Participated · Seed · Jan 2026

Cork is building a protocol that supplies tokenized risk infrastructure, enabling standardized pricing, market-driven hedging, and redemption-liquidity backstops for on-chain assets such as vault tokens, yield-bearing stablecoins, liquid (re)staking tokens, and real-world assets. The system lets asset managers and issuers spin up custom swap markets to enhance redemption liquidity, improve risk transparency, and bolster market confidence. Its composable risk primitives integrate directly with ERC-4626 vaults and other yield-bearing ERC-20 assets, making risk management a native, programmable component of on-chain finance. Future plans include bringing the company’s first risk markets into production, expanding integrations with vault and asset issuers, and supporting regulated product pathways. Cork has secured $5.5 million in seed funding to finance these initiatives, providing the capital base for continued product development and market launch.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2025

Wildcat Labs develops the Wildcat lending protocol to enable undercollateralized, parameterizable loans onchain, targeting institutional borrowers like funds, market makers, and DAOs. The protocol does not underwrite loans itself; borrowers set reserve ratios, withdrawal cycles, and lender whitelists to create bespoke markets. Wildcat earns revenue via a 5% protocol fee on the APR offered by borrowers (e.g., a 10% offered APR costs the borrower 10.5%). Since its generalized V2 Ethereum mainnet release in February, the protocol has originated $368 million and currently handles $150 million in outstanding credit. The company is already profitable and currently operates with four employees and three contractors. Planned uses of new capital include deeper Ethereum integration, hiring four additional roles (two currently open), and building new market types and mechanisms to unlock high-quality yield opportunities.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

ZKEX is a multi-chain decentralized exchange focused on cross-chain trading. The company completed a $2.5 million seed financing. The funds will support launching a fiat on‑ramp service and a mobile application in the next quarter. Participating investors named in the article include Fenbushi Capital, KXVC, RockTree Capital, NGC Ventures, L2 Iterative Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, IDG Blockchain, Whale Ground, Moonhill Capital, Blocklabs Capital, Optic Capital, Hyperithm Group and G20 Group. No operating metrics or past rounds are disclosed in the article. The capital is intended to accelerate product development and upcoming rollouts.

Participated · Seed · May 2024

Zest Protocol provides a lending protocol built specifically for Bitcoin, enabling users to deposit BTC through native Bitcoin transactions and then engage in lending or yield-generating activities. The company leverages upcoming Stacks Nakamoto and sBTC blockchain upgrades to create a fully Bitcoin-native lending experience. Using sBTC’s peg-in wire format, users deposit BTC to fund their balance on Zest Protocol. Its lending infrastructure is currently live on Stacks mainnet with Stacks market as it prepares for the sBTC launch. The company says it will use the funds to expand operations and development efforts. Zest Protocol is based in George Town, Cayman Islands and raised $3.5M in seed funding.

Participated · Seed · May 2024

KINO builds ScreenKey, a secure platform that brings film and TV production workflows onto a single system for review, comment, approval, protection, and sharing of premium content. The founding team includes CEO Daril Fannin (formerly at Netflix and ABC/Disney), CTO David Fannin (with 15+ years in biometric and security technology including TSA PreCheck), and CMO Brit MacRae (A24, HBO). KINO says it supports content across major streamers and networks including Netflix, Apple TV+, Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, and Crave. The company positions itself as replacing disconnected tools used across a production’s lifecycle with a unified, secure system. The announcement emphasizes the platform’s use in protecting high-stakes workflows in entertainment. No revenue, valuation, or detailed operating metrics were disclosed in the articles.