Participated · Seed · Oct 2022

Arcade operates a web3 gaming platform designed to democratize blockchain gaming by removing the high upfront cost of purchasing native NFTs such as land or character assets. Through its Mission Pools, community members—known as “Arcadians”—can contribute capital and share in play-to-earn yields, while designated operators handle the in-game activity across multiple chains. This model opens GameFi participation to passive users who lack the time or gaming skills to earn directly. The company positions itself as a bridge between DeFi and GameFi, offering exposure to blockchain gaming ecosystems for both casual spectators and avid gamers. Backers such as Solana Ventures highlight Arcade’s role in connecting DeFi yield generation with gaming incentives on Solana. Arcade plans to use newly raised capital to accelerate product development and expand access to global users. No operating metrics, revenue figures, founding year, or headquarters location were disclosed in the articles.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2022

Starbots is a Road Town, BVI–based developer of a robot battle NFT game built on the Solana blockchain. Led by CEO Kien Vuong, the game lets players strategically assemble robots to win battles, complete missions, and conquer new lands. The auto-battle gameplay allows users to constantly grind for new robot parts and swap them into matches rather than leaving them idle or trading them on the marketplace. Combat outcomes are intentionally unpredictable and presented with cartoonish action; the game draws inspiration from BattleBots. Starbots also maintains an advisory board that includes Bored Elon (founder of MetaMars), Calvin Chu (core builder at Impossible Finance), William Robinson (core Contributor of DeFi Alliance), and Long Vuong (founder of TomoChain). The company raised $2.4M in funding and intends to use the proceeds to accelerate growth, expand operations, and broaden its business reach.

Led · Equity · May 2021

Metis builds a Layer 2 Ethereum rollup (Metis Rollup) aimed at improving scalability, decentralization, and user experience for DeFi and NFT applications. The protocol has launched an alpha testnet, registering 12,632 wallets, 6,856 DACs and 166,859 on-chain transactions in three weeks. Capital from the recent growth round will fund the release and promotion of Metis Rollup and further roadmap execution. The team emphasizes bringing L2 scalability specifically to NFT marketplaces and broader Web 3.0 decentralized economy use cases. Metis is preparing a METIS token initial decentralized exchange offering on PAID Network’s IGNITION launchpad and Gate.io on May 13, 2021. Financially, the project has raised $4 million in a growth round from blockchain-focused VCs and $1 million in prior angel investments (totaling $5 million before the IDO). Metis is building a governance- and management-mechanism-embedded Layer2 protocol to support application migration from Web2 to Web3. The protocol is tailored for collaboration and enables Web2 communities to create decentralized companies, launch DApps and manage business activities with an Optimistic Governance mechanism. Metis built its tech stack by hard-forking the Optimistic Rollup (OR), tailoring OR for managing collaborations and providing tools to build trust among collaborators. Founded in 2018 by Elena Sinelnikova, Kevin Liu and Yuan Su, the company raised $1M in seed and angel funding. The funds will be used to release a new Layer2 DAO framework at the end of March. CEO Elena Sinelnikova's role at CryptoChicks is cited as bringing blockchain education and community expertise to Metis's mission.