Participated · Seed · Oct 2022

Shardeum is a scalable EVM-based layer-1 blockchain that deploys dynamic state sharding. Its dynamic state sharding approach keeps gas fees low and TPS high as participation grows by performing consensus at the transaction level and lowering the computational power required for validator nodes. This consensus mechanism aims to allow anyone to run a node and increase decentralization. The company intends to use the $5.4M in new funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. Operating metrics on the testnet as of July 7, 2023 include over 7.4 million transactions, 820K+ accounts and more than 230K contracts deployed. Shardeum raised an $18.2M seed round in October 2022 from investors including Jane Street, Big Brain Holdings, Struck Crypto, The Spartan Group, Ghaf Capital, DFG, CoinGecko Ventures and Foresight Ventures. Shardeum is a remote, EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain that implements sharding to increase transactions per second as nodes are added while retaining atomic cross-shard composability. The protocol emphasizes low gas fees forever and leverages dynamic state sharding to balance decentralization and security. Founded by Nischal Shetty and Omar Syed, the company raised $18.2M in Seed funding. Backers include Jane Street, Struck Crypto, The Spartan Group and a broad group of institutional and angel investors. The company plans to use the funds to further enhance its dynamic sharding technology, accelerate ecosystem development, and focus on product and design improvements. It will also expand research and marketing efforts and host hackathons in India and the U.S. to incentivize developers to build on the platform.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

AltSchool Africa operates a remote-first online school that upskills non-technical and early-career learners with technical and soft skills and partners with higher institutions to provide diploma certificates. Its one-year software engineering program offers three tracks—frontend, backend, and cloud—with nine months of coursework followed by a three-month internship at local tech companies. Admission requires a home study kit, an assessment with an 85% pass mark for full entry, and the platform also exposes first-semester content for free to those not admitted. More than 8,000 people from 19 countries applied for the cohort starting in April, with strongest interest from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Botswana. AltSchool currently uses an income-sharing agreement (graduates pay $500 after being hired, payable in installments) but is considering switching to a $20–$50 monthly subscription for the next batch. The company plans to add product, blockchain, and data courses (product modules targeted for Q2) and is exploring B2B partnerships with private schools while building content, technology infrastructure, and an offline/online community model.