ Global VC hit $510B in H1 2026, more than all of 2025 combined ▪️ AI took 70-80% of it. OpenAI & Anthropic alone ate 43% of every startup dollar ▪️ Even inside crypto: 40 cents of every crypto VC dollar in 2025 went to AI-x-crypto, up from 18 cents a year earlier Guess what this means if you're fundraising rn: A "pure crypto" pitch is fighting for a shrinking slice. Investors’ cheques are going to teams sitting on the AI-crypto seam with real usage behind them, not just hot narratives of fancy deck slides. Paradigm's Matt Huang calls it "not a zero-sum competition." Read it as: show why your thing genuinely needs crypto AND rides the AI wave, or you're pitching into last cycle. The capital is rotating - be where it's landing.

📊 The First Real Q2 2026 Web3 Funding Benchmarks Are Here Most fundraising reports tell you how much money entered crypto. We wanted to answer a different question: what does fundraising actually look like for an early-stage Web3 founder today? 🚀 That's…