Sony Looks East For Blockchain Development, Forms Joint Venture With Startale Labs

Sony Group’s SONY Network Communication department has formed a joint venture with Singapore-based Startale Labs to develop a blockchain that will be an integral part of the global web3 infrastructure.

The JV company will be formed in September and will be named “Sony Network Communications Labs Pte. Ltd.”

The new partnership will target to provide value-added services in all the business arenas of Sony and host blockchain-based offerings from Sony. The capital base stands at SGD 1 million with 90% investment from Sony Network Communications and 10% from Startale Labs.

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Following suit of PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL exploring the crypto space and Nubank’s launch of Layer 3 app chain and native token, Sony is yet another mainstream company to foray into web3 despite uncertainties around the broader market.

Startale CEO Sota Watanabe said, “Can you imagine what happens if Sony, a six times bigger company than Coinbase, launches their platform with Web3 Ways?”

Startale’s History with Sony: Startale is a spin-off company of Astar Network. In February, Sony Network Communications collaborated with Astar to launch a web3 incubator to focus on DAOs and NFTs.

In June, Sony’s subsidiary backed up with another $3.5 million investment in Startale.

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Startale plans to double its workforce and thereby contribute further to Astar Network and Polkadot and thus embark on new projects for Ethereum. The Asian company believes that compared to the U.S., Asia offers a better corridor to create digital technology regulations which will further strengthen Sony and Startale’s joint venture.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Sony’s stock price was trading almost 3% higher.

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