Carva data layer platform that allows Web3 and AI gaming companies, as well as gamers, to control and monetize their data, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures.
Carv’s new cycle comes about five months later it received a strategic investment led by HashKey Capital. The startup has not disclosed its valuation or the total funding it has raised so far. In 2022, Carv was valued at approximately $40 million when it launched a funding round led by Temasek’s VC arm, Vertex Ventures.
Carv’s initial focus is on two key sectors, gaming and AI, where it sees the greatest opportunity to help users take control of their data and monetize it. Users can choose to provide their data to Carv’s enterprise customers in a way that preserves their privacy and complies with regulations, so that companies can use it to train AI models, market research and more Again.
“Even though user data has generated considerable economic growth, individuals do not share the value created when their information is exploited to build billion-dollar companies,” Victor Yu, co-founder and COO of Carv, told TechCrunch.
Carv offers three solutions: CARV protocola modular data layer with cross-chain connectivity that connects Web2 identities to Web3 tokens; Play CARV, a multi-platform accreditation system and game distribution platform; and CARV’s AI agent, CARA, a personalized gaming assistant that integrates with web3 wallets and can recommend games, activities and projects.
“Carv differentiates itself by putting data ownership and monetization rights in the hands of users. All revenue generated from mining user data is shared with the data creators and themselves,” said Yu. “In addition, we have created a unified user identification standard (ERC-7231) which connects web2 and web3, enabling seamless data portability compared to today’s siled solutions.
Carv has been profitable since December 2023 and generates monthly recurring revenue of more than $1 million, Yu said, adding that the company is also seeing significant month-over-month growth.
The company NOW has 2.5 million registered users and over 350 integrated gaming and AI partner companies.
With the new capital, Carv plans to improve the design of its CARV protocol to ensure it is scalable and can support a wider range of use cases. It will also launch CARV Link to improve the channel identify and data authentication, and CARV database to manage different types of user data.
Arweave, Consensys (developer of MetaMask and Linea), Draper Dragon, Fenbushi Capital, LiquidX, MARBLEX(the web3 arm of Korean gaming company Netmarble), No Limit Holdings and OKX Ventures also participated in the Series A round.
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