What’s Possible: 17th December, 2021

We hope you enjoy this week's hand-picked selection of important and interesting stories from the frontiers of tech.

Possible Ventures joins Provectus Algae’s $11.4m raise to scale its sustainable synthetic biology biomanufacturing platform

Provectus Algae was born out of the realisation that current platforms used for synthetic biology applications fall short in their capacity to effectively produce a meaningful proportion of the necessary elements of production. Nusqe's goal is daring yet simple: "... transform the bio-manufacturing landscape & enable an industrial revolution built with biology." (read)

German revenue-based financing platform re:cap raises $111.5M Seed round

We’re increasing Possible Venture’s commitment to the awesome team at re:cap as they unveil new non-dilutive funding options for European startups. (read)

100 Thieves: The $460 Million Gaming, Entertainment & Apparel Company

In “The Sports Industry’s Gen Z Problem” study, 35% of Gen Z respondents also said they are fans of esports, which ranked higher on the list than college basketball, MLB, UFC, NHL, MLS, EPL, PGA Tour, and others. (read)

Annus Mirabilis for Animoca Brands and the Open Metaverse

Over the last 4-5 years, Animoca Brands has emerged as the most prolific investor in NFT-centric Web 3.0 companies, which are contributing to building the open metaverse. (read)

Charting the rise of the student builder

Education is changing. Where passive learning was once de rigeur, today’s students are finding opportunities to take their education into their own hands to actively build and create. Students create apps on Codeverse, games on Minecraft, music on Rapchat, graphics on Canva, and a multitude of creative projects on Monthly. The definition of a “student” is also rapidly changing. (read)

Prellis Biologics raises $14.5M, debuts a 'human immune system' in a dish

“By creating this immune system in a dish, we can actually test if those therapeutics are going to elicit an immune response before it goes into a human.” (read)

State of European Tech 2021

European tech is on track to break the $100B milestone of capital invested in a single year – nearly three times the level in 2020. Rapid investment and big exits are now the norm. The total number of tech companies scaling to $1B+ in Europe has ballooned from 223 last year to 321 – up by a staggering 44%. (read)

Interesting adjacencies

• The second web3 native biotech IP-NFT issued and owned by a DAO is almost here. (thread)
• How FTX, the upstart crypto exchange, became the fastest company in history to reach a $25B valuation, just two years after founding. (listen)
• Stanford’s Megan Palmer: We must build a world where everyone, everywhere, can build with biology. (read)
• 10 Predictions About Crypto in 2022 with Ryan Selkis. (listen)

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