The Venture Codex

Participated · Initial Coin Offering · Nov 2021

Founded around 2018, Agoric began as a JavaScript-based smart-contract coding language and has since evolved into a proof-of-stake blockchain linked to the Cosmos ecosystem. Its core product is a platform that enables developers to write smart contracts in JavaScript with additional security controls. Agoric is focused on bringing millions of JavaScript developers into crypto and DeFi by meeting them in a familiar language. The project has built a consensus layer with the Cosmos SDK and is preparing an economic applications layer that will include a stable token called Run. The company completed a public token sale that added roughly 40,000 new account holders and has so far raised over $85 million including a private sale and earlier seed funding. Future phases include a permission phase for community-vetted core contracts, continued security testing, bug bounties, and eventual permissionless deployment. Agoric is a JavaScript-native smart contract platform and Proof-of-Stake blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK that provides a composable development environment with reusable governance, lending, and trading components. The chain includes built-in DeFi primitives such as RUN (a stable local currency) and BLD (a staking token) to support on-chain economic activity. Agoric launched its public mainnet after testing network infrastructure and staking dynamics with more than 100 validators. The team intends to use funding to scale the ecosystem and expand developer programs, including additional entry points into DeFi and continued developer bounties. Agoric has partnered with Keplr to support BLD staking and governance and aims to attract JavaScript developers and enterprises to build interoperable DeFi applications. The project is led by CEO Dean Tribble and Chief Scientist Mark S. Miller. Agoric is developing a blockchain-agnostic programming language for smart contracts that is based on JavaScript and designed to enable formal verification while remaining accessible to developers. The company aims to reduce costly smart-contract bugs by making contracts more secure and easier to audit. Agoric launched last year and is preparing to bring its technology to market, with a near-term goal of launching a testnet. The startup plans to double its team with the new funding, prioritizing engineering and business development hires. It also intends to build interoperability with top-tier next-generation decentralized projects. Chief scientist Mark Miller emphasized that even experienced developers can accidentally introduce expensive errors into smart contracts, motivating Agoric’s approach. The company received a $4 million financing to support these product and go-to-market efforts.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2021

Unique Network builds infrastructure for the next generation of NFTs, positioning itself as the first NFT chain for Kusama and Polkadot. The platform aims to enable composable and advanced NFT features such as re-fungibility, nested NFTs, and dynamic-multiversal NFTs, and to reduce developer exposure to high transaction fees and siloed NFTs. Unique Network has partnered with projects including Art Curator Grid, XP Network, UN-Habitat, and SupraOracles, and created Polkadot’s first NFTs, Substrapunks. In April 2022 the project ran a crowdloan and secured a parachain slot on Polkadot, demonstrating strong community backing. The team plans to launch a governance and utility token, UNQ, to power NFT payments, smart contract transactions, staking mechanisms, voting, and reputation management. The company highlights community-driven growth and interoperability as core to scaling NFT adoption on Polkadot. Unique Network is a next-generation NFT chain built for Polkadot and Kusama that launched in July 2021. It offers developers independence from network-wide transaction fees and upgrades and provides a framework for more malleable, feature-rich NFTs. The team built Substrapunks, created Substrate’s pallet for NFTs, and won Hackusama in 2020. Unique is preparing to launch Quartz, its Kusama canary network parachain designed to enable advanced NFT functionality and cross-chain interoperability with Ethereum and EVM chains. The project has announced partnerships including the UN-led DigitalArt4Climate campaign with GloCha, RMRK, Art Curators Grid, and Forever Has Fallen. Financially, Unique Network raised $11.3M in a second pre-sale round, bringing total funding to $16M, with investors led by Outlier Ventures alongside The LAO, Flamingo, Nalu Capital and over 200 other investors. Unique Network is a custom parachain explicitly designed to support a next generation of NFTs on Polkadot and Kusama. Its core product includes a novel NFT pallet design and ownership restructuring to address gas, scalability, and interoperability issues present on Ethereum. The project has open-sourced basic components, including a white-label marketplace, minting tools, wallets, and galleries to let others deploy NFT solutions. Management says the platform aims to lower the education barrier, enable malleable interoperable NFTs, and expand use cases across art, gaming, and other industries. The company plans to finalize and launch its parachains on Kusama and Polkadot in the coming months and to bootstrap community-driven NFT commerce. Financially, Unique Network completed a $4.3 million first round of its pre-sale to fund development and community growth.