Led · Seed · Jun 2026

Sovra offers individuals a global dollar account to hold and manage USD balances. The company operates as a fintech platform serving customers seeking dollar-denominated accounts. Sovra has just raised more than $2 million in a pre-seed round led by Pharsalus Capital with participation from several regional and global angel investors. Public reporting on the company does not disclose revenue, user counts, or other operating metrics. The fundraising provides early-stage capital to support the startup’s growth following its pre-seed close.

Participated · Series A · May 2026

Founded in 2022 by Alex Fine, Fun develops backend payment infrastructure that enables platforms to move value between crypto tokens and fiat currency without routing users through exchanges or banks. The company integrates with a platform’s engineering team to build deposit and withdrawal rails and uses third-party providers to convert among tokens and currencies. Fun reports it processes more than $18 billion in yearly payments volume and serves over 20 clients, including Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave. The startup has a staff of almost 30 employees and declined to disclose revenue or profitability. Management plans to hire additional staff with proceeds from the Series A and to expand services to non-crypto-native companies as more firms add crypto payments.

Led · Series A · Jul 2025

Zodia Markets is a crypto trading firm majority‑owned by Standard Chartered that serves financial institutions with wholesale finance and around‑the‑clock digital asset trading. The company aims to reengineer traditional foreign‑exchange capital flows by enabling real‑time stablecoin settlement across borders, a priority highlighted by CEO Usman Ahmad. Zodia is developing stablecoin payments services to let institutional capital move outside banking hours and reduce manual workarounds. The firm raised $18.25 million in a Series A to support international expansion and further develop those stablecoin payment capabilities. The article notes the broader regulatory attention on stablecoins in jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Hong Kong, which provides context for Zodia’s product focus.

Participated · Seed · Jun 2025

YieldClub offers a mobile savings app that simplifies access to high-yield DeFi for everyday users, enabling up to 12% APY on stablecoins while keeping users in control via a non-custodial model. The product emphasizes ease of use with social login onboarding, regionally optimized cash-to-stablecoin conversion, and a sleek interface. Yield generation leverages mature, audited protocols such as Morpho to deliver institutional-style yield without exposing users to broad crypto volatility. The team is led by CEO Mahesh Vellanki and CTO Michael Li, veterans of Rally and Kabam, and the app is available for preorder on the Apple App Store with a public launch planned for June 23, 2025. Future plans include launching a debit card that lets users spend stablecoin balances while still earning yield, exploring tokenized stock offerings for international users, and expanding yield options and partnerships. The company intends to grow its engineering and product teams to support those initiatives.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2025

Raise is a pioneer in the global gift card market and blockchain-powered payments and loyalty, founded in 2013 and operating from Miami. Its core products include a consumer app, an exchange (GCX), B2B 'Raise for Business', and a proprietary blockchain-backed gift card program called Smart Cards. The company reports it has facilitated over $5 billion in transactions for nearly 7 million users and more than 1,000 retail partnerships, with activation and redemption across a network of over one million stores, websites, and applications. Raise plans a nine-figure commitment over the next several years to realize on-chain gift cards, expand the Retail Alliance Foundation, and seed the Raise blockchain network and alliance IP in partnership with BFG Labs. It is integrating DOT Wallet via a partnership with the Polkadot Community Foundation, partnering with WalletConnect to connect to wallets such as Coinbase, MetaMask, Phantom, and Trust, and expanding B2B partnerships including Citi Bank and BILT Rewards. The company has also appointed a new board including Marco Santori, George Ruan, Matt Maloney, and Bjorn Wagner to support execution of its roadmap. Raise operates a mobile wallet and the world’s largest gift card marketplace, letting consumers buy discounted gift cards or sell unwanted cards for cash. Since launching in 2013, the company has amassed millions of users, enabled over $1 billion in gross transactions, and helped members save more than $140 million. Raise partners with nearly 400 national brands and offers consumers access to over 3,000 brands through its iOS and Android mobile wallet, where users save an average of 12% per transaction. The company’s core product is a digital gift-card marketplace and a closed-loop mobile payments network that gives brands direct-to-consumer prepaid payment capabilities. Raise plans to use new capital to accelerate development of its closed-loop mobile payments network, deepen its focus on prepaid cards, and build a world-class retail partnerships team. The company has raised more than $147 million to date. Raise.com runs a C2C marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of unused or partially used gift cards and collects a 15% commission on sales. Founded in 2013, Raise launched on the web and saw rapid growth after releasing an iOS mobile app just ahead of the 2014 holiday season; the app already contributes 20% of company revenue and accounts for over half of card listings. By November the service had grown over 500% since its Series A, and in 2014 the company sold over a million gift cards; between November and year-end Raise grew over 50% in revenue and other metrics while user growth quadrupled. CEO George Bousis said January was outpacing December in double-digit percentages, driven in part by mobile users purchasing at point-of-sale. Raise plans to use new funding to expand its executive, marketing and engineering teams (engineering to be about half the business), invest in R&D to improve speed and ease of use, and increase marketing spend across SEO, SEM, display and traditional media. Longer-term the company is developing services for retailers to leverage aggregate, anonymized shopper data and has signed deals with over a dozen undisclosed retailers interested in targeting customers via the app. Raise.com operates a peer-to-peer marketplace where consumers buy and sell discounted gift cards, e-gift cards and store credit across more than 500 retailers. Sellers can list physical cards, e-gift cards and merchandise credit with a $10 minimum balance; Raise.com collects a flat 15% commission on each sale and charges an extra $1 for physical-card transactions. Physical gift cards represent roughly 10% of sales, and the site provides prepaid shipping labels, seller payouts by check or PayPal, and a 100% money-back guarantee to buyers and sellers. Raise.com spun off from CouponTrade in February and began roughly 2.5 years ago; it has grown to over 50 full-time employees and the company is described as profitable. The business targets the large U.S. gift-card market (about $115 billion) and an additional $200 billion in merchandise credit from returns. Planned product improvements include a gift-card pricing tool and a scannable barcode for purchased cards; the company intends to use new funding to support growth, marketing, advertising and hiring.