Participated · Seed · Jul 2026

Birdai Labs develops on-chain transaction infrastructure designed to control transaction timing, ordering, and propagation. The team, founded by former Franklin Templeton employees, is targeting inefficiencies in blockchain networks such as MEV and slippage. Birdai announced a $4 million funding round led by Castle Island Ventures with participation from Metalayer Ventures and The Venture Dept. The company intends to use the capital to advance its infrastructure and tooling around transaction processes. The announcement did not disclose revenue, user metrics, prior financings, or a valuation.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2025

Theo issues tokenized gold and money-market products, including thGOLD (introduced in January) and thBIll (a tokenized money-market fund launched last July). The company plans to launch thUSD, a stablecoin designed to maintain dollar parity via reserves of thGOLD and by shorting gold futures to capture cash-and-carry spreads. thGOLD is backed by secured lending agreements with gold retailers such as Mustafa Gold, allowing retailers to hedge and continue manufacturing while reducing price exposure. Theo expects thUSD’s yield to come from both the underlying thGOLD yields and returns from short futures positions executed on venues like the CME and crypto-native platforms including Hyperliquid and Binance; its CIO estimated potential annualized yields around 10% in favorable conditions. Theo says thUSD will be compatible with DeFi lending protocols such as Morpho, but initial access requires investor registration and whitelisting. The company previously raised $20 million last year and used capital to bring Wall Street-style trading strategies to retail on-chain investors.