Participated · Seed · Oct 2019

Juno provides checking accounts tailored for crypto users, enabling customers to take paychecks in digital tokens and spend crypto or cash via a Mastercard-powered debit card. The platform integrates with popular U.S. payroll systems, offers bill payments, and provides zero-fee onramps from checking accounts to Layer 2 networks such as Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Juno also automates tax reporting through form 1099 for customers, reducing manual transaction and gains calculations. The startup has amassed over 75,000 U.S. customers and reported $1 billion in annualized transaction volume processing. Juno is launching an optional tokenized loyalty program (an ERC-20 called JCOIN) and has generated a 150 million token snapshot for eligible customers. Founders, employees, and investors are not taking token allocations to avoid conflicts of interest. The founding team previously worked on Nuo protocol and positioned the product with compliance at its core to onboard users to web3 via a familiar checking-account interface. Juno is a digital banking platform built on top of Ethereum that relies on the Nuo lending protocol and will offer smart-contract wallets paying 5.5% annual interest on USDC. The flagship product has no fees and includes a Venmo-style peer-to-peer payment option. Juno plans an initial launch in the U.S., Europe, Singapore and Japan and will partner with online money transmitters for on-ramps, with potential future bank partnerships for debit cards and free cross-border payments. The platform says it will fund yields from interest earned on short-term crypto-collateralized loans and margin-trading loans originated through Nuo. Deposits will be insured by a price-volatility insurance fund under development by Nuo as well as smart-contract insurance. Nuo currently reports $25 million in deposits and $20 million in loans disbursed, which the team will leverage as they roll out Juno.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2019

SKALE operates an elastic, proof-of-stake blockchain network designed to give dapps high throughput and low transaction costs. The company launched a testnet last year and established the NODE Foundation earlier this year. SKALE says the network will enable dapps to conduct “millions of transactions per second at a fraction of the cost of what’s possible today.” There are currently 23 dapps on the platform and a roughly 20-person engineering team; the company plans to add more engineers. The recent funding will be used to launch the mainnet, seed and stabilize the network, and increase security. Founders include Stan Kladko, Ph.D. and Jack O’Holleran. Skale Labs is building a permissionless, layer-2 blockchain aimed at giving Ethereum decentralized application developers a new base platform. The company intends to run the first implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine on a Plasma chain to enable smart-contract execution off mainnet. Skale says its network will allow dapps to conduct "millions of transactions per second at a fraction of the cost" of current options. The project plans to launch a testnet by the end of 2018 and activate mainnet in the following year. Skale also intends to create a foundation to support the network similar to the Ethereum Foundation. The recent fundraising will support development of this scalability infrastructure.

Led · Seed · Nov 2018

Aztec develops a privacy-focused layer that integrates with Ethereum, allowing users and developers to execute smart contracts and DeFi transactions without exposing underlying data. The protocol employs advanced zero-knowledge proof technology for selective disclosure, balancing confidentiality with regulatory considerations. Aztec’s design supports programmable privacy, enabling private DeFi interactions and composability with existing Ethereum tooling while leveraging Ethereum’s security. The team progressed through a structured launch path that included core R&D, test environments, an on-chain capital raise, token generation and distribution, and a subsequent Coinbase listing. Financially, Aztec completed a $61 million on-chain fundraising event that was fully transparent and verifiable on the blockchain. The raise attracted crypto-native participants and minimized traditional intermediaries. Following the fundraise, the $AZTEC token’s listing on Coinbase broadened market accessibility and liquidity. Future plans allude to expanding cross-chain research and further embedding privacy features across decentralized applications.