• Irys

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2024

  Irys is a London-based blockchain startup that stores and makes data programmable so smart contracts and AI agents can interact with it natively onchain. Data first enters a Submit Ledger for validation and can be promoted to a Publish Ledger for long-term, verifiable storage, with additional term-based ledgers for custom storage durations. The company is building the IrysVM, a high-performance, EVM-compatible execution layer designed to work natively with onchain data and allow direct interaction between storage and computation. Smart contracts on IrysVM can enforce rules on stored programmable data, enabling management of AI models, inference proofs, and programmable datasets directly onchain. The company plans to use its new funding to expand operations and accelerate development efforts. The article does not disclose revenue, users, or other operating metrics. Irys, formerly Bundlr Network, provides on-chain data infrastructure aimed at improving provenance, performance, and scalability for blockchain data. The company says it has broadened its scope to support developers and businesses in leveraging on-chain data. Irys is positioning its product to meet evolving developer and enterprise needs for reliable on-chain data. The team is expanding operations, and the company describes the recent financing as strategic to that expansion. CEO Josh Benaron framed the funding as a testament to investor confidence in Irys’s vision and ability to bring the world’s data on-chain. Financially, Irys has just completed a new $8.9 million funding round to support its growth plans.

• Bundlr Network

  Led · Seed · May 2022

  Bundlr Network provides a decentralized, multichain solution for storing data on web3, with particular importance to the NFTs ecosystem. The platform enables access to Arweave, is integrated with most platforms, and is compatible with Ethereum, Solana, and Avalanche. The company says its service makes storing data on web3 fast and easy. Bundlr plans to use newly raised funds to scale its team, hiring business development staff, Rust developers, and boosting marketing initiatives. Led by CEO and founder Josh Benaron, the company operates from London, UK. Financially, Bundlr recently closed a seed financing to support its scaling efforts.

• KYVE

  Led · Equity · Oct 2021

  KYVE is a data-pipeline protocol that uses Arweave to store blockchain data while a network of node operators verifies data veracity to enable trustless access and queries. The project is currently in testnet and the team has grown to eight people. Use cases discussed include enabling lightweight Solana nodes to query validated data, price oracles, cross-chain data and bridges, NFT metadata storage/updates, and translating data between EVM and non-EVM chains. The founders, Fabian Riewe and John Letey, are 21 and 16 respectively, and the team emphasized working closely with integration partners rather than capital-only investors. KYVE has plans for a utility token to allow data uploads, pay validators, and enable decentralized governance, targeting a token launch by mid next year. The company recently raised $2.8M to expand and decentralize data access and support integrations.

No current team members are available.