Participated · Seed · Jan 2025

Torram is a Web2.5 infrastructure company building Bitcoin-native technology to enable institutional-grade decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world asset tokenization on Bitcoin's base layer. Its core product suite comprises a decentralized oracle network, a decentralized indexer network, and decentralized APIs to provide secure real-time data feeds, comprehensive indexing, and standardized data integration. The company aims to let institutions use Bitcoin as a secure settlement layer and to power Bitcoin-native applications with bank-grade reliability. Torram reports strong traction, with over 40 projects awaiting integration, underscoring demand for reliable Bitcoin infrastructure. The company closed an oversubscribed $710,000 pre-seed round in early December 2024 to advance development and go-to-market efforts. Torram is based in Toronto and positions its infrastructure to capitalize on growing institutional interest as Bitcoin surpassed a $2 trillion market cap in December 2024.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2023

Kinto is a modular exchange built on a custom Layer 2 stack with Chain Abstraction technology that combines institutional-grade security with retail accessibility. Its core product is a non-custodial smart wallet and modular exchange offering features such as User-Owned KYC, insured wallets, chain-abstracted swaps and lending markets, and a native Hyperliquid integration for advanced trading. The platform aims to bridge traditional and decentralized finance and to make it easy for users to move on- and off-chain without using centralized exchanges. Kinto currently serves approximately 75,000 verified users and manages about $62 million in total value locked, and the company reports steady revenue streams. Large institutional participation includes a $20 million asset deployment by Brevan Howard Digital’s Abu Dhabi branch. The company is preparing a token launch scheduled for February 18, 2025 as a key milestone in its product rollout. Kinto is a KYC’ed Layer 2 blockchain designed to support modern financial institutions and decentralized protocols with low cost and security. The network aims to meet requirements of both DeFi and traditional finance while protecting user privacy and assets. Kinto’s KYC mechanism encrypts personal information and stores it with a third party, shareable only at user request. The platform insures every app to shield users from untraceable exploits and anonymous scams. It also offers developer incentives intended to make the network attractive for launching new applications. Kinto raised $5M across two rounds to fund team expansion and network development and is led by CEO Ramon Recuero in Orlando, FL.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2023

OrdinalsBot builds infrastructure and developer tools for the Bitcoin Ordinals ecosystem, including an inscription tool, the Scribe on-chain blogging platform, and a premium API for analytics, collection management and marketplace integration. The team launched as the first automated inscription service in the Bitcoin Ordinals space and has expanded into features for collection mints, BRC-20 launches, lazy minting, and complex indexing such as parent-child hierarchies. OrdinalsBot plans to launch a Trio Marketplace to centralize Ordinals access and will ramp up hiring across functions with a focus on BTC developers. The company says the new capital will help reset dynamics and infrastructure within blockchain to bring new opportunities to the Ordinals and BTC ecosystem. Financially, OrdinalsBot completed an oversubscribed $3M+ seed round as a fast follow to a pre-seed raised less than five months earlier, bringing total funding to over $4.5M. The announcement was released from London. OrdinalsBot builds ordinals infrastructure and recently launched a Software Developer Kit (SDK) to help developers integrate ordinals functionality into their projects. The company says the SDK enables companies and individuals to store data on Bitcoin and serves as a building block for Web3. OrdinalsBot was founded in February 2023 by Brian Laughlan and Toby Lewis and is based in the UK. The startup raised more than $1 million in a Seed funding round to improve ordinals infrastructure. Founders stated the funding and investor support will help them become a premier Bitcoin infra company. The company emphasized renewed developer interest in the space as a catalyst for its plans.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2021

Cognitive Space offers an AI-powered Software-as-a-Service platform that helps satellite constellation operators scale and automate mission planning, payload scheduling, link management, and prioritized tasking. Its flagship CNTIENT® platform provides a single scalable system for remote sensing mission planning and operational automation. The company leverages artificial intelligence, software best practices, and operational expertise to drive strategic business outcomes for constellation operators. Cognitive Space is led by Founder and CEO Guy de Carufel and is described in the article as a market leader in intelligent space automation. The company plans to use the funds to further advance its SaaS platform, accelerate its go-to-market strategy, and expand its presence in the space industry. The business is based in Houston, TX. Cognitive Space develops artificial-intelligence software intended to operate and manage imaging satellite constellations. Its tools are designed to coordinate data collection across hybrid architectures of government and commercial imagery satellites. CEO Scott Herman says U.S. national security agencies are using the company's software to test concepts for obtaining imagery data. The company is Houston-based. Recently it secured $4 million in early investment to advance its satellite-operations software. No revenue or user metrics were reported in the articles.

Led · Equity · Jan 2014

JRNI provides an enterprise scheduling and experiential relationship management (XRM) platform with apps for appointments, queuing, events, and an analytics tool. The platform is used by large retailers, credit unions, retail banks, wealth management firms, and other organizations to increase conversions, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency while managing staffing, capacity, safety, and profitability. JRNI emphasizes personalized remote and in-person experiences that build stronger customer relationships and loyalty. The company will use new investment capital to expedite product development and expand sales, marketing, and customer support functions. No operating metrics (revenue/users) were disclosed in the announcement. JRNI (formerly BookingBug) offers an AI-driven scheduling and customer engagement platform powering appointments, events, queuing, call center, and insights to drive online-to-offline conversion for enterprises. The company serves customers including U.S. Bank, ANZ, John Lewis & Partners, and LEGO. JRNI plans to use new capital to extend its global market leadership, accelerate U.S. growth, and deepen sales, marketing, development, and customer success initiatives. In May the company opened a Manchester, N.H. office to headquarters its U.S. development operations while maintaining its London headquarters. JRNI recently appointed Simon Copsey as chief technology officer to lead product and engineering efforts. The company has raised a total of $23.2 million to date. BookingBug provides an omnichannel appointment and scheduling platform that lets brands, agencies and resellers manage the entire customer lifecycle from queuing to in-store bookings. The platform simplifies scheduling while maximizing staff and resource utilization and is used to drive business outcomes for retailers, financial institutions and public sector agencies. Customers named in the article include Lego, John Lewis and the UK Government, and BookingBug partners with Salesforce, Oracle and Microsoft. In 2017 the company experienced significant global growth and was recognized by Deloitte as one of Europe’s fastest growing technology companies. The company reported a 30 percent increase in its enterprise customer base and manages tens of millions of customer engagements annually. Recent senior hires and the new funding are intended to support continued product, sales and marketing expansion. BookingBug provides an online booking and reservation platform for businesses, originally aimed at SMEs and later expanded to enterprise customers. Launched in 2009 and based in London, it historically offered an embeddable widget and a basic API and sells tiered tariffs that increase with number of bookings per month. The company has produced revenue from the start via those tariffs and previously raised a $350,000 seed round in 2011. With a new $1M funding from Deep Ventures, BookingBug plans to tear down its current API and widget and open up its protocol to selected developers to become a true platform. CEO Glenn Shoosmith compares the intended approach to e-commerce platform Magento and emphasizes making the product fully customizable and embeddable into existing enterprise systems. The shift toward larger retailers, government organizations and enterprises is intended to reduce reliance on SMEs and capture higher-value customers. BookingBug provides an online booking and reservation system that lets businesses share availability by hour, day, week or as classes, courses or events and accept bookings and enquiries online. The platform operates in realtime and is distributed: its booking and enquiry widgets can be embedded on other sites, used by affiliate partners, or integrated via social media. BookingBug supports a range of scheduling formats and is designed for businesses needing flexible, embeddable booking capabilities. The company had been bootstrapped until this financing and now has secured outside angel capital. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.