Participated · Seed · Jan 2023

Rysk Finance is a London-based on-chain market maker focused on DeFi derivatives. Its signature product, the Dynamic Hedging Vault (DHV), is a dynamic self-governing options AMM that trades options to generate uncorrelated returns for liquidity providers. The company says DHV resolves industry complexity around generating higher returns per unit of risk for liquidity providers. Rysk raised $1.4M in a pre-seed round to enhance platform security, drive engineering and research, and expedite the launch of Rysk Beyond, an advanced decentralized market maker protocol for options trading. The team is led by Dan Ugolini. Rysk’s stated mission is to expedite DeFi risk maturity while expanding adoption of sustainable yields.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2022

Tenderize is a London, UK-based developer of a staking derivatives protocol that adds utility to staked assets of web3 protocols. Its protocol represents a user's staked position as an ERC20 token, allowing users to unlock liquidity, collateralize loans, and trade tokens while remaining staked. The company currently supports The Graph, Polygon, Livepeer, and Audius, with support for additional protocols coming soon. Tenderize is building both front-end integrations (wallets, analytics platforms) and back-end integrations (tokens, custodial staking partners, exchanges) to improve the staking experience. Led by co-founder Nico Vergauwen, the company raised $3M in seed funding to continue product development and integrations.