Sony Ventures Corporation Adds $13M to Startale as Blockchain Network Activity Scales

Sony’s added funding signals confidence in Startale’s infrastructure growth and rising adoption across its blockchain ecosystem.

Japanese tech firm Sony Ventures has further deepened its bet in Startale Group after pouring more funds into the firm. In a follow-up investment, the tech company made an additional $13 million in Startale through its Sony Innovation Fund. 

Soneium Surpasses 500M Transactions as Wallet and dApp Activity Rises

In a Thursday disclosure, Startale noted that the backing signals confidence in Startale’s progress since its previous seed round and in its role within Sony’s broader blockchain strategy. 

Since going live a year ago, Soneium has reported strong growth across network activity and user adoption. Soneium is an Ethereum Layer 2 network built using Optimism’s OP Stack. 

At the same time, it supports broader on-chain activity, including payments through the USDSC stablecoin, which serves as a settlement layer across the network. According to the company’s data, growth has been evident across transactions, wallets, and deployed applications.

The firm also recorded advancement in consumer-facing tools and settlement layers that support digital asset payments.

Soneium and Startale have also recorded the following growth over the past year:

• Soneium processes over 500 million on-chain transactions.
• Plus, the network posted over 5.4 million active wallets.
• More than 250 decentralized applications live on mainnet.

Alongside infrastructure growth, both companies are focusing on entertainment-linked blockchain use cases. Shifts in content creation driven by generative AI have raised new questions around ownership, rights management, and creator income. 

Sony Ventures Reaffirms Commitment to Startale’s Blockchain Efforts

Startale’s blockchain systems aim to support IP-based platforms where creators and fans interact more directly, with fewer intermediaries.

The Group’s CEO, Sota Watanabe, said Sony has remained a key partner since Soneium’s early development. 

“Startale has been an important partner to Sony since the early days of Soneium. Our vision is to bring the world on-chain, and Sony’s continued support strengthens our ability to deliver the infrastructure required to realize that vision at global scale,” 

Watanabe said.

Sony’s investment follows the launch of the Startale App, a super-app positioned as the main entry point to Sony’s Ethereum Layer 2 network, Soneium. The app was jointly designed by Startale Group and Sony Block Solutions Labs. As per the team, it is designed to connect users directly to the Soneium ecosystem.

Ecosystem activity on Soneium has expanded in the past year, with RWA platform Plume extending its services to the network. Meanwhile, messaging app LINE has selected Soneium to launch a series of NFT-based mini applications. 

Kazuhito Hadano, CEO of Sony Ventures Corporation, described Startale as a company active across multiple layers of the blockchain stack. He pointed to the team’s global outlook and focus on new value flows built on on-chain systems. Hadano added that collaboration around Soneium will continue as Startale pursues broader ambitions.

Before the latest investment round, Startale raised $3.5 million from Sony in 2023. A year later, the firm pulled in another $3.5 million in seed extension from UOB Venture Management and Samsung Next. As reported, total disclosed funding now stands at $20 million.

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