Samsung Next — the venture capital and startup acceleration arm of the Samsung Group — has invested in Startale Labs.
Background
- Founded by Sota Watanabe, Startale Labs is a Web3 tech company that develops multi-chain apps and infrastructure
- Towards the end of August, Sony's blockchain division, Sony Block Solutions Labs — a joint venture between the Sony Group and Startale Labs — unveiled the development of a new layer-2 blockchain Soneium
- Soneium is an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain ecosystem designed to integrate Web3 with everyday internet services, i.e. Web2. It uses Optimism’s OP Stack codebase
- Right after the unveil, the Soneium Minato public testnet and the Soneium Spark incubator launched
- The incubator program is set to offer developers a host of privileges that encapsulate an investment of up to $100,000 and other funding opportunities available via the program’s partners
Details
- Samsung will participate in the Soneium Spark Incubation Program
- By doing so, the entities intend to transform ideas into market-ready solutions, focussing on long-term sustainability
- Sony’s subsidiaries, including its music, film and education, innovation fund, and Inzone gaming headset divisions will also be taking part in Soneium Spark
Why should you pay attention?
- The Web3 environment in Japan is growing at a fast pace. It has already emerged as one of the most promising hubs in Asia
- Emerging tech has strong government support, reflected in the pro-policies implemented
- Sony and Startale Labs are highly regarded in Japan, a country that has a tech-savvy population
- Japan also receives substantial investments from major corporations
- The environment is ideal and the biggest names in the tech industry are coming together, with Web3 being the connecting bridge
Who said what?
- Chalking out the reason for investment, Samsung Next’s investment team’s John Yim said,
“We invested in Startale Labs because the company is at the forefront of solving key challenges in the Web3 ecosystem by providing essential tools and infrastructure, such as the Astar Network, Soneium, and Startale Cloud Services that simplify the development and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts.”
Zooming out
- These solutions effectively bring down barriers like high entry costs, lack of interoperability, and technical complexity
- This, in turn, makes Web3 technologies more accessible and scalable for developers and businesses
