The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · May 2021

Opolis is a member-owned digital employment platform that uses blockchain and web3 technology to provide employment infrastructure for independent workers. The platform supplies tools to professionalize independent businesses, including payroll, benefits management, and shared services such as unemployment, disability, and tax compliance. Opolis positions itself to democratize access to career development and next-generation employment services regardless of geography. The company plans to scale its business and deliver a more frictionless user experience, with a roadmap prioritizing improved access to accounting data, tax reporting details, and health insurance information. Leadership includes Executive Steward and founder John Paller, who has roughly 20 years of experience in HR technology and founded ETHDenver. Opolis has raised capital to support growth and is headquartered in Denver. Opolis operates the Opolis Employment Commons, a digital employment cooperative that provides payroll, benefits and shared services to independent workers. The Independent Worker Coalition grew to more than 2,500 global members across 63 countries shortly after launching in April 2021. The Commons uses token-based incentives: it runs $WORK reward programs, referral and sign-up bonuses, and a member dashboard that supports staking to earn additional $WORK. Opolis emphasizes a community-led Web3 funding model and completed a Series Seed II round combining equity and grants to support its infrastructure. The funding involved DAOs, DeFi projects, investment syndicates, and HR-tech and blockchain industry investors from around the world. The company aims to reshape how independent workers relate to employment by aligning community stakeholders and ecosystem participants.

Participated · Equity · Mar 2021

StakeWise runs an Ethereum 2.0 staking protocol and staking pool designed to let users earn yields while retaining control over staked capital. The project completed a seven-month beta with about 1,400 participants and is approaching its mainnet release. To incentivize early adopters it launched a campaign making the first 25,000 ether deposited eligible for distribution of 2% of the SWISE token supply, with rewards proportional to deposits. The team emphasizes a unique tokenomics model and a commitment to give majority voting power to the community. Co-founder Dmitri Tsumak said the protocol enables users to earn elevated yields and gain unparalleled control over their staked capital. Financially, StakeWise recently closed a $2 million private funding round ahead of the public launch.