Participated · Equity · Mar 2021

Boson Protocol is a London, UK–based project established in 2019 by Justin Banon that is developing a capture-resistant dCommerce ecosystem using NFTs encoded with game theory. It is advancing a decentralized autonomous network to coordinate commerce transactions with minimized arbitration and to create an equitable Web3 marketplace for commerce data. Once live, Boson’s solution will enable users to exchange digital assets for real-world items without monopolistic intermediaries capturing value or hoarding customer data. The project closed funding rounds totaling $10M prior to its public sale. The funds will be used to grow technical and product teams, further develop prototype pilots for launch partners, and accelerate ecosystem development through grants channeled by the dCommerce DAO. Boson Protocol is building infrastructure that connects smart contracts with real-world commerce and data, enabling digital assets to be tied to physical items for frictionless exchange. The project is developing a working prototype that it plans to unveil in the coming months. Recent hiring will add 15 roles across Product, Operations and Technology, and the company is expanding token engineering and ecosystem development teams. Funds raised will finance these hires, continued international team expansion, and prototype development. Boson also plans a public token sale later in the year. The company is supported by industry advisors including founders and product leads from Ocean Protocol, Blockscience, Consensys, and Outlier Ventures.

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.

Participated · Equity · Nov 2020

OpenDeFi, powered by OroPocket, is building a protocol that brings tangible assets onto blockchains by issuing fully insured, custodian-held tokens backed 1:1 by physical commodities. Its live pilot already supports tokenized gold and silver, and users can stake these tokens to earn yield, obtain flash loans, swap without slippage, or spend them in real time via asset-backed cards. Because the assets are bridged across chains, OpenDeFi aims to unlock cross-chain liquidity and broader financial inclusion. The startup has struck technical and distribution partnerships with Matic, Tezos, UniLend, Frontier, Rarestone Capital, and others. Looking ahead, it will launch ORO tokens through an Initial DEX Offering (IDO) on 11 November 2020 to widen community ownership and bootstrap network incentives. Financially, OpenDeFi closed a $1 million private sale in October 2020, and its upcoming Uniswap listing targets an initial market cap under $250,000 to mitigate early-stage volatility.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2020

UniLend is building a decentralized, permissionless DeFi protocol that allows any asset to be used within decentralized finance and places governance power with UFT token holders. The team emphasizes broad token inclusion, listing support and liquidity bootstrapping to ensure a smooth early platform experience. UniLend has partnered with Lunar Digital Assets to accelerate marketing and outreach across the crypto ecosystem. The company recently completed Seed and Private Sale token rounds that reached hard caps, raising $3.1M in strategic investment. Proceeds are being used to establish an initial base of token holders, secure token listings, provide initial liquidity and fund global and regional marketing efforts. UniLend plans a public token distribution event and platform launch in October, after which key protocol parameters will be decided by UFT-holder governance.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2020

Kira develops Kira Core, a decentralized solution built on Tendermint and the Cosmos SDK to secure and power DeFi applications with liquid staking. Its novel consensus, Multi‑Bonded Proof of Stake (MBPoS), is designed to let users earn revenue from staking cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, digital fiat, or NFTs while retaining liquidity via natively supported staking derivatives. The company is led by CEO Milana Valmont and CTO Mateusz Grzelak. Kira says it will use new funding to continue expanding development efforts on its Kira Network. Financially, the company recently closed a private funding round following earlier investment from Ascensive Asset Management and Alphabit Fund. The platform and protocol work are focused on enabling broad asset staking and liquid staking primitives for DeFi.