Weekly Funding Signal
Asian-linked crypto funding this week reached $73 million in two determined deals, with an additional up to $12 million from Lion Group's proposed investment in an Indonesian stablecoin developer. AI and infrastructure remain key verticals.
Key Deals
- Venice AI – Raised $65M in Series A funding at a $1B post-money valuation, led by Dragonfly with participation from Coinbase Ventures. The privacy-first AI platform serves over 3M monthly active users and is already profitable. Source
- THEA – Raised $8M in funding to build a Solana-based coordination layer for predictive behavioral AI. The round was co-led by Maven 11 Capital, Spartan Group, ManifoldTrading, HackVC, and Fisher8 Capital. Source
- Lion Group – Proposed an investment of up to $12M in PT Nusantara Bumi Sangkara, an Indonesian fintech developing the NIDR stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Indonesian rupiah. The deal would give Lion Group a 10% economic interest. Source
Builder to Watch
Venice AI – Founded 2 years ago, Venice AI offers over 200 open and closed-source models with "uncensored" claims, end-to-end encryption, and no data retention. With $65M in new capital, it plans to purchase GPUs and build its own data centers to reduce dependency on leased infrastructure.
Also Noted
None this week. All other funding rounds lacked clear Asian ties and were excluded.
Capital Flow
$73M in determined capital went to Asian-affiliated projects: $65M to Venice AI (AI platform) and $8M to THEA (AI network). An additional up to $12M is proposed for an Indonesian stablecoin project. Dragonfly and Spartan Group led key rounds from the Asian VC side.
PANews View
Asian VCs remain active in AI and stablecoin infrastructure, with Dragonfly and Spartan leading sizable rounds. The region's focus on real-world asset tokenization and compliance-first stablecoins is evident, though overall deal count is lower this week.
