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Samsung Next, the venture capital arm of the South Korean tech giant, has announced its participation in the Soneium Spark program through an investment in Singapore-based Startale Labs.
Without revealing any details of the investment, Samsung Next investor John Yim said in a statement: Blog entry that the move would support Startale Labs, which is “at the forefront of solving key challenges in the Web3 ecosystem.”
Startale Labs was founded in 2023 by Sota Watanabe as a strategic entity aligned with Astar Network to support its development. Startale Labs started as an independent initiative and later formed a joint venture with Sony Network Communications Inc. Both Startale Labs and Astar Network were founded by Sota Watanabe, who is also the Director of Sony Blockchain Solutions Labs, which recently launched Soneium, an ethereum layer 2 blockchain.
According to Sony, Soneium is expected to make Web3 more accessible to users and offer several meaningful use cases. The network will leverage Optimism rollup packages built with the Optimism OP stack and integrate Startale’s underlying Astar zkEVM infrastructure.
Soneium has announced an incubation program called Soneium Spark that seeks to incentivize web3 developers to build dapps on the blockchain by offering investments of up to $100,000 per team.
According to Yim, Samsung Next will participate in the incubator to “nurture a community of visionary and innovative creators,” with the goal of turning ideas into concrete solutions that foster long-term growth of the web3 industry.
Samsung joins other blockchain industry players Circle, Alchemy, Chainlink and The Graph, which are also participating in the incubation program alongside Sony subsidiaries Sony Music and Sony Pictures.
Earlier this year, Startale Labs x.com/StartaleHQ/status/1760456630796431766?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1760456630796431766%7Ctwgr%5E2b303ecccc6e4e61548e5391c825ff8ea3d3d7db%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cryptotimes.io%2F2024%2F02%2F22%2Fstartale-labs-raises-3-5-million-from-samsung-uob%2F” target=”_blank”>increase $3.5 million in an expanded seed funding round from Samsung Next and United Overseas Bank Venture Management. However, it is unclear whether this is the same investment referenced in the recent blog post.
Samsung's adventures in Web3
Samsung has already made inroads into the web3 sector through several collaborations. Last year, the tech giant partnered with Polygon-based streaming service Savage to introduce its app to Samsung smart TVs. In 2022, the tech giant offered special nfts in collaboration with Theta Labs to customers who pre-ordered its smartphones.
Samsung is also a key partner of the Bank of Korea in the development of its central bank digital currency. This coalition is focused on creating a digital currency ecosystem that can operate without internet connectivity.
