Participated · Seed · Feb 2026

Pod Network is building a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed to settle transactions in about 200 milliseconds, a speed the team likens to a Google search. By removing the conventional consensus layer, the architecture aims to prevent Miner Extractable Value (MEV) and other bottlenecks that slow existing chains. The company originated as a spin-off of blockchain consultancy Common Prefix and is currently operated from Athens under 24-year-old founder and CEO Shresth Agrawal. Agrawal’s recent visa struggles in Greece underscore the regulatory hurdles the startup faces as it scales internationally. Pod Network has secured USD $10 million in seed financing, giving it runway to accelerate product development and expand its global market reach. Backers include a16z Crypto Startup Accelerator, 1kx, Flashbots, Blockchain Builders Fund and Protagonist, providing both capital and deep expertise in crypto infrastructure.

Participated · Seed · Dec 2023

Shadow is a data workflow platform that aims to lower the cost and complexity of developing on Ethereum by using private execution environments called shadow forks. Shadow forks are offchain read-only execution environments that mirror the state of a public blockchain in real time and are optimized for data access. The platform provides hosted tools and infrastructure to spin up shadow forks, add custom event logs and view functions, access shadow fork data via standard RPC methods, view a real-time feed of shadow events, and backfill or export historical transactions. Shadow enables teams to log anything on any smart contract gaslessly, which the company says unlocks deeper data coverage, cheaper smart contracts, and faster product iteration for builders in crypto. The company also manages nodes for both the shadow fork and the public chain, keeps state in sync (including re-orgs), compiles and deploys contracts on shadow forks, offers proxy patterns for factory-created contracts, provides RPC endpoints, and exports decoded and indexed event data. Shadow was founded by siblings Alvin and Emily Hsia, who previously held technical roles at Airbnb, and has announced a $9 million seed round led by Paradigm.