Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

Ethlas builds an integrated Web3 gaming ecosystem that aims to let players carry progress, items, and identity across games while making onboarding seamless. Its core products include a Hybrid Authentication Infrastructure that combines traditional social logins with blockchain interoperability and EthlasPay, a cloud-powered blockchain payment solution that aggregates transactions and reconciles them on-chain. The company has developed over 30 games and recorded more than 15 million gameplays, and is led by CEO Wui Ngiap Foo, the former head of technology at Grab. Ethlas operates with a team of about 20 game builders across Singapore, the Philippines and the United States. It is expanding cross-chain through a partnership with LayerZero to support Polygon, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and the BNB Smart Chain. Ethlas also partners with projects like Doodles and DeFi Kingdoms to enable NFTs as playable characters and uses a multi-layered security approach with collaboration from GrabDefence. The company is positioning itself as a platform for both gamers and developers and has pursued features like gamified DeFi education via its PokPok DeFi infrastructure. Ethlas is a free-to-play, play-to-earn GameFi metaverse built on the Polygon chain that enables casual gamers to win and encash cryptocurrency through familiar games. Its in-game cryptocurrency is called $XGEM (Exchange Genesis Ethlas Medium) and the platform plans to mint a first NFT series, Komos, with five tiers intended to boost gameplay. The Komo NFTs are modelled after Komodo dragons and were scheduled to be available before end-February 2022. Ethlas is working with game studios to launch titles on its platform under a revenue-sharing model. The company said it will use the US$2.7M Seed funding to expand operations, grow its team, and develop its product. Ethlas is led by Gennady ‘Ari’ Medvinsky and Elston Sam alongside two other founders (one to be disclosed), and is headquartered in Singapore with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Manila.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2022

Kyoko operates a multi-blockchain GameFi NFT lending market and a DAO-to-DAO lending platform that targets peer-to-peer and cross-chain lending for GameFi guilds. The platform focuses on liquidity management and credit lending solutions for blockchain-based institutions. Kyoko completed a $3,000,000 strategic funding round to support expansion and partnerships. The company plans to use the funds to secure partnerships with play-to-earn guilds and GameFi-focused DAOs and to grow its credit lending offerings. Its infrastructure was undergoing stress tests ahead of a planned mainnet launch in Q1 2022. Company leadership has stated the investment will accelerate development and capture demand for blockchain-based credit in the open metaverse ecosystem.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2016

Civic offers a free identity-protection service that notifies consumers via push notification, text, or email when their Social Security number is used at the time of a transaction. It builds an Identity Protection Network of businesses that collect personal data — banks, financial-services firms, healthcare organizations and background-check companies — and alerts users when partners use their SSN. At launch Civic has background-check partners Onfido and GoodHire and is partnered with TransUnion for real-time credit-report alerts, though TransUnion alerts cannot be pre-empted due to limitations on TransUnion’s side. The consumer product includes credit monitoring alerts from outside its network, $1 million in identity fraud protection, and a 24/7 fraud support hotline; the service is free to consumers while partners pay to join the network and fees are expected to fall as the network scales. Civic plans mobile apps (web live now, iOS imminent, Android next month) and intends to use blockchain technology to decentralize the network to reduce hack risk. The company was co-founded in January by Vinny Lingham and Jonathan Smith, operates a 14-person team in Palo Alto, and is positioned to target a broader market than paid credit-monitoring services.