Led · Seed · Feb 2025

Maestro is an Austin, TX-based enterprise-grade infrastructure provider for Bitcoin DeFi. Led by CEO Marvin Bertin, the company offers a comprehensive, scalable infrastructure stack optimized for UTXO-based decentralized finance. Last year it released a state-of-the-art UTXO indexing platform tailor-made for the needs of DeFi on Bitcoin. This year Maestro is onboarding top protocols across crypto wallets, decentralized exchanges, and lending protocols with the aim of onboarding millions to Bitcoin. The company is forging strategic alliances across the Bitcoin landscape, including a collaboration with Arch Network to enable Bitcoin contract programmability via a parallel execution layer. Saturn will leverage Maestro to launch the first AMM DEX on Bitcoin L1, and Maestro raised $3M in Seed funding to expand operations and its development efforts.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2024

CVEX is a decentralized exchange focused on building a dedicated DEX mainnet with enhanced trading functionality. The mainnet is planned to launch on Arbitrum and will support user wallets on Ethereum, Optimism, BASE, and Solana. On CVEX, collateral deposits are denominated in USDC. The company completed fundraising consisting of pre-seed and seed financings totaling $7 million. The round was led by Fabric Ventures and Kyber Capital Crypto Fund with participation from several crypto-focused investors. Proceeds are positioned to support the mainnet development and multi-chain wallet integrations.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2024

Omega is a Miami, FL–based Web3 infrastructure provider focused on enabling the collateralization of idle bitcoin for yield generation in DeFi. Led by CEO Wes Cowan and COO Eric Ryklin, the company is building decentralized infrastructure to allow Bitcoin holders to utilize the value of Layer 1 Bitcoin for yield. Omega raised $6M in funding to support the development and launch of this infrastructure. The company intends to use the funds to launch the first decentralized infrastructure that enables Bitcoin holders to utilize Layer 1 Bitcoin for yield generation, and expects to launch its public beta within the next 60 days. The funding round included participation from Lightspeed Faction, Borderless Capital, Wormhole Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund (operated by Borderless Capital), Bankless Ventures, Wave Digital, Blockchain.com, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kronos Ventures, XTBO Humla, Cadenza, Psalion Ventures, AlphaLab Capital, Side Door Ventures, MH Ventures, and others. COO Eric Ryklin described the funding as a testament to the team’s vision and said the company’s focus now turns to delivering the public beta to empower Bitcoin holders and contribute to Bitcoin DeFi.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2023

Fluree develops a graph ledger database and data‑pipeline toolset (Fluree Core and Fluree Sense) for secure, interoperable data management and sharing. The platform organizes blockchain‑secured data in a scalable semantic graph database and is built on W3C semantic web standards to facilitate trusted data interoperability. Fluree targets Web3 use cases including verifiable credentials, enterprise blockchain and decentralized data management while also helping enterprises modernize legacy data architecture. The company cites customers such as the Department of Defense, Department of Education, and Web3 startups including Pravica, Fabric and Logosphere. Open‑source distribution has driven adoption, with more than 100,000 downloads of its software products. Fluree is co‑founded in 2016 by Brian Platz and Flip Filipowski, is headquartered in Winston‑Salem, North Carolina, and currently employs about 50 people. Fluree is a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Public Benefit Corporation founded in 2016 by Brian Platz and Flip Filipowski. It operates an enterprise data management platform that guarantees data integrity, facilitates secure data sharing, and powers data-driven insights. The platform organizes blockchain-secured data in a scalable semantic graph database, establishing a foundational layer of trusted data for connected and intelligent data ecosystems. Fluree offers a pluggable stack that developers use to build enterprise-grade Web 3.0 applications with cryptographically-secure data integrity and is available on Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. Organizations across education, supply chain and healthcare are employing the platform to build secure blockchain applications. The company closed a $6.5M seed round to accelerate product development for applications that utilize W3C verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers (DID).

Led · Seed · Apr 2022

CXIP Labs is a Los Angeles, CA technology company that builds NFT infrastructure and an omnichain NFT interoperability protocol. Its product suite targets creators, developers, and enterprises and includes Bridge, Core, and Mint. Bridge is a cross-chain NFT bridge using CXIP’s patented “holographic bridging” technology to move NFTs between EVM chains with data integrity; Core is an omnichain NFT minting and bridging API for developers; Mint is a no-code NFT minting interface for creators. The company plans to use the seed funding to roll out Holograph, a new suite of NFT products. CXIP’s protocol has already been used to create thousands of NFTs for clients including Sothebys, Phillips, Nifty Gateway, the AmFAR Gala, and the Academy Awards Museum. Founders are intellectual property lawyer Jeff Gluck, Jeremy Kerbel, and artist Daniel Arsham.