Blockchain-Focused ATP Raises Funds in Softbank China VC-Led Round

Atlas Protocol (ATP), a blockchain-oriented startup focused on advertising, announced on Tuesday it had secured a multi-million dollar investment in a seed round led by Softbank China Venture Capital (SBCVC). Other companies participating in the fund-raiser were Baidu Ventures, Danhua Capital, and Fenbushi Digital.

ATP is incubated by Nebulas Labs and the xGoogler Blockchain Alliance (xGBA). The startup intends to develop blockchain-based solutions to improve interactive advertisement. Its new blockchain-powered creative media model aims to determine the interactive marketing practices among users, advertisers, and publishers.

ATP co-founder Duran Liu commented on the new platform as follows:

“Blockchain is a value network, Nebulas Rank provides a way to measure the value of multidimensional data in the blockchain. The core algorithm of Atlas Protocol is based on the expanded Nebulas Rank. It will create a trustworthy new marketing channel and define a new tokenized marketing frontier.”

ATP has already built the first service application, ATP Smartdrop. It was launched in the Nebulas Incentive Program, which offered token rewards to over 100,000 users. ATP Smartdrop aims to leverage the potential of smart interactive onchain marketing among the blockchain community.

Even though it is unclear whether the news has had an impact, the Nebulas token has added 0.5% in the last 24 hours, trading around $1.96 at the time of writing. It currently ranks at number 73 on Coinmarketcap.

Danhua Capital founding chairman Shoucheng Zhang, who is also a professor at Stanford University, said that “the healthy development of the blockchain ecosystem in the long term requires an outstanding team to truly energize the whole industry.”

The founding team of ATP includes experts operating in both the blockchain space and online advertising. Some of the members are Duran Liu, former head of Nebulas Labs; Hitters Xu, founder of Nebulas; Ellen Wang, founder of Linked-Media; and Cheng Li, former engineering director at FreeWheel. All of them have previously worked for Google. Besides, the team will be supported by expert advisors including Jide Technology co-founder Jeremy Zhou and Columbia University professor Ronghui Gu, who co-founded CertiK.