Participated · Equity · May 2024

Lava Foundation is building a modular blockchain network and is currently operating in a testnet phase. The project runs a Magma program that rewards users with points. The foundation completed an $11M financing to support development. Participating backers include Animoca Brands, Gate.io Ventures, CoinGecko Ventures, Polygon co‑founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ash Crypto, CryptoLark, Crypto Times Japan, Le Journal Du Coin and The Rollup. Lava plans a mainnet launch and a token airdrop in the first half of 2024. The funding is positioned to help advance the network toward that launch and user incentives.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2022

Shardeum is a scalable EVM-based layer-1 blockchain that deploys dynamic state sharding. Its dynamic state sharding approach keeps gas fees low and TPS high as participation grows by performing consensus at the transaction level and lowering the computational power required for validator nodes. This consensus mechanism aims to allow anyone to run a node and increase decentralization. The company intends to use the $5.4M in new funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Operating metrics on the testnet as of July 7, 2023 include over 7.4 million transactions, 820K+ accounts and more than 230K contracts deployed. Shardeum raised an $18.2M seed round in October 2022 from investors including Jane Street, Big Brain Holdings, Struck Crypto, The Spartan Group, Ghaf Capital, DFG, CoinGecko Ventures and Foresight Ventures. Shardeum is a remote, EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain that implements sharding to increase transactions per second as nodes are added while retaining atomic cross-shard composability. The protocol emphasizes low gas fees forever and leverages dynamic state sharding to balance decentralization and security. Founded by Nischal Shetty and Omar Syed, the company raised $18.2M in Seed funding. Backers include Jane Street, Struck Crypto, The Spartan Group and a broad group of institutional and angel investors. The company plans to use the funds to further enhance its dynamic sharding technology, accelerate ecosystem development, and focus on product and design improvements. It will also expand research and marketing efforts and host hackathons in India and the U.S. to incentivize developers to build on the platform.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2022

Unstoppable Domains operates a blockchain naming system and identity platform that lets users create usernames for crypto and build decentralized digital identities. It mints each domain as an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain and offers TLDs such as .crypto, .coin, .bitcoin, .x, .888, .nft and .dao. Since launching the platform in 2019 the company has helped register over 2.5 million domains and has generated more than $80 million in sales. Domains are sold for as little as $5 and the platform integrates with over 300 applications, including OpenSea, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, Chainlink, Brave and ETHMail. More than 150 dApps support its Login with Unstoppable single sign-on for Ethereum and Polygon, addressing wallet-address usability issues. CEO Matthew Gould said the company aims to onboard billions of people onto Web3 through NFT domains that unlock user-owned, private, and portable identities. Unstoppable Domains builds domain names on blockchains and sells its own extensions directly to consumers. The company recently launched its first extension, .zil, with pre-orders open and a public auction beginning June 20th. Blockchain domains replace crypto addresses with human‑readable names and enable uncensorable websites by storing domains in users’ wallets and content on IPFS or other decentralized storage. Unstoppable Domains removed renewal fees for blockchain domain purchases and sells domains at unstoppabledomains.com. The company announced a $4 million Series A led by Draper Associates and previously raised a $730,000 seed in December 2018 from Boost VC; it has also received grants from the Ethereum Foundation and the Zilliqa Foundation. The firm plans to use the funds to expand its product team, build integrations with more wallets and exchanges, and hire sales and marketing talent.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2022

Atmos Labs is building an expansive, play-and-earn metaverse that pairs competitive esports-style gameplay with fandom and virtual ownership via NFTs and DeFi. The team, drawn from gaming, crypto, automotive, industrial design, comic books, and film, is designing deep lore, high-octane gameplay, and interoperable in-world assets. Players will be able to compete in multiple game modes, fabricate equipment, mine and smelt resources, and own gear, teams, identities, and moments. Atmos plans a transmedia campaign to present canonical lore and will drop an initial set of playable items in the coming months. The company closed an $11M seed round to build the game world foundation, grow its community, and expand the team. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the articles.

Participated · Seed · Nov 2021

BlockchainSpace builds tools to empower play-to-earn guild owners and operates educational academies that identify economic opportunities in play-to-earn games. The platform’s features are designed to save guild operators time, provide data and metrics, and give guilds access to capital. The company currently serves over 2,000 guilds and 545,000 players. It is initially focusing on three key product areas: guild performance monitoring, a Guild Data Bank, and a Guild Financial Bank. Beginning early next year, BlockchainSpace plans to launch an Open Guild Marketplace with TradFi and DeFi integrations, plus automated credit scoring, loan issuance, and deployment of an Ecosystem fund. The company intends to use the new capital to continue developing these tools and features for guild management and scaling.