Toronto-based startup Helika has closed a $4 million CAD seed round to expand its operations and develop its Web3 analytics platform.
The round was led by Diagram Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, Sparkle Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Fenbushi, and Builder Capital.
“We see Helika at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry.”
– Ken Nguyen, Diagram Ventures
Diagram Ventures is a quasi-accelerator and venture investor that “conceives and launches” tech companies in addition to providing funding. Since 2016, Diagram has created 12 startups totalling to over $1 billion CAD in enterprise value. Its portfolio includes Web3 startups like StreamingFast and Conduit, and the firm currently employs a group of over 90 angel investors.
According to CrunchBase, Helika has seven investors to date. They completed a $600,000 CAD pre-seed round in June 2022 with participation from Diagram Ventures and the VC’s portfolio company StreamingFast.
“We’re confident with our investment in Helika as they’ve shown impressive customer traction within NFT communities and with large game studios in a short amount of time,” said Ken Nguyen, head of crypto at Diagram Ventures.
Helika’s platform delivers real-time analytics and onboards new users to gaming studios and popular NFT collections. The startup currently serves brands like Yuga Labs and Treasure, and plans to expand its operations and develop its platform to better serve the Web3 community.
The Web3 community Helika is looking to support has fallen on hard times recently. The global cryptocurrency market has receded drastically since the peak of its value in November 2021, with a major crash in 2022 deterring many investors from funding crypto startups. Additionally, the value of NFT collections have plummeted following its own crash in 2022.
Amid this, Helika founder and CEO Anton Umnov remains optimistic about its future expansion with the support of its investors.
“This funding round will enable us to grow our team, improve our product, connect more sources of data from other blockchains, and continue to gather insights to share with the Web3 community,” said Umnov.
Umnov graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2008, and went on to found Bixi Crypto Exchange and Folium Labs. He then went on to co-found Helika with Artem Germanov in August 2022.
Helika says the lack of visibility on reach, retention, and revenue of NFT collections has been a major challenge for many Web3 gaming studios and popular NFT projects. Its platform provides insights so that top Web3 companies can make informed, strategic decisions.
“We see Helika at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry, and believe its innovative technology and forward-thinking approach position the company for significant growth in the years to come,” said Nguyen.
Feature image courtesy Pexels.
