Vietnamese non-fungible token (NFT) platform Aura Network has closed the fundraising round of $4 million, with Hashed and Coin98 Ventures co-leading the round.

Following the strategic advisory partnership announcement with Republic Crypto, this is the next committed milestone ahead of its Mainnet launch in the first quarter of 2023, Aura Network said in a statement on Wednesday.

In this fundraising round, Aura Network engaged some notable blockchain projects, including GuildFi, Istari Ventures, Republic Crypto and other angel investors.

Furthermore, strategic relationships with these investors and partners will offer advice on its operations, product and business development, marketing efforts and more.

According to the statement, the funds are earmarked for Aura Network’s ecosystem expansion, including increasing the number of global Web3 projects and products built within the ecosystem.

Moving towards the Mainnet launch, Aura Network’s development team is currently working on building several new products. The schedule to release these products will be announced shortly in its 2023 roadmap.

“Web3 and NFTs are here to stay. Standing on the shoulders of giants, we will use this amount of funds to set up for the next cycle of continued development regardless of any market situation,” said Giang Tran, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aura Network.

Aura Network is an ecosystem built to accelerate global NFTs adoption. The firm focuses on building the Internet of NFTs and bringing NFT and web3 to the masses.

With the strong support of angel investors and partners, Aura Network said it will fuel the growth of NFTs mass adoption and become one of the leading Web3 builders.

According to the statement, the funding is by far one of the most significant fundraises for Aura Network with the investment of Hashed, South Korea’s most highest-profile crypto investment firm.

In the five years of establishment, Hashed’s investment portfolio has included over 80 projects across multiple categories, namely NFT brands such as Axie Infinity and The Sandbox, blockchain networks such as Cosmos and Klaytn, DeFi protocols like MakerDAO.

“Hashed is delighted to back Aura Network in its pre-mainnet round. We are impressed with Aura Network’s technical track record, which has allowed it to evolve into one of the biggest open-source contributors to Cosmos,” commented Joseph Young, Senior Associate of Hashed.

“We are fundamentally optimistic about the Cosmos ecosystem and also believe in Aura Network’s vision in building a comprehensive layer one which supports NFTs, gaming, and sustainable DeFi,” he added.

Founded by a team of serial entrepreneurs and engineers in 2017, Hashed is the preeminent blockchain firm in Asia with a portfolio that spans the globe.

”It’s been amazing supporting Giang and his talented team at Aura from the start and watching them develop daily. By providing a trustworthy, lightning-fast, scalable, and NFT-centric layer 1, Aura Network is the perfect match to hasten the adoption of NFT in various utilities worldwide,” said Thanh Le, Founder of Coin98.

“We are thrilled to supportAura, a team with excellent execution abilities, deep technical knowledge, robust foundation for user and developer relationships, and wholehearted commitment to quality in making NFT widely accepted,” he added.

Coin98 Ventures is the venture capital arm of Coin98 Finance, a Web3 Vietnam-based building hub.

The firm seeks to invest in founders with disruptive ideas and innovative approaches across the Web3 stack, from layer 1 protocols and infrastructures to consumer-facing applications.

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