Samsung joins forces with Sony to support Soneium blockchain incubator

Samsung Next, the venture capital arm of the South Korean tech giant, has announced its participation in the Soneium Spark program by investing in Singapore-based Startale Labs.

Samsung Next investor John Yim, who did not disclose details of the investment, said in a blog post that the move will 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 to support its development as a strategic organization aligned with Astar Network. Startale Labs began as an independent venture and later formed a joint venture with Sony Network Communications Inc. Both Startale Labs and Astar Network were founded by Sota Watanabe, who is the director of Sony Blockchain Solutions Labs, which recently launched the Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain Soneium.

According to Sony, Soneium is expected to make web3 more accessible to users and provide a variety of meaningful use cases. The network will leverage optimism aggregations built using the Optimism OP stack and integrate the underlying infrastructure of Startale’s Astar zkEVM.

Soneium has announced an incubation program called Soneium Spark that aims to offer investment of up to $100,000 per team to incentivize web3 developers to build dapps on the blockchain.

Samsung Next will join the incubator to “cultivate a community of visionary creators and innovators” with the goal of turning these into part-time solutions that support the long-term growth of the web3 sector, Yim said.

Samsung joins other blockchain industry players including Sony subsidiaries such as Sony Music and Sony Pictures, as well as Circle, Alchemy, Chainlink, and The Graph, who are also participating in the incubation program.

Earlier this year, Startale Labs raised $3.5 million in an extended seed funding round from Samsung Next and United Overseas Bank Venture Management, though it remains unclear whether this is the same investment referenced in the recent blog post.

Samsung’s web3 initiatives

Samsung has previously ventured into the web3 space with a few collaborations. Last year, the tech giant partnered with Polygon-based streaming service Savage to promote its app on Samsung smart TVs. In 2022, the tech giant partnered with Theta Labs to offer special NFTs to customers who pre-ordered its smartphones.

Samsung is also a key partner in the development of the Bank of Korea’s digital central bank currency. This coalition focuses on creating a digital currency ecosystem that can operate without an internet connection.