{"id":61157,"date":"2022-05-09T11:51:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T08:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=61157"},"modified":"2025-09-05T10:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T07:29:47","slug":"media-blockchain-capital-backs-crypto-influencer-irene-zhaos-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/media-blockchain-capital-backs-crypto-influencer-irene-zhaos-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Blockchain Capital backs crypto-influencer Irene Zhao&#8217;s startup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The startup SO-COL, co-founded by crypto influencer Irene Zhao, attracted investment in a private funding round. It was led by the investment firm Blockchain Capital, The Block reports citing sources.<\/p>\n<p>The deal amount was not disclosed. According to sources, the startup&#8217;s valuation reached $100 million.<\/p>\n<p>The funds will be directed toward app development, marketing, and hiring developers.<\/p>\n<p>Zhao confirmed the funding in an interview with the publication. She said the startup &#8216;helps content creators and influencers working in Web 2 to transition to Web 3.0 with a simple user interface&#8217;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;They can use their Apple Wallet, any wallet they have, to buy anything on our platform,&#8221; Zhao said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>She said an official release of the platform would come soon.<\/p>\n<p>In February, SO-COL closed a seed round of $1.75 million. Participants included Animoca Brands, DeFiance Capital, Three Arrows Capital, Mechanism Capital, Global Founders Capital, Double Peak Group, Antifund, Genblock Capital and Kronos Research.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We\u2019re thrilled to announce that we\u2019ve recently raised $1.75 million in seed funding led by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/animocabrands?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@AnimocaBrands<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeFianceCapital?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DeFianceCapital<\/a> to empower creators and their communities. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FhwyU5QoXu\">https:\/\/t.co\/FhwyU5QoXu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SO-COL ? (We\u2019re hiring) (@socol_io) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/socol_io\/status\/1490890675038322688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 8, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Earlier Zhao released an NFT collection titled IreneDAO. She described the project as a proof of concept for SO-COL.<\/p>\n<p>As reported in June 2021, Blockchain Capital <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/paypal-and-visa-become-limited-partners-in-blockchain-capitals-fund-v\">raised $300 million<\/a> for its fifth fund. Visa and PayPal were among its partners.<\/p>\n<p><em>Update (29.03.2023, 13:15): Information about the amount raised has been removed from the headline. Added to the text: &#8216;The deal amount is not disclosed. According to media, the startup&#8217;s valuation reached $100 million&#8217;.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SO-COL startup, co-founded by crypto influencer Irene Zhao, raised $100 million in a private funding round. It was led by the investment fund Blockchain Capital, The Block reports citing sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1133],"class_list":["post-61157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-venture-investments"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"14","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61159,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61157\/revisions\/61159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}