Participated · Seed · May 2026

Founded in 2025 and based in Lisbon, Ekiden is developing a decentralized derivatives trading platform designed for high-frequency and algorithmic trading by professional users, trading firms, and market makers. The team is building on Arbitrum and emphasizes faster trade execution with on-chain settlement to preserve transparency and user control. Ekiden's approach is informed by founder Vitali Dervoed's background in capital markets and work linked to Neon EVM, RockawayX, and Mango Markets. The company aims to support advanced and automated trading strategies through integrations and strategic partnerships. Financially, Ekiden completed a €1.7 million Seed round at a €17 million valuation and plans to deploy the capital toward audits, product development, hiring, and scaling liquidity.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2026

DeFi United is a coordinated, multi-protocol rescue fund created by Aave service providers and other ecosystem participants to remediate losses from the KelpDAO bridge exploit that produced ungrafted rsETH on-chain. Its primary purpose is to collect and forward contributions to a designated Ethereum address (defiunited.eth) to restore rsETH coverage and reduce claim shortfalls on Aave V3. The fund assembled $160 million in commitments, including large ETH pledges and protocol asset offers, and continues to accept donations while some contributions remain subject to governance votes. Capital committed to the fund includes direct ETH gifts, staked-asset offers (stETH), and a proposed structured credit facility from Mantle. The rescue effort targets an rsETH deficit that was initially estimated between roughly 68,900 and over 100,000 ETH and responds to modeled Aave losses ranging from about $123.7 million to $230.1 million depending on loss allocation. Participants and observers have characterized DeFi United as among the largest coordinated recovery actions seen in decentralized finance.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2026

Robin Markets offers a staking product that wraps users’ existing Polymarket positions into yield‑bearing DeFi instruments, enabling holders to earn income before events resolve. The company launched its V1 staking product to the public concurrent with its $475,000 angel raise. It positions itself as a specialist in “Polymarket position yields,” explicitly tying growth to Polymarket’s volumes and open interest. The startup closed the angel round led by Fabric VC with participation from several crypto and institutional investors to support product launch and scaling. Robin’s strategy is a targeted infrastructure bet on prediction‑market primitives within a broader venture environment heavily focused on AI. The company has not disclosed revenue or user metrics in the articles.

Led · Equity · Nov 2025

Obex operates an accelerator that finances and supports early-stage teams building yield-bearing stablecoins collateralized by high-quality real-world assets such as compute credits, municipal-scale energy projects, and loans to large fintech companies. The incubator runs a 12-week program that supplies capital, technical resources, and access to Sky’s on-chain infrastructure while enforcing institutional-grade risk management and underwriting. As the newest capital-allocation arm of Sky (the entity behind the DAI and USDS stablecoins), Obex can tap into Sky’s governance-approved commitment of up to $2.5 billion in USDS to scale successful cohort projects. The firm positions itself as a “Y Combinator for stablecoins,” aiming to prevent the peg failures that have plagued several synthetic stablecoins by insisting on transparent, asset-backed structures. Stablecoins are viewed by the team as a trillion-dollar market opportunity, with yield-bearing variants expected to grow even faster. Obex has secured $37 million in outside funding to launch the platform and has not yet reported revenue or user metrics.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2025

Seismic is building a privacy-preserving blockchain infrastructure tailored for fintech applications, enabling institutions to move value on crypto rails while keeping user information confidential. Founded by Lyron Co Ting Keh, the platform already supports partners such as Brookwell, which offers stable-coin cash accounts, and Cred, a private credit service. By masking sensitive data while retaining the openness of public chains, Seismic aims to overcome one of the primary barriers to fintech crypto adoption. The company plans to add fiat on- and off-ramps as well as card programs to broaden its utility. Seismic expects to begin generating revenue early next year via per-transaction fees. Including its latest raise, the startup has secured $17 million in total funding to date, giving it capital to scale product development and partner integrations.