• FreeBnk

  Participated · Equity · Jul 2024

  FreeBnk operates as a Lithuania-based neobank targeting crypto investors with a unified app that offers tokenized real-world asset investments (fractional property, stocks, bonds, gold), gas fee-less cross-chain crypto trading, cheaper overseas fiat transfers, merchant payments, lending, and secure custody. The company emphasizes accessibility, security, and customization, and plans ongoing research and development to build and improve its app for users new to digital asset investment. Its custody solution uses MPC technology and is backed by $30M in insurance coverage. Product lines include FreeBnk RealWorld for RWAs, FreeBnk Crypto for trading and on/off-ramps, FreeBnk Transfer for low-cost fiat transfers, FreeBnk Pay for low-fee merchant payments, FreeBnk Lending for mortgages and savings, and FreeBnk Safe for inheritance and portfolio insurance. Leadership is led by CEO Yunus Emre Ozkaya and CDO Arash Lowni. The company recently completed a financing round that affects its current financial position.

• RunesFi

  Participated · Equity · May 2024

  RunesFi is a Bitcoin infrastructure platform that leverages the Runes protocol to enhance DeFi capabilities on Bitcoin. The company is building the first decentralized exchange (DEX) on Runes. It is also developing an "engraver" for creating and distributing new runes and a set of infrastructure products to support the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. RunesFi aims to lay the groundwork for large-scale adoption of DeFi on Bitcoin. The article reports the company recently received a $400,000 strategic investment. Participating investors include Cogitent Ventures, Oddiyana Ventures, Lavender Capital, WeeHODL, Zephyrus Capital, and Samurai Starter.

• Space Falcon

  Led · Equity · Jan 2022

  Space Falcon is a Solana-powered, browser-based play-to-earn metaverse built around a classic multiplayer space shooter and premium sci‑fi NFTs. The project supports decentralized asset ownership and token-based economics (FCON and FGOLD) and integrates with Solana DeFi/DEX partners. It reports a community of over 400,000 across social channels and about 5,000 monthly active users with more than 50,000 minutes played. Space Falcon plans to introduce ownable in-game assets (spaceships, planets, galaxies) as NFTs and to integrate web3 wallets for trading and P2E utility. The team has strategic partnerships with Solice, Raydium, Roseon Finance, and Cyclos to accelerate growth in the Solana ecosystem. The company intends to use the $4 million raised to further develop the game and improve user experience; FCON was scheduled to launch on Raydium’s AcceleRaytor and list on January 25, 2022.

• TuSimple

  Participated · Series D · Sep 2019

  TuSimple develops self‑driving truck systems and operates testing fleets with human safety operators for long‑haul highway routes. The company began public‑road testing in 2018, including a 120‑mile stretch between Tucson and Phoenix and segments in Shanghai. It maintains a global headquarters in San Diego, an engineering center and truck depot in Tucson, and additional operations and a facility in Texas to support autonomous trips; it also has operations in Beijing and Shanghai. TuSimple has expanded its commercial partnerships and investor base to include logistics and automotive players such as UPS, Mando, Traton Group and U.S. Xpress. The company continues to scale testing and operations in the U.S. while diversifying strategic investors and customers. Financially, TuSimple has raised $648 million since its 2015 founding, including a recent $350 million round. TuSimple develops autonomous driving systems and software for heavy commercial trucks. The company operates a fleet of 40 self-driving trucks in the U.S., used for testing and freight runs between Arizona and Texas. TuSimple was launched in 2015 and has operations in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona. It is backed by investors including Sina, Nvidia, UPS and Tier 1 supplier Mando Corporation. TuSimple is working with partners to move from retrofitting to purpose-built autonomous semis, including a 2024 production plan with Navistar. The new partnership with Traton will expand operations into Europe and aims to develop Level 4 autonomy on Scania trucks, beginning testing on a route between Södertälje and Jönköping in Sweden. TuSimple builds a full-stack Level 4 autonomous driving system for long-haul trucks. The company operates testing programs and fleets in China, San Diego and Tucson, Arizona, and reports more than 50 trucks and 18 contracted customers. TuSimple was founded in 2015. It plans to use new funding to continue developing its autonomous vehicle technology and to expand long-haul routes in Arizona and Texas. Financially, the company has raised $298 million in total funding to date. TuSimple has conducted public-road testing since 2018 and runs daily tests with partners such as UPS on routes between Phoenix and Tucson. TuSimple develops camera-centric Level 4 autonomous driving systems for commercial trucks and operates daily commercial routes in Arizona. The company runs three to five fully autonomous trips per day across three routes and has 12 contracted customers. TuSimple emphasizes a camera-based perception stack (claiming a 1,000-meter vision range) while using LiDAR for mapping and some data collection. On-road trips run with two safety engineers—one behind the wheel and one monitoring data—and the company says these paid runs both generate revenue and validate its system. TuSimple plans to scale its commercial fleet to more than 50 trucks by June and expand fully autonomous deliveries into Texas. It is also funding joint production programs and integrations with OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and sensor partners to enable commercial production and operation of self-driving trucks. TuSimple develops a full-stack autonomous driving system for line-haul trucking that integrates perception, localization, mapping, motion planning, control and actuation. The company uses advanced sensor fusion of cameras and radars to detect and track objects beyond 200 meters and its localization achieves consistent decimeter-level precision. Its decision-making system adapts to road conditions, including lane changes and speed adjustments, to maximize safety and efficiency. TuSimple demonstrated an SAE Level 4 self-driving system in Shanghai and is ramping up deployments in the U.S., starting in Tucson, Arizona. The company is focused on scaling testing to two full truck fleets—one in China and one in the U.S.—and is building a production engineering team in Tucson while maintaining R&D in San Diego and Beijing. TuSimple is led by CEO Mo Chen.

No current team members are available.