Participated · Series B · Jan 2025

Reown focuses on improving onchain user experience through its core products: Reown AppKit (embedded wallets, smart accounts, fee sponsorships, swaps, on-ramps) and Reown WalletKit (toolkit for wallet UX). AppKit has become multichain with recent support for Solana and Bitcoin and plans to expand to more blockchains; WalletKit is used by over 600 wallets and emphasizes chain abstraction and gas abstraction. The company has launched features such as Smart Sessions to enable subscription payments in crypto and reports integrations with partners including Stripe and Raise, plus use by apps like Jupiter, Drift, and Marinade. The WalletConnect Network, developed and launched in 2018 by Reown, has surpassed over 220 million connections and more than 35 million unique active wallets, facilitating over 20 million monthly connections for more than 5 million monthly users. Reown is also participating in decentralizing the WalletConnect Network and has introduced the WalletConnect Token (WCT) for fees, rewards, staking, and governance. The company will use new capital to further develop its onchain UX platform through its SDKs, continuing to target the overlap of traditional finance, fintech, and decentralized finance. WalletConnect is a web3 communications protocol that establishes end-to-end encrypted connections between wallets and applications, enabling transaction signing and token authentication. Its suite of multi-chain communications APIs and protocol integrations aim to enable interoperability across blockchains and simplify access to web3 from a single app. The protocol has been integrated by more than 210 consumer and institutional wallets and by over 450 apps, and is used by users in 157 countries. WalletConnect recently released an enhanced protocol with multi-chain support and is expanding its product suite with new communications APIs. The company is focused on decentralizing its infrastructure through the planned WalletConnect Network and forging strategic partnerships to support that buildout. Financially, it completed a $12.5 million ecosystem round following a Series A earlier this year co-led by Union Square Ventures and 1kx.

Participated · Equity · May 2024

Arcium builds a parallelized confidential computing network that enables computation on encrypted data using Multiparty Computation Execution Environments (MXEs). Its MXEs combine MPC, homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs and other techniques to provide verifiable, trustless encrypted computation. The company plans a two-phase road to mainnet: a Private Incentivized Testnet followed by a Public Testnet to validate network performance and scalability. Arcium aims to deliver a customizable encrypted state for on-chain applications to overcome blockchain confidentiality limitations. The startup intends to use the new funding to expand its development efforts. Co-founders are Yannik Schrade, Julian Deschler, Nicolas Schapeler and Lukas Steiner; the company is based in Bern, Switzerland.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2024

Drosera builds an Ethereum-aligned security automation layer using customizable Solidity “Traps” that let protocols define security parameters and deposit funds to incentivize third-party operators to detect and respond to threats. The system models an immune response: node operators run the Drosera Client to monitor Ethereum data and execute emergency responses when breaches are detected. The network has attracted over 25 protocols to its Testnet, including Ion Protocol, EtherFi, and Gravita, and has partnerships with node operators such as Infstones, Everstake, Cosmostation, a41 and Blockscape, as well as security specialist GoPlus. Drosera plans to use the recent funding to accelerate product development, hire personnel, and prepare for a mainnet launch scheduled for Q2 of 2024. Financially, the company has closed a raise bringing total capital to $4.75 million. Drosera is a trustless, decentralized project that detects exploit activity and mitigates economic losses on the Ethereum network. It functions as a decentralized automatic response system and provides a framework to create and execute automated responses to events on Ethereum. The platform is built to detect vulnerability exploitation and reduce associated economic damage. Drosera completed a $1.55 million seed round. Investors in the seed included Anagram, Arrington Capital, UDHC, Comfy Capital, Bodhi Ventures, Metamatic, BaseDAO, Asymmetric, Zeal Capital, Everstake, 01Node, Marin Ventures, Infinite Capital and NxGen.

Participated · Seed · May 2023

Nolus is an interoperable application on Cosmos that offers a DeFi Lease to reduce over-collateralization and improve capital efficiency in crypto money markets. Its DeFi Lease provides up to 150% financing on initial investments, lowers margin call risk, and grants access to underlying leveraged assets through whitelisted yield-bearing strategies. The protocol incorporates liquid staking derivatives to enable self-repaying loans and aims to create a cornerstone use case for LSDs in the Cosmos ecosystem. Nolus runs a semi-permissioned PoS blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK and a WASM smart contract engine focused on interoperability, security, and performance, using IBC and Interchain Accounts to access liquidity across chains. The team plans to complete the technological backbone and expand the platform both within and outside the Cosmos ecosystem, and after months of testing will open its public mainnet in May. Financially, Nolus secured $2.5 million in pre-seed and seed funding at a $20 million valuation to finish development and support expansion.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2022

StrideCosmos is a liquid staking protocol that provides liquid staking support services for the Cosmos Hub. Its core product issues stATOM tokens to participants who can use them across the Cosmos ecosystem or sell them immediately to obtain liquidity. The protocol enables users to maintain staking exposure while preserving token liquidity. The company announced it completed a $4 million strategic financing. The round was disclosed in a statement on X. No operating metrics or additional financial details were provided in the article. Stride is the first feature-complete liquid staking zone in the Cosmos ecosystem, offering a multichain liquid staking protocol and a vertically integrated app UX that enables staking across IBC-compatible blockchains. Users who stake with Stride receive stTokens that earn auto-compounding staking rewards and can be used in DeFi or sold for instant liquidity. The protocol currently supports Cosmos Hub (stATOM) and plans to add a wide slate of IBC-compatible assets by year-end, including Juno (stJUNO), Secret (stSCRT), Osmosis (stOSMO), Kava (stKAVA) and others. Stride emphasizes safety and security, is audited by Certik and Oak Security, already offers redemptions to mitigate liquid-staking depeg risk, and plans additional measures such as rate-limiting. Founded in March 2022 and led by Vishal Talasani, Riley Edmunds, and Aidan Salzmann, the team is working closely with top validators and pursuing integrations with Cosmos DeFi platforms. The company raised US$6.7M in seed funding and will use proceeds to recruit technical and non-technical talent, enhance product offerings, and grow both the Stride and Cosmos ecosystems.