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 · Seed · Feb 2024

Avail operates a data availability network that helps blockchains store transaction and other information cheaply and in an easy-to-reference manner, particularly to support layer-2 rollup networks. Its technology offloads data from main chains, reducing burden and lowering costs for end-users. The company is building an Unification Layer, a modular stack combining data availability, aggregation, and shared security to enable modular blockchains to scale and interoperate permissionlessly and securely. Avail is also developing a Fusion Security layer intended to allow cryptocurrencies like ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) to contribute to the ecosystem’s security; Fusion is expected to go live in early 2025. The new capital will be used to accelerate development, expand global presence, and address blockchain fragmentation, insufficient data availability, and limited scaling in Web3. Financially, Avail announced a $43M Series A and had disclosed a $27M seed round three months earlier. Avail is a Web3 modular blockchain services provider that aims to enable modular execution layers to scale and interoperate with minimal trust. The company focuses on simplifying the rollup experience and providing a unified, efficient platform for users and developers from any ecosystem. Its core offering targets modular execution and cross-ecosystem interoperability. Avail positions itself to reduce trust assumptions between layers while streamlining rollup integration. Financially, the company recently completed a $27 million seed funding round led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly.

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.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

Nomad is a security-first cross-chain messaging protocol that leverages an optimistic mechanism allowing off-chain watchers to challenge cross-chain messages via fraud proofs. Unlike validator-based bridges, Nomad does not rely on a large set of external parties and requires only one honest actor to keep the system safe. The protocol lets developers securely build cross-chain applications (xApps) and bridge data and assets between chains. CEO and Co-founder Pranay Mohan and CTO and Co-founder James Prestwich emphasize a security-first design to protect users and unite DeFi ecosystems. Nomad announced approximately $22.4 million in seed funding led by Polychain Capital, with a broad group of additional investors. The company aims to accelerate adoption of cross-chain communications to bridge siloed DeFi ecosystems and unlock combined value.

Participated · Series A · Feb 2022

Ceramic, developed by 3Box Labs, is a decentralized platform for blockchain application data that enables developers to decentralize application databases and make data universally composable and reusable across web3 apps. The platform adds behaviors to static data files so they can be composed into higher-order data structures and distributed across a decentralized network. Highlighted use cases include decentralized social media, crypto gaming, portable self-sovereign identity services, shared data schemas, interoperable application storage, and open web services without new accounts. Ceramic debuted in beta in June and has been used by thousands of web3 developers and integrated with more than 400 applications. 3Box Labs raised $30 million in a Series A to continue development of Ceramic. With the new capital the company said it intends to hire more than 25 employees across engineering, product, and community roles.