• Composable Finance

  Participated · Equity · Jun 2021

  Composable Finance is a Berlin-based DeFi company that builds a hyper liquidity infrastructure layer for DeFi assets powered by Layer 2 Ethereum and Polkadot. Its core product is a development and execution environment that deploys orchestration logic to enable ecosystem-agnostic, decentralized cross-blockchain communication. Composable has procured parachains on Polkadot (Composable Parachain) and Kusama (Picasso Parachain) and developed Mosaic (a transfer-availability layer), Centauri (an IBC Substrate bridge to the Cosmos ecosystem), and Pablo (a decentralized exchange on Picasso). Future capabilities include cross-chain computing via a cross-chain virtual machine (XCVM) and a Routing Layer to let smart contracts span multiple ecosystems and support institutional throughput. The company raised $32M in a Series A and intends to use the proceeds to expand the team and build products for the blockchain and Web3 industry. Named team members include Rob Zhuang (Head of Operations), Zain Awan (CMO), and Karel Kubat (CTO). Composable Finance develops interoperable DeFi primitives and tooling on Substrate to enable cross-chain applications across Polkadot, Kusama and other ecosystems (it has also built a bridging primitive, Centauri, for the Cosmos-verse). The project operates an incubation arm, Composable Labs, which is launching native protocols such as Instrumental Finance, Arturo, Angular Finance and Bribe on its Picasso parachain, and has introduced products including Mosaic, Centauri and Mural. Composable emphasizes blockchain-agnostic infrastructure and first-mover positioning in DotSama while continuing to expand its developer tooling and SDK to drive interoperability. The team has grown development headcount by over 30% in the prior three months, underscoring active hiring and product buildout. Financially, the protocol secured significant auction financing via native token contributions and has supported spinouts (for example, Bribe closed a $4M private financing round). Composable was incubated by Advanced Blockchain AG and works closely with that firm through Composable Labs to source and scale new projects. Composable Finance is building infrastructure to enable cross-chain and cross-layer interoperability within decentralized finance. Advanced Blockchain AG and Rarestone Capital helped incubate the project, providing technical incubation and intellectual property support. Advanced Blockchain invested $2 million via a subsidiary and led a $7 million funding round that closed at a $35 million valuation. As compensation, Advanced Blockchain will receive 5.7 million Composable tokens (of a 100 million total supply) and a share of fees from Composable's intended Polkadot parachain; it may also use the parachain for its own projects. The funding is intended to advance Composable's infrastructure and to support its bid for a Polkadot parachain slot in the summer 2021 auction. Other participants in the round included Divergence Ventures, New Form Capital, DFG, Maven 11, 4SV, Hypersphere Ventures, Blockchain Capital, PNYX Ventures, CMS Holdings, Alameda Research, SOSV, Spartan Group, LedgerPrime, LongHash Ventures, Cluster, and Pluto Digital Assets.

• Equilibrium

  Participated · Series A · Apr 2021

  Equilibrium operates a production-ready DeFi stack including an Ethereum bridge, pooled lending, and a decentralized stablecoin. The protocol also provides a professional-grade cross-chain decentralized exchange and a bailout mechanism for debt management. Management says the team will use new capital to secure a Polkadot parachain slot, a strategic priority for expanding on-chain functionality. Equilibrium plans to pursue a DOT/EQ token swap as the first phase of its parachain lease offering. The company is also developing a spot market with embedded margin trading. Backers are positioned as strategic partners to help navigate the volatile crypto ecosystem.

• Octopus Network

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2021

  Octopus Network provides a multi-chain cryptonetwork designed to bootstrap and run Web3 application-specific blockchains (appchains). Led by founder Louis Liu and based in Tokyo, the platform targets developers building Substrate-based and other Web3 teams. The company plans to launch its mainnet in September and its first appchain, DeBio (a decentralized biomed network), in October. Octopus raised $5M in a Series A to accelerate growth and expand operations. The Octopus Foundation will directly fund 20 appchain projects each year, granting them up to $1M in total per year. Its Octopus Accelerator Program offers open and composable courses and seminars to Substrate developers and Web3 teams worldwide. Octopus Network builds base-layer infrastructure that lets projects publish independent blockchains (appchains) with flexible on-demand shared security, out-of-the-box cross-chain interoperability, and infrastructure services such as explorers, API endpoints, and indexers. The platform aims to reduce the capital expenditure for launching an appchain by two orders of magnitude, lowering costs from millions to tens of thousands of dollars. The team is focused on enabling a new wave of Web3 applications to develop in a cost-effective, scalable, and secure manner. The company is using its recent seed funding to build out the base-level infrastructure for Octopus Network and support appchains preparing to deploy. Financially, Octopus completed a $3 million seed round and previously received a $1 million strategic investment from the NEAR Foundation. The project communicates updates via Discord and Twitter and positions itself as complementary to NEAR Protocol.

• ETHA

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2021

  ETHA Lend is a yield optimizer protocol designed to provide automated yield allocation across the Ethereum and Polkadot DeFi ecosystems. The protocol is governed by $ETHA token holders and is powered by an algorithm that selects optimal yield opportunities for liquidity providers. The algorithm is constructed to understand the precise circumstances of a liquidity provider and supply events, aiming to protect users from high transaction costs, market limitations, and asset volatility. ETHA Lend’s smart contracts are being audited by Certik. The company is led by founder Chester Bella. The recent funding will be used to accelerate development toward the protocol’s mainnet launch scheduled for Q2 2021.

• Polkadex

  Participated · Seed · Mar 2021

  Polkadex is an orderbook-based decentralized exchange that aims to combine the functionality and performance of centralized exchanges with the security of decentralized systems. Its product features include on-chain market-making, perpetual liquidity mining, feeless transactions that aim to eliminate frontrunning, and support for high-frequency trading through synchronous operations. Polkadex also enables AMMs to pool and interact with an orderbook, and offers advanced trading tools such as bots, custom algorithms, APIs, and advanced market orders. The team intends to leverage Substrate/Polkadot infrastructure to scale, support cross-chain transactions, and eventually become a parachain to bridge liquidity and de-risk security and consensus. Proceeds from the fundraise will be used to fuel growth and to position Polkadex as the first orderbook DEX in the Polkadot ecosystem, and the company plans an initial token offering (PDEX) in the first half of 2021.

No current team members are available.