Sony makes $13M follow-on investment in Startale after Soneium mainnet year

Sony Group Corp. made a follow-on investment in Startale Group, disclosing an additional $13 million from the Sony Innovation Fund in a Thursday announcement sent to Cointelegraph, about a year after the Soneium network’s mainnet launch in January 2025. Startale said the funding came after Soneium moved from testnet experimentation into live operation and after Sony observed the network’s post-launch performance.

A Startale spokesperson told Cointelegraph that Sony’s decision was informed by the transaction milestone and the number of wallets reaching 5.4 million, and that the investment reflects progress in their ongoing collaboration through Sony Block Solutions Labs. Startale’s public block explorer shows Soneium has processed about 524 million transactions since its mainnet launch in January 2025.

Nansen data cited by Startale shows Avalanche and Algorand recorded 442 million and 383 million transactions, respectively, over the same period; the report notes that transaction counts alone do not indicate user adoption or economic activity. Startale also said its Startale USD (USDSC) stablecoin is live on Soneium’s mainnet, built on M0’s platform and designed as a native settlement layer for applications and payments on the network.

Startale described the new funding as the first close of its Series A but declined to disclose valuation details for the follow-on round.

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